CARROT OR STICK?

Behaviour change in a vanguard authority

Keep Britain Tidy conference

21 February 2011Daniel Ratchford - Strategic Director, Environment & Leisure

Smarter choices: policy context

• Local government has always had two distinct – yet overlapping – roles: (1) delivering services, and (2) shaping people’s choices

• Recent decades have focused on (1); so much so, that many recent commentaries on ‘behaviour change’ mistakenly treat (2) as something entirely new

• But in fact, government has always focused on behaviour change

• The recent debate about behaviour change is fundamentally about a ‘tilting’ of government approaches:

– towards freedom, personalisation, and the right to choose

– and away from top-down direction, uniformity, and coercion

• And there are some interesting policy choices to make in all of this

Smarter choices: policy context

Smarter choices: Sutton’s approach

• Sutton is widely recognised as a leader in the field of behaviour change

• Our award-winning “smarter choices” programmes have provoked interest from around the world – especially Smarter Travel Sutton

• But these are simply a refined and well-delivered example of a range of approaches that we have been using for a long time

• We have learned some interesting lessons along the way

• In particular, we think that behaviour change should focus on “more of the carrot, and less of the stick…”

• Our approach is about working with our residents to enable them to make smarter choices about how they live their lives

Smarter choices: some examples

In Sutton, we recognise that there is a wide scale of behaviour change approaches

“Carrots” “Sticks”

Events

Community champions

Physical changes

One-to-ones

Social advertising Peer pressure

Education

Financial incentives

Making it easier

Legislation

Enforcement

Fines

Prosecution

Naming and shaming

Service changes

Fees and charges

Smarter Travel Sutton

• Our most successful smarter choices initiative - a three-year, £5m behaviour change programme delivered in partnership with TfL

• Working with residents to enable them to make better choices about their travel

• Encouraging them to walk, cycle and use public transport more (and their cars less)

• The benefits are: less congestion lower carbon emissions cheaper transport better health

Smarter Travel Sutton

• There are already positive outcomes: a 6% reduction in car use a 75% increase in cycling a 16% increase in bus use 100% of schools covered by a school travel plan 16,000 employees covered by a workforce travel plan

• Smarter Travel Sutton is the best-recognised brand in the borough, and has already won a host of industry awards

• We are learning lessons from Smarter Travel Sutton to apply in our other smarter choices programmes

Smarter Travel Sutton

Smarter Travel Sutton is “more of the carrot, and less of the stick…”

“Carrots” “Sticks”

Events

Community champions

Physical changes

One-to-ones

Social advertising Peer pressure

Education

Financial incentives

Making it easier

Legislation

Enforcement

Fines

Prosecution

Naming and shaming

Service changes

Fees and charges

Ten lessons from Smarter Travel

1. Be clear about the your objectives

2. Be transparent with residents

3. Segment your audience

4. Use a wide range of approaches

5. Find the movers and shakers in the population

6. Ensure you have the resources, time and commitment

7. Measure what works, and what doesn’t

8. Deliver in partnership with others, at a local level

9. Find ways of mainstreaming behaviour change

10. The most successful behaviour change campaigns aren’t about ‘tricking’ residents into doing things differently – they’re about working with them to enable them to make smarter choices

Smarter choices: other examples

Our smarter choices initiatives give residents greater choice over their lives – and the ability to reassess some established habits and behaviours

Choose to keep the streets

clean…

Choose to use SEN pick-up

points…

Choose to remain drug-free,

and to stop smoking…

Choose to eat more healthily…

Choose to drive safely – or not at

all…

Choose to obey the law, and to report crime…

Choose to behave more

considerately…

Choose to use your local shops…

Choose to get involved in culture…

Choose to take more exercise…

Choose to access services over the web…

Choose to try not to spread the

flu…

Choose to walk to school

sometimes…

Choose your own care package…

Choose when you want to get

pregnant…

Choose to reduce, re-use and recycle…

Choose to produce less

carbon…

Choose to learn…

Choose to drink less alcohol…

Please choose not to let your dog

foul…

Smarter Streets: keeping Sutton tidy

• Our newest behaviour campaign is around littering and street cleaning

• For some time we’ve been encouraging people to be part of the team that keeps Sutton clean

• Ideally, we’d like residents and business to:

– drop less litter

– tell us about it when they see it

– sometimes pick some up

• We’re now running some experiments around the borough in different approaches to community involvement in doing this…

• …with lots of help, and lots of interest in the results

Smarter Streets: keeping Sutton tidy

Smarter Streets: keeping Sutton tidy

• Our initial survey results of residents in our trial areas are fascinating, and encouraging:

– 60% are satisfied with the street cleaning service

– The most common forms of litter are sweet wrappers, cans, bottles and fast food packaging

– A quarter would be willing to report litterers

– A third would be happy to take part in an occasional litter pick

– Two thirds would be willing to pick up a piece of litter a day

– The majority think that whoever drops litter should be responsible for picking it up…

– …closely followed by the council

Smarter choices: Sutton’s approach

Smarter choices: Sutton’s approach

daniel.ratchford@sutton.gov.uk

www.twitter.com/danielratchford #behaviourchange

www.sutton.gov.uk