Catch22 is at the forefront of public service delivery. Our staff work in prisons, alternative provision schools, colleges, and in a range of community settings – improving the lives of thousands of people every year. And yet the systems within which they’re working too often prevent impact being as great as it could be.
Social care, employment, health and justice systems are often too far removed from the people they serve. They are overly bureaucratic and transactional, and can end up failing those who need them most.
The Catch22 reform journey
Catch22 has been at the forefront of public service reform for more than 200 years. Initially in the provision of residential care for children and young people, then moving into the probation space, vocational training, employability, education and ‘edge of care’ services, our commitment to doing things differently in order to have greater impact has remained a constant.
In 2016, the Catch22 reform ‘end game’ was formally adopted. We are intent on delivering our frontline services well – then capturing the experience and learning from our service delivery. This enables us to argue from a position of strength how public services can be better designed and delivered, achieving better outcomes for those who use them.
Our approach
Reform underpins all of Catch22’s activity; we’re constantly looking for ways to improve how public services are delivered such as:
- building new governance structures to build the capacity of smaller organisations
- designing and delivering innovative services that produce better outcomes
- collaborating with commissioners and service users to design new ways of working
- providing a platform for smaller charities that share our social mission and vision for public service reform
- partnering in new ways with businesses to deliver social outcomes.
Ultimately, this activity allows us to build an evidence base we need to drive our end of game: government adoption of better public services.
In this booklet, you can learn more about our reform journey, and our plans for the future.