Policy design at pace: How service design can help navigate and shape emerging policy.

About this session

Theme: Policy Design

With government budget cuts across departments, the pressure to deliver with fewer resources remains.

In 2024, the new government announced a Growth and Skills offer, providing employers more flexibility in levy spending and new training options. The Apprenticeship Service was tasked with implementing this, whilst facing pressure to cut costs.

To meet Ministerial commitments quickly, the team used service design to shape policy, enable faster decision-making, and manage expectations.

This case study showcases how service design influenced policy and supported large-scale service transformation. We’ll share the challenges of balancing policy ambition with delivery pragmatism and key lessons learned.

Participant takeaways:

• Tips on how to navigate policy ambiguity, and get the best from emerging policy design in the context of fast-paced delivery needs

• Examples of design techniques and frameworks that can drive policy decisions

• Insights into real-world collaboration challenges and how to overcome them

About our speaker: Astrid Van Waveren

Astrid is the Head of UX & Insights at Gain Experience, with 12+ years of experience, including senior and leadership roles in product management, service design, content and user research. Working with organisations internationally across public, private and 3rd sector, she helps them to figure out how to balance business needs and user-centred design to deliver meaningful experiences.

She is passionate about understanding and supporting people and organisations to be at their best. She worked for many years in-house for a specialist learning and development consultancy, developing award-winning products and services that transform employee experiences and organisational cultures.

More recently she's been responsible for leading user research, service design and product discovery projects across Department for Education, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Age UK, RNLI, DASA and Marks & Spencers.

Astrid's experience enables her to understand complex systems, needs and stakeholders, whilst applying a collaborative and innovative approach to research, testing, ideation and design.