Services
Interaction design · UX research · Service design · Design system / design maturity · Cross-functional collaboration (engineering) · Front-End Development
Description
Hackney Council suffered a severe cyberattack in 2020 that left them with no social care system at all. I joined the team rebuilding it from scratch, working on the MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub) referrals tool, the system frontline staff use to triage and route children’s safeguarding contacts through initial decision, screening, and final decision. As part of the transformation, we had to be deliberate about promoting change, defining new practices, and managing the risk aversion that comes with rebuilding a safeguarding service under scrutiny. I also worked hands-on with the front end, embedded directly within the development team.
Impact
Rebuilt a safeguarding referrals system from zero after total system loss
Unified FAST and DAIS referrals into a single, simpler referral form
Helped build the product directly due to low engineering capacity, working hands-on in the front end
Through co-creation and capability building improved the organisation's ways of working, introducing a more research-led, design-mature practice
The old ways of working were fragile and high-risk, but the organisation was deeply attached to them and the new system had to be built from nothing.
01
Fragile, High-Risk Ways of Working
Existing processes ran on things like locked spreadsheets - manual, error-prone, and with real safeguarding cases falling through the cracks as a result. This wasn't a system that needed polish, it was a working practice that was actively putting children at risk through human error.
02
Risk Aversion to Change
Staff were genuinely resistant to moving away from old, familiar systems, almost a kind of Stockholm syndrome toward tools they knew were failing them. Any new system had to be introduced gradually, in steps that echoed what people already knew. Like rolling features out in a spreadsheet like manner, rather than a leap of faith all at once.
03
Complexity No One Had Questioned
The referral flows were genuinely complex and had to be mapped out from scratch, surfacing practices that had never been properly questioned before. This meant the work wasn't just building a tool, it was an opportunity to challenge and improve the underlying practices alongside it, while building the entire system from nothing.
I worked across research, design, and front-end build, and helped the organisation build design maturity it didn't have before.
01
Research & Design
Ran structured design exploration, from early dashboard sketches through to synthesising research with the wider team using affinity mapping. Iterated the screening decision flow and team assignment views directly off what testing surfaced, including fixing unclear urgency colour-coding.
02
Working Across Disciplines
Worked across multiple workstreams spanning research, content design, and engineering to design, iterate, and prototype toward a working MVP. Spent time directly on front-end development when the programme needed it and the resource wasn't otherwise available.
03
Building Design Maturity
Helped build design maturity in an organisation that didn't have a strong design-led practice before this project. Figma prototypes became a shared reference point, used to test with real users and to give engineers a clear, trusted spec to build from.
