We’ve been continuing with our review of the Empowerment Star and have had some fantastic opportunities to learn and add to the wealth of research that is being conducted by the team to update this Star.
We were really excited to spend time with the Bath-based charity VOICES, a charity founded by women with lived experience, dedicated to providing recovery support and advocacy for people affected by domestic abuse.
Our Product Lead, Harriet Wills, spoke with VOICES’ lived experience group and held in-depth discussions on the work so far to update the Empowerment Star. A huge thank you to all at VOICES for sharing their invaluable insights and experience.
Our Research Analyst, Dr Anna Good, alongside Harriet, have also been conducting an Equality Impact Assessment to help ensure the review makes the Star as inclusive as possible. To feed into this and help our ongoing learning across the Triangle team were delighted to attend two incredibly informative training sessions with charities Galop and Safer Places.
Galop is an LGBT+ anti-abuse charity who work with and for LGBT+ victims and survivors of abuse and violence. We spent time learning more about the unique experiences of LGBT+ victims and survivors of abuse and the intersectional challenges they may face. Safer Places delivers specialist support services to adults and children who have experienced domestic abuse and shared their knowledge of culturally diverse communities’ experiences of domestic abuse and the additional barriers they face to access support services.
We’d like to say a huge thank you to Galop and Safer Places for delivering such impactful and engaging training.
We were excited to share our progress with the Empowerment Star reference group and are now looking ahead to consolidating our research and finalising the Empowerment Star review. We will be launching the new and updated Star in the new year.
When you’re out and about in the community it’s not always easy or possible to connect to the internet. This can make it challenging for those using the Live Completion feature to complete a Star on-screen using the Star Online. We know from feedback that Live Completion is a great way to help practitioners avoid data entry duplication, cut down on paperwork and reduce printing.
That’s why we’re excited to let you know that we’re working on a brand-new Offline App – which allows practitioners to complete Stars collaboratively on screen with the people they support, without needing an internet connection. The new app will be even more user-friendly and accessible, supporting practitioners to have more helpful and collaborative conversations with the people they support.
We’ve been developing the Offline App with Usertopia and QES, drawing on their expertise in research driven user experience and software development. We plan to launch the Offline App later this year.
What will the Offline App look like?
This new functionality will give organisations the option of ‘Enabling Offline Mode’. Once enabled, practitioners linked to the account will be able to download the Offline App to their device and save engagements for use offline.
Collaborative session homepage
Using the Offline App, practitioners will be able to start a ‘Collaborative Completion’ session where they can complete the Star, create Action Plans and view and compare previous Stars with the people that they support.
View and Compare Stars page
Action Plan screen
The new screens will also be used to replace the current ‘Live Completion’ function, allowing the Star to be completed using the Star Online in a more accessible and user-friendly way.
Star completion screen
A few thoughts from our research and designer partner, Usertopia:
We would like to thank everyone who took part in our research sessions and workshops over the past 12 months. It has been a delightful experience acquainting ourselves with Triangle’s expert team and engaging with a number of practitioners to learn how they are currently using the Live Completion feature of the Outcomes Star to help change lives.
We’ve woven the invaluable insights garnered from our research into the fabric of every design decision we’ve made. This has included getting under the skin of how practitioners engage with the people they support, understanding current limitations and difficulties with the current Outcomes Star, and outlining sensitive use cases with various ethical considerations leading to refinements such as one-tap screen locking.
Our latest updates enhance collaboration, interactivity and engagement, aiming to guide best practice, make the Star easier to use, and ensure safer, more productive sessions for service users. We truly believe these updates will unlock new potential for the Outcomes Star and lay a foundation for continuous improvement long into the future.
– Usertopia
We are really excited about this development and plan to launch it later this year.
First Look: Register to Try the New Offline App!
If you already use Star Online and would like to get a first look and the chance to feed back on the Offline App before launch, please register your interest below.
With our Integration Pilot well underway, we’ve got some news about its future as well as some reflections on what we’ve learnt so far.
