Helping Judges Work Smarter Not Harder - a special project for the Department of Constitutional Affairs

The Problem

The English and Welsh court system was facing an important set of challenges;

how to ensure that the most effective use was made of judges at each level, especially at the most senior levels;
how to ensure that cases were heard at the right level across the system; and
how to cope with shifting business pressures whilst ensuring that the very high quality of the judiciary was in no way impaired.

As a result, a special project team inside the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) was asked to come up with policy recommendations on how judges could be supported to work as effectively as possible.

It was clear that new and creative solutions were needed - and the team had only three months to come up with their proposals.

The Process

In order to stretch a very limited budget the project team from the DCA was given a two and a half day ?What If! Productive Creativity course. This gave them the process, skills and behaviours around creativity that enabled them to do a lot of the work on the project around key workshops facilitated by ?What If!

The centre-piece workshop incorporated very senior judges, barristers, solicitors, expert witnesses, outdoor clerks, etc. who all provided stimulus around using and running the court system in England and Wales. In addition, inspiring stimulus was also created to explore some important angles on the project. An example of this was the use of a Formula One racing car designer. He described how he creates cars in a way that mean that each and every element of the design lead to faster speed. A key dimension of this is reducing resistance. This inspired the team to think about how judges could get through their days with less resistance. Ideas such as publicly recognising those lawyers who use court time most efficiently and enhanced court listing processes resulted from this inspiration.

The Solution

Over 50 initial ideas flowed from the workshop, which the team then explored and developed with those responsible for the system. New techniques inspired by ?What If! storyboards showing how these ideas might work were produced to help the team present the possible options to their stakeholders and generate support for the final recommendations.

The Results

The project team achieved their goal against some really tight timings - and earned the praise of senior colleagues and stakeholders for the new insights they brought to the process and imaginative solutions to long standing issues. From the 50+ initial ideas arising from the workshop, the team produced a detailed set of policy proposals that secured the support of Ministers and the senior judiciary. A programme of change is now underway, implementing the proposals produced by the team.

"Just to let you know that we got approval for the final report from the Lord Chancellor and senior judges. And lots of compliments, which was nice! Thanks to you guys for all your help which was completely invaluable. There's no way we could have achieved the solutions we did without your involvement."
Jonathan Freeman - Head of the Project team at the DCA

"It was a fascinating project full of intellectually challenging material. The combination of bright, committed people from the DCA and awe inspiring senior judges made for a very imaginative project team. It was great to feel that we could make a difference in such an arena"
Sophie Grenville - ?What If!