Service Designer

We are looking for experienced Freelance Design Practitioners to help run a series of Design Projects in Surrey County Council's Transformation programme. This is an exciting opportunity to work in multidisciplinary teams to improve vital local services and make a difference in people's lives.

The roles will be on a hybrid basis, meaning a blend of working from home and from our Reigate offices.

We are looking to work with Freelance Design Practitioners over a period of 6 months from October 2024.

Application closing date: 5pm 16thSeptember 2024 AboutSurreyCountyCouncil

Surrey is part of a two tier system of local government, the county council and the 11 district and borough councils. Generally, the county council is responsible for the more strategic functions and services such as education and social care whereas the districts and boroughs provide more local services.

Some key facts about Surrey County Council:

• Over 70% of Surrey's budget is spent on social care
• Surrey is the most forested County in England
• The population of Surrey is 16 million people

You will be leading the Design Process on 1-2 projects across the Customer Transformation Programme. By 'customer' we mean anyone that might live in Surrey, travel through it, learn here, work here, care for someone in Surrey.

We are keen to match Design Practitioners' interests and experience with different design problems that cut across social care, education, health and environmental issues. Some examples include:

• Improving digital services for disabled people
• Improving Surrey's 'front door' so that residents get the right help at the right time
• Improving Surrey's ability to support children with additional needs and disabilities

Freelance Design Practitioners will be supported by the Transformation Design Team. This team was set up in early 2024 to grow and embed Design across the Council. Our team encompasses different types of Design expertise from Busienss Design to Service Design and Design Research.

We partner with teams across the Council providing hands-on Design support and Design coaching. Current projects include; improving Home to School Transport, increasing community- based support for residents on adult social care waiting lists, turning resident insights into action and setting up a Strategic Design Authority to bring constructive challenge and support to council wide priorities and programmes.

Work-life balance is important to us and we are very supportive of colleagues with care responsibilities.

An experienced Designer Practitioner: You have a range of tools ready to be deployed on a variety of challenges and you are confident facilitating Design processes. You may have specific experience in a variety of Design Disciplines including Service Design, Organisational Design, Content Design, Product Design or Social Design.

Is comfortable working within a complex environment. Local Government can be hard to navigate so we are looking for Designers who ideally have experience of working in it.

Motivated by social impact: You care about people and are driven to make a positive social impact.

Adaptable: You are comfortable with a certain amount of ambiguity and can be flexible in your work based on what's needed at various stages of a project: playing an integral part of a dynamic, multi-disciplinary team.

Please contact us for any questions relating to the role. This could be to discuss flexible working requests, transferable skills or any barriers to employment.

Connect2Surreyis a trading style of Surrey & Kent Commercial Services LLP - A joint venture between Surrey County Council & Commercial Services Kent Ltd. Connect2Surrey is an equal opportunities Employment Agency & Business. It positively encourages applications from all suitably qualified and eligible candidates.