Extending Integration Pilot for Outcomes Star Online to December 2024
To ensure we can fully trial the API endpoints and put our design decisions to the test in as many different scenarios as possible, we are extending our Integration Pilot through 2024.
This will mean organisations using the Outcomes Star Online can access and use our Partner API free of charge through 2024, to integrate with any other primary software they use.
A recap on our Partner API for Outcomes Star Online
Outcomes Star Online’s Partner API went live in April 2023, and since then we’ve had conversations with around 50 different organisations about how it can work for their practitioners, other stakeholders and of course, the people they support.
The design of our Partner API is based on these desired outcomes:
Any and all primary software that can use APIs can use our API.
Outcomes Stars are completed on our platform using our visual and engaging interface aligned with best Star practice.
Data-entry and login duplication is reduced as much as possible to make life easier for practitioners.
We support a single point of truth and easy access to key Outcomes Star data within the primary software.
We plan to continue to develop and expand our Partner API – in this initial stage, we have 3 key features available, plus Single Sign On for both Microsoft and Google (NB SSO will be launched separately for all Outcomes Star organisations in January 2024 – watch this space!):
For more information on what is available as part of our Integration Pilot and how you can get involved, see: www.outcomesstar.org.uk/software
Summary of progress so far
With many early-stage conversations underway, we have made some exciting progress including:
A sandbox build with a person-centred care planning software provider and a dynamic Northern Ireland-based charity
A sandbox build with a team of developers making a custom solution for an innovative education charity
Analysis and planning projects with a number of leading UK national charities, mostly working with their own custom software or Microsoft Dynamics platforms
We are hoping to onboard more organisations into the sandbox and link up to the Live environment in early 2024.
What’s next for Outcomes Star Online integration
Interoperability is a completely new area for our organisation, and we’re still learning about its challenges and opportunities!
For example, there are lots of questions we are still asking ourselves and looking to learn more about:
Can we develop and maintain ‘middleware’ solutions that remove the burden of custom code on the primary software/client organisation side – for example, for ‘enterprise’ platforms like Salesforce and Dynamics, and for the bigger sector-specialist platforms that provide their own APIs?
For UK NHS settings, should we be focusing on direct integration with individual pieces of software used in a region, or should we be focusing on Shared Care Record integration?
Our current endpoints don’t include an individuals Star data in ‘raw data’ format (it is available in a user-friendly PDF or in aggregated data formats.) How can we provide this in a way that adds value and is usable by different primary software?
If you are working on your own interoperability opportunities and challenges, or if you have any insight or information you could share about the above, please do get in touch.
Do you work with the Empowerment Star? We’re keen to hear your experience and insights to help us review this Star and improve it for everyone. Take the survey or join our focus groups to share your valuable feedback.
The Empowerment Star is our Outcomes Star for women who have experienced or been the victims of domestic violence. It is designed to be used within women’s refuges or outreach and social services and focuses on areas that are important in helping women who have experienced abuse at home to embark on a new life. We produced it in 2011 with collaboration from Eaves Housing and funding from London Councils.
Why we’re reviewing this Star
An important part of our work is keeping Stars up-to-date, easy to use and as impactful and efficient as possible.
Since the Empowerment Star was launched in 2011, there have been many changes in the sector. We have learned a lot more about the need to be trauma-informed, foster inclusivity and better meet the unique needs of practitioners and the women they support. So it’s important that we review the Empowerment Star in light of this and ensure it is the best it can be.
Creating and reviewing our Stars is a collaborative effort – we couldn’t do it without the input and expertise of clients, organisations, and practitioners who use the Star. With your experiences, ideas and feedback, we can make it as useful as possible for you and the people you support.
Share your feedback
If you are a practitioner or manager who uses the Empowerment Star and are willing to help us improve it, simply fill in this short survey and tell us what you think.
We’re also inviting you to join one of our focus groups on 22nd and 23rd November 2023 so we can hear feedback directly. Simply sign up for the date that suits you. The focus groups are on UK time, but if you use the Empowerment Star outside of the UK and would like to join, please tell us about yourself here.
We’re looking forward to hearing from you and improving this valuable tool together. If you’d like to find out more or want to email your feedback, contact us or email sara@triangleconsulting.co.uk directly.
When we launched the new and improved Outcomes Star Online platform in 2020, we were aware that what we were launching was a Minimum Viable Product.
We knew it was only the start of where we could use digital technology to help people get the most out of the Outcomes Star.
Following a year of migrating over 1000 organisations from the old platform to the new, we’ve been constantly moving forward with the platform, working closely with our technology partners QES, including:
Filling in gaps that we weren’t able to get to in the initial development (eg action plan PDF downloads)
Introducing features to support better management of data (eg configurable practitioner permissions and restricted access to records, and depersonalisation of dormant records)
Ensuring a strong foundation of compliance for information governance, cyber security and clinical safety (eg new IG statements for UK and Australia, and bringing in a Clinical Safety Officer to set up our Clinical Risk Management System).
We’ve also been working on 2 big projects – integration, and an overhaul of the ‘Live Completion’ feature. Here’s an update on those projects and some of the things we’ve learnt along the way.
Integration
We are clear that the role of Outcomes Star Online is not to be a fully customisable, comprehensive case management system or electronic patient record system. Although for some organisations it may be their central record system, our focus is purely on the Outcomes Star and supporting best practice use across our client organisations.
We have also learnt the hard way that although on the surface it seems simple to allow organisations to build their own digital versions of Stars, and in some cases works well, often it is very difficult to achieve a user experience that matches up to best practice and supports the values underpinning the Star.
Therefore, we knew when launching the new platform that we absolutely had to offer integration with other systems – but at the time, we didn’t really know how to do that. We didn’t know what kind of integration people wanted, or what technology the other systems needed to be ‘talked to’, or where to draw the lines around what should happen within Outcomes Star Online and what we should support in other systems. With over 1000 organisations using all sorts of software and managing that software in different ways, we had to decide where to start – with something that delivered a lot for one setting, or something that delivered something basic but for as many different circumstances as possible.
Following a period of research, design and development, we were delighted to launch our Partner API and our Integration Pilot in April 2023, delivering a ‘Phase 1’ of universally useful endpoints designed to reduce duplication of data entry for practitioners and support a ‘single point of truth’ in primary systems.
Alongside the more technical side of the API development, we also knew we wanted to continue to improve the user experience around completing Stars.
For the last year we’ve been doing some exciting user research and design with Usertopia to look at the ‘Live Star Completion’ feature the pages designed to be shared with someone being supported to complete a Star collaboratively without paper. Here you can see an image of one of our potential alternative designs in action.
With a focus on accessibility, as well as on supporting best Star practice, we’ve uncovered some useful learnings, including:
Lack of wifi when out and about prevents people from using the feature, so an offline solution would be valuable
The lack of imagery and the volume of text on the screen all in one go makes it harder to digest
Rather than just completing a Star, people would like to be able to complete action plans collaboratively and look back over completed Stars to show the visual of change over time
We’re just starting to move from design into development, working closely with Usertopia and QES and planning to collaborate with our research community of Outcomes Star Online practitioners to test out our plans as we go. If you’re interested in finding out more or helping us with this important development, sign up here.
Onwards and upwards
As well as the big projects above we’re committed to continually improving the user experience and technology of Outcomes Star Online. If you have any feedback or requests, or any questions or issues with the platform, please contact us on support@staronline.org.uk.
We’ve been noticing an increase in enquiries about using the Star in children’s social care, which may reflect upcoming changes in the requirements for outcomes measurement and keywork in this sector.
The Department for Education’s recently consulted on a new children’s social care national framework and indicators dashboard, and we were pleased to contribute to this. We welcomed the move towards more person-centred and collaborative care planning and outcomes measurement – the aims set out in the framework being very well aligned with our own (see our Enabling help report). However, we fed back our hope that the final version will include a broader range of indicators and more practical guidance about how to achieve the aims, for example, collaborative assessments to build strong relationships.
The themes of hearing the voices of people being supported, tailoring support and building trusting relationships were also very prominent in the Department for Education ‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations including Quality Standards’ for looked after children and care leavers aged 16 and 17, which was published in March. Since all providers now have to register with Ofsted and indicate how they will comply with the regulations, we have been working on a guidance document to explain how the Outcomes Star can help with this and how specific versions map across to the principles and quality standards.
Download the How To here. Contact us for more information or to share any learnings about using the Star in these settings.
Joy MacKeith shares her thoughts after the inaugural Towards Relational Public Services (TRePubS) Conference
How do you deliver public services that are relational – services that recognise and respond to the unique needs and circumstances of each individual? That was the topic of the conference ‘Towards Relational Public Services’ that I have just had the pleasure to participate in.
Sam Game and I gave a workshop which explored how the Outcomes Star helps to make ‘Enabling Help’ a reality in practice. Working in a relational way is one of the six core principles of Enabling Help, Triangle’s blueprint for effective services.
Sam, who leads the implementation of the Parent and Baby Star in Health Visiting services in Warwickshire, described how using the Star has helped them work in a more relational, collaborative and strengths-based way. Parents have responded incredibly well. They are much clearer about the health visitor’s role and they love the way that Star helps them see what is going well as well as where they have needs. And it isn’t just the parents. It has also helped commissioners to understand and value the service.
Our workshop was one of more than 40 sessions which took place over two days at Newcastle Business School – part of Northumbria University.
For me the highlight was Mark Smith’s presentation on service transformation work in Gateshead. He described how they have implemented an approach to working with people with complex needs in which there are only two rules: ‘do no harm’ and ‘stay legal’. In this ‘liberated method’ case workers have a low caseload and there are no limits on how long they can work with someone or what kind of support can be provided. And case workers have budgets and the discretion to spend money to help solve pressing problems.
What I loved about this approach was that the bureaucracy was stripped out, giving workers the chance to do simple things that could make a big difference and avert much greater problems down the line.
Mark is part of a growing movement of managers, practitioners and academics who are challenging the orthodoxies of New Public Management (sometimes described as the 3 Ms – Markets, Metrics and Management). They are making the case that outcomes emerge from many interacting factors and therefore cannot be ‘delivered’ or dictated. In this complex environment, learning rather than prescription and control is the most effective management strategy. And it makes more sense for commissioners to take a relational approach and to hold service providers accountable for learning rather than targets. This new approach is called Human Learning Systems.
Toby Lowe, Visiting Professor of Public Management and the Centre for Public Impact closed the conference with a call to action – for all of us who want to see services that are more relational, responsive and effective to come together and work with a coalition of the willing to create a paradigm shift in public management. It is an exciting vision, and one that I think the Outcomes Star, a tool with flexible, relational working at its core, can play a role in realising.
Joy MacKeith, Co-creator of Outcomes Star
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Watch Joy’s conversation with Toby Lowe about the synergies between Enabling Help and Human Learning Systems
Triangle is proud to announce that we have become employee-owned, with the shares held in Trust to advance our mission and for the benefit of all current and future employees.
Since its founding in 2003, Triangle has grown rapidly, and its Outcomes Stars have become industry-leading keywork and outcome measurement tools with an estimated six million Stars completed to date.
The Outcomes Stars help local authorities, the NHS, and charities help people reach their highest potential and evidence the difference they are making.
Co-founders Joy MacKeith and Sara Burns chose an Employee Ownership Trust to preserve the company’s mission, culture and independence.
Newly appointed Non-Exec Chair to the board of directors, Annika Small OBE, said “I have long admired the Outcomes Star for the agency and tools it gives people to improve their lives and communities. I am delighted to join Triangle at this pivotal moment as it becomes an employee-owned organisation. I look forward to placing our incredible team in the lead of shaping strategy, maintaining a happy and healthy culture, and supporting key workers with exceptional tools that help transform lives.“
“We are deeply proud to have made this historic transition to put the future of Triangle into the hands of those who have helped us build a highly respected and successful global organisation. There is still much to do to fully embed a person-centred and enabling approach into public service delivery. I am excited about the future, and the contribution Triangle can make to achieving that goal.”
“When we found out about employee ownership, it seemed the perfect way to retain our strong values and collaborative culture and ensure the autonomy of Triangle as we planned our exit after 20 years. We have heard so many lovely stories over the years of how people benefit from the Outcomes Stars, and I am delighted that Triangle can continue to develop Stars into the future.”
The co-founders will continue supporting Triangle’s Star development and thought leadership .
About Annika Small OBE: Annika has had a long accomplished career in public service, including being the founder of CAST, former Chief Executive of Nominet Trust and Futurelab, Chair of Chichester University and a Trustee of the Design Council.
The Outcomes Star measurement system has generated a considerable amount of interest within the sector. We view it as an example of positive practice in relation to tracking individual development and progress against multiple vulnerabilities.
From a commissioner perspective I see clear benefits to using the Star and how this can improve the information we receive from providers. This includes outcomes data for individual service users, an overall picture of positive change in outcomes for all service users as well as information about which outcomes are more difficult to shift and gaps - which can inform service development.
Not only is this a useful tool for self-assessment and identification of needs; its use over time can demonstrate to commissioners that they are getting the right outcomes from the services they fund.
I think the Outcomes Star is a really excellent tool. It helps people to think holistically about the people they are working with and supports a focus on progress as well as maintenance. It has a lot to contribute across a range of different sectors.
In my experience, the biggest challenge in doing an SROI is having good outcomes data. The Outcomes Star is probably the most developed, robust and easy-to-use tool for collecting distance travelled data
Triangle developed the first Family Star in 2010, in collaboration with Camden Council in London as part of their innovative focus on outcome measurement. It was the 4th Outcomes Star Triangle developed and brought its own engaging challenges. In particular, the Family Star was to be completed with a parent, but the beneficiary was their child or children.
Whilst keeping a clear focus on the intended outcome – that children could thrive – the Star needed to recognise that, where parents face challenges in their lives, those needed to be addressed for their own well-being as well as to benefit their children.
Parents with lived experience helped to shape the Family Stars, based on the process of change they had gone through with support from the service.
Soon after the original Family Star was published, the government in England and Wales announced significant new investment in supporting vulnerable families – initially called the Troubled Families Initiative. This initiative included a focus on understanding and measuring outcomes for families, and the Star was perfect as a tool for doing that – or almost. To align even better with the framework, it needed more focus on parents, particularly on the parent’s own well-being and on helping parents into work, where appropriate.
In response, Triangle collaborated with Leicestershire County Council to create the Family Star Plus in 2012. This has since become one of the most widely used of the family of Outcomes Stars, particularly by local authorities in England.
Triangle then worked with collaborators in Scotland to produce materials which mapped the Family Star to SHANARRI, the Scottish Government outcomes framework for children and families.
Since these early Family Stars, Triangle has developed many more versions for children and families. My Star for children is widely used to give the voice of the child alongside the Family Star Plus or Family Star. There is also the lighter touch Family Star Early Years and then the Family Star (relationships), for use where the main focus is on the relationship between parents, including with mediation and looking after the child’s well-being in family breakdown. Triangle also developed more Stars for children and young people – preview versions of all of these and more are available to download from the website.
Triangle is committed to keeping the suite of Outcomes Stars up to date – we invest part of the Star Licence fee in this – and have a robust process for reviewing existing Stars and creating new editions. We used this to review the Family Stars in 2021-2022, as described in our previous blog and detailed in a development summary that will be published with the new editions in April. The result is new editions that are more person centred, accessible and trauma informed.
If you are a current user of the Family Star or Family Star Plus (practitioner or manager), please register to attend the launch webinar event. If you can’t participate on the day, please register anyway, as we will share the recording and all new resources with you. you.
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New resources meet dual face-to-face and virtual training needs
The Covid-19 pandemic propelled organisations delivering training to shift training delivery online immