PRACTICE INTERVENTION 1: THE KNOWLEDGE HUB

4.1 INTRODUCTION

Chapter 4 discusses and analyses the first of two practice interventions that form the evidence base for the thesis. The Information Technology Knowledge Hub (the Hub) was designed and developed for practitioners, clients and local communities. As with other Charnwood Connect’s activities and outputs, the Hub was funded through the ASTF for a period of two years. Beyond then, Charnwood Connect was responsible for securing external or internal funding for the Hub. Although the analysis in this chapter focuses on the Hub, the brokering intervention impacted on other project outputs such as the multi-agency volunteering pathway and vice versa, as will be seen in the critical incident analysis. The chapter begins with an introduction to the purpose and intended target audience of the Hub. This is followed by an overview of the four action research cycles (ARCs) and their associated critical incidents. Then, four critical incidents are examined and analysed: assessing practitioners’ needs, co-creation, improving access and sustaining the Hub, before ending the chapter with a conclusion.

4.2 BACKGROUND TO THE KNOWLEDGE HUB

As stated already, Charnwood Connect was funded for two years through a pump-priming national programme to enable local agencies to develop more sustainable advice services. The partnership was funded to deliver five outputs including a “….multi-faceted bespoke Knowledge Hub….with two distinct areas….One aspect will be to support practitioners in terms of specialist learning, policy and procedural updates and legislative updates. The second aspect will be a client facing resource which will include information on all available services within the locality, access to online advice and information resources and information about referrals and sign posting” (Charnwood Connect Big Lottery ASTF Funding Application, 2013a, p. 8). In its funding bid, Charnwood Connect made a commitment to have the Hub operational within six months of the start of the project. As identified in the tender specification, in descending order of priority, the target audience for the Hub is portrayed in Figure 4.1. The lead responsibility for developing the Hub lay with the author and the online facility was an integral component of Charnwood Connect’s knowledge

sharing strategy to improve advice services (Appendix 4.1: Knowledge Management Officer: Role summary).

Figure 4.1: The Knowledge Hub’s target audience.

4.3 DEVELOPING THE HUB

The Hub was developed from scratch in an inter-organisational setting which had an underdeveloped and underfunded information technology infrastructure (WN1: interview notes, October 2013-April 2014). There was not a pre-defined strategy for realising the Hub prior to receiving the ASTF funding. Over the two years as an ASTF funded project, the Hub was developed through a series of phased practice interventions, which are presented as four action research cycles (ARCs): conceptualisation, design, adoption and sustainability (Figure 4.2; Table 4.1). Each action research cycle comprises at least one or more critical incidents (Flanagan, 1954; Keatinge, 2002; Butterfield et al, 2005) and in the analysis that follows, one critical incident is examined in each of the four action research cycles. In terms of the timeline, the first two ARCs took place primarily in the first year of the project and the third and fourth ARCs, mainly in the second.

Table 4.1: The Hub’s action research cycles and associated critical incidents Action research cycle (ARC) Critical incident (CI) ARC 1: Conceptualisation

Defining the concept and parameters of the Hub as a technological facility required developing a shared vision of the Hub’s design and functionality. Face- to-face interviews were conducted by the author with practitioners to identify their needs and aspirations, establish working relationships and encourage them to participate in shaping the Hub. The results of the preliminary interviews, across- the-desk conversations, participation in the in- house meetings in the managing agency, external information technology expertise and secondary research provided raw data for the Hub’s specification.

CI (A): Assessing practitioners’ needs

Assessing and analysing practitioners’ needs and expectations of the Hub, relationship building with practitioners and becoming familiar with the research site.

CI (B): Commissioning the design

The processes and decisions relating to the development and design of the Hub’s tender specification and the commissioning of the design team.

ARC 2: Design

Once the concept of the Hub was captured in the form of a tender specification and the designers were commissioned, the next stage was the dual process of creating a visually appealing website and configuring the Hub’s technical capabilities.

CI (C): Co-creation

The consultation, participation and collaborative interventions to design the Hub and develop its technical functionality.

CI (D): Content management

Collaborative design and development of content for both the test and released sites with contributions from practitioners.

ARC 3: Adoption

Following the release of the Hub, the author made several incremental interventions to persuade practitioners to use the Hub as part of their work routines especially the private zone as an online knowledge sharing facility. The interventions included efforts to encourage practitioners to start promoting the Hub as an advice, information and support resource to their clients and the local community.

CI (E): Improving access

The strategy of increasing the usage of the Hub by practitioners in Charnwood Connect and widening access for clients, the local community and other agencies.

CI (F): Building an online community of practice

The incremental process of having in place user agreements with individual practitioners and their organisations, agreeing the terms of use and building an interactive, online inter-organisational community.