It is widely understood that the public sector in general and public services in particular need to be radically reshaped inorder to meet the needs of citizens in the context of diminishing public financing. Less well understood are the ways andmeans by which to do so. This one-year project explores the potential for, and value of, design-led research to addresssocietal challenges and to inform policy. It does this through establishing a 'Public Collaboration Lab' (PCL), a strategicresearch collaboration between local government (London Borough of Camden), the citizens they serve, and an HigherEducation institution (University of the Arts London). The project will use social innovation approaches to engage citizens and other societal actors in the co-design and co-delivery of some aspects of public services. These 'public and collaborative' approaches to service delivery (servicesdelivered with and by citizens and other agencies) seek to mobilise citizens as 'active collaborative people' rather than'passive individual people', 'service participants' rather than 'service users' and recognise citizens as both 'people withneeds' and 'people as assets in meeting their own and each other's needs'. However, despite the growing interest in therole, objectives and impact of design in strategic public sector contexts, there is also an acknowledged gap inunderstanding design's contribution to such situations. This project is designed to address that gap. Two interrelated action research activities will be delivered in parallel. The first will deliver a citizen-centred exploration ofexactly how such collaboration plays out in specific service contexts. For the pilot we propose to take the reform of LondonBorough of Camden's Library Services as our starting point. The second will explore the models, mechanisms andmeasurement of impact of the 'Public Collaboration Lab', evaluating the model and its wider potential as a means ofdemocratizing social and service innovation and informing policy. The project aims to: - Undertake a demonstrator social innovation project within a specially created 'public collaboration lab' to redesign publicservices through the application of collaborative design led approaches. - Increase understanding of HEI institutions' roles in supporting innovation practices within local government throughdesign led action research. - Explore the potential for co-design to democratize public service reform and improve pubic outcomes. - Co-design evaluative frameworks for assessing the role of design in local government service reform. - Propose means by which the pilot study could be upscaled within other contexts A process of examination and distillation will create a body of material which will serve as the basis for a series ofcoordinated outputs, including journal articles, conference papers, a research blog, case study material, service and socialinnovations, as well as a public collaboration lab model, framework and tools for HE/LG collaboration. The PCL team willwork closely with Nesta, Public Service Transformation Network, the international DESIS Network of over 40 DESIS labs,Impact Hub Network, Social Innovation Exchange, King's Cross Knowledge Quarter, Age UK and others to disseminateand maximise real-world impact of the project outputs. Dissemination will be integrated within the collaborativemethodology of the project, by involving relevant users, practitioners and policy makers in research, ideation andimplementation. To disseminate the findings, the project team will target major events and publications in the localgovernment, public policy, design research, and design HE communities. The final evaluation report will be designed in aforward-looking manner so that the lessons and opportunities arising from this pilot can be applied in other contexts.

Physical activity is beneficial for the health of young people. It is recommended that young people engage in physical activity of moderate intensity for at least one hour a day, to maintain good health. However, just 24% of British girls and 32% of boys achieve this recommendation, which has been partly linked to the rise in obesity levels across the UK. Studies have found that weekday physical activity in school children is lowest when they are at school. Numerous school-based interventions have focused on physical education lessons in an attempt to increase activity levels, but have generally been unsuccessful. Environments both stimulate and provide the arena for physical activity although there is limited research to show if changing the physical environment at school influences activity levels in children. Camden Borough Council will be re-designing six existing school playgrounds with exciting bespoke features to engage children to become more active. The underlying goal is to encourage motivation by integrating potential for activities that are not motivated by traditional sports or by team competition. This presents a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of these structures on physical activity, engagement, wellbeing, and academic performance. The building work will be undertaken in the school holidays of this year. Measuring physical activity in children is challenging and often relies on proxy measures such as parent-report that can be unreliable. In the last decade the measurement of physical activity has been revolutionised with the introduction of small wearable motion sensors that now enables us to assess movement objectively over prolonged periods at low cost. We propose to randomly select approximately 80 pupils from similar year groups from each of the six schools (total sample size~ 480) and collect objective physical activity data from them, using an accelerometer, at three different time points before and after the intervention (Spring/summer term 2014; Autumn term 2014; summer term 2015). Taking repeated follow up assessments would allow us to examine if short term effects are sustained over a longer period. We will also collect data on the child's mental and physical health (such as body mass index), and markers of academic performance.

