Systems Unit
The Systems Unit helps people across the public sector apply systems thinking to complex problems. It does this through an approach called the Strategic Framework.
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What we do
Complex challenges like climate change and crime rarely fit within the boundaries of a single department. They often cut across multiple organisations.
For example, climate change isn’t just a matter for the Department of Business, Energy, Industrial Strategy (BEIS) alone. It involves DEFRA, the departments for International Trade and Transport and many other organisations.
The Systems Unit is a multidisciplinary team of policy, analysis, strategy and systems experts who support people to use a systems approach.
We are part of the Cabinet Office. We work with colleagues across the whole of the public sector and across the UK. We also work with academics. We build on best practice in the private sector and across the world.
Establishing clear outcomes, and working across boundaries to put citizens first is at the centre of what we do.
We provide support in systems ways of working, systems leadership and in applying the Strategic Framework approach.
We are also developing guidance and tools to build systems capability in government.
The Strategic Framework
The Strategic Framework is an approach designed to help tackle government’s most complex problems. It does this by:
- starting with the customer, the citizen, and their actual experience of the world, rather than just views from organisational silos
- collaborating with the wider public, private and third sectors from the earliest possible stage (co design/delivery with the whole delivery system and building in implementation concerns)
- enabling a more place-based approach through harnessing the power of local systems
Evidence suggests that working in this way creates better value for money and, most importantly, improve the lives of citizens. For example:
- the Munro Review set out a proposal for reform to the child protection system and used systems thinking in support of this
- BEIS, with the help of CECAN, used systems thinking to explore and better understand the interplay between sustainability and emissions, consumer prices and the security of supply. This helped inform evaluation plans and priorities – aiding the development of theories of change for potential policy interventions
- GO Science used a systems approach to understand the range of factors influencing obesity in the UK.
Our aims
We want to raise awareness of the power of systems approaches, and build systems leadership capacity across the public sector and beyond.
We also want to build a community of systems supporters and practitioners within and beyond Whitehall.