SILK is a small team based within Kent County Council's Research and Intelligence team. Set up in 2007 to ‘do policy differently’, over the years we have been doing projects that have demonstrated the benefits of working in a different way. While continuing to promote the SILK ethos we have been providing a qualitative research function within the team for Strategic Commissioning within KCC. We share as much of our work as possible but sometimes the nature of the research means we cannot share our findings.
We believe that the best solutions come from the people who are closest to the issue; those with lived experience, families, friends, volunteers, and front line workers, we ensure to involve them at all stages of our projects.
The SILK Methodology provides creative and innovative ways to approach projects, and enables a collective ownership and responsibility for project design, delivery and outcomes.
The SILK Methodology covers three main areas: Strategic and Policy, Service Re-design, and Creating Sustainable Communities:
Projects are then broken down into four phases:
The Method Deck can then be used to choose which methods should be used during each phase of the project:
The Method Deck and Diamond allow for the project to be planned collectively in groups, with everyone having ownership over the decisions and course the project will take. It can also be used retrospectively to record what happened during a project.
If you have any questions about our Methodology or Method Deck please get in touch: [email protected]