Physical activity is beneficial for the health of young people. It is recommended that young people engage in physical activity of moderate intensity for at least one hour a day, to maintain good health. However, just 24% of British girls and 32% of boys achieve this recommendation, which has been partly linked to the rise in obesity levels across the UK. Studies have found that weekday physical activity in school children is lowest when they are at school. Numerous school-based interventions have focused on physical education lessons in an attempt to increase activity levels, but have generally been unsuccessful. Environments both stimulate and provide the arena for physical activity although there is limited research to show if changing the physical environment at school influences activity levels in children. Camden Borough Council will be re-designing six existing school playgrounds with exciting bespoke features to engage children to become more active. The underlying goal is to encourage motivation by integrating potential for activities that are not motivated by traditional sports or by team competition. This presents a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of these structures on physical activity, engagement, wellbeing, and academic performance. The building work will be undertaken in the school holidays of this year. Measuring physical activity in children is challenging and often relies on proxy measures such as parent-report that can be unreliable. In the last decade the measurement of physical activity has been revolutionised with the introduction of small wearable motion sensors that now enables us to assess movement objectively over prolonged periods at low cost. We propose to randomly select approximately 80 pupils from similar year groups from each of the six schools (total sample size~ 480) and collect objective physical activity data from them, using an accelerometer, at three different time points before and after the intervention (Spring/summer term 2014; Autumn term 2014; summer term 2015). Taking repeated follow up assessments would allow us to examine if short term effects are sustained over a longer period. We will also collect data on the child's mental and physical health (such as body mass index), and markers of academic performance.

The Branching Out project has assessed social and cultural values of urban treescapes, linking a state-of-the-art values framework based on the IPBES Values Assessment (2022) to a novel transdisciplinary methodology integrating storytelling, mapping, citizen and stakeholder deliberation, and citizen science. Branching Beyond intends to package up the Branching Out framework, approach, and results in a user friendly online values porting template aimed at local government planners, tree officers, voluntary organisations and community groups. Initially compiling results from the three Branching Out case cities (Milton Keynes, Cardiff and York), Branch Beyond will develop a rapid assessment approach to 'horizontally port' these results to two replicator cities: Edinburgh and Camden (London). Horizontal portability is a highly innovative concept emerging from the field of relational values that presents an alternative to generalisation (common in quantitative research) and benefits transfer (common in environmental economic valuation) to port and adapt policy relevant research results from qualitative, deliberative and mixed method approaches, without compromising the contextualised and place-based nature of qualitative data. We will achieve this by packaging up the qualitative associations between treescape characteristics and social and cultural values previously identified through storytelling, mapping, and deliberation, and validating and refining ported results through a rapid participatory porting assessment. Finally, Branching Beyond will work with its local authority partners and the Local Government Association to develop training in and disseminate the porting template and process to further local authorities and local third sector and community groups.

With its focus on expanding impact and engagement from a previous research grant, Performing Local Places will use arts practices to improve the living environments of two sets of people in two geographical areas of need in UK: Camden (London) and Oldham (Greater Manchester). Findings from these projects will be disseminated and publicised to all local authorities in the UK, promoting a new mode of service delivery for enhancing health and wellbeing in complex living environments . Project participants will be within the oversight and services of local authorities and councils will be helping to broker the activity within their provider frameworks. The arts practices comprise a cultural product called 'Performing Place' which has been developed and tested in previous practical research projects with vulnerable groups affiliated with, and engaged via, arts organisations. Building on that project, in this new development we have consulted on priority areas within local councils who have identified a future need for such work. Two practical projects will be planned, one in Camden and one in Oldham, working between Arts leaders and other departments, Mental Health in Camden and Stronger Communities in Oldham. Both the planning and delivery period will include working with local council representatives, key workers and leading artist/facilitator practitioners with the new end users. In Camden we will work in at least one Council-owned area of the Supported Living Programme, in buildings that house those with need of 'stepping stone' support to live more independently and whose cultural engagement may also be at the lower end of the spectrum within the Borough (which is an indicator of health and wellbeing). We will run 15 weekly sessions based in the residences, engaging adults with their current and potential 'place'. In Oldham, we will work in the ward of Clarksfield with long-term residents and comparatively newly arrived Roma residents, assuaging disharmonies arising from different cultural understandings within the same local community. This work will follow a different model of Performing Place practice - a week's intensive engagement rather than weekly, workshops (as in Camden) - and will take place over a week in the summer of 2016. In the planning and delivery of the projects, we will work with specialist lead facilitators following and adapting models used in the previous project, 'Challenging concepts of "liquid" place through performing practices in community contexts', 2011-2014 (Challenging Place). Such activities will include a range of improvisation and performance-related activities that are shaped from everyday operations and behaviours. None of the participants are likely to be performers but the activities are non-threatening, accessible and shaped to raise levels of cultural engagement where there may be existing barriers. This is an important part of Performing Place, that it can be accessed by participants without particular skill or experience in performance. (See http://www.performingplaces.org/placepracsitesotw.html for example.) The impact and engagement of these two follow-on projects will be formally documented in line with local authority reporting and disseminated via simple web pages on the existing site, three symposia and a 32-page document (with executive summary). This document will be sent to the 400+ local authorities in the UK with the intention that such practice be promoted and assimilated for use in other priority areas. Two symposia will take place in London and Manchester with representatives from all nearby local authority councils invited, as well as nationally. A third symposium will take place for the 33 members of London Arts Forum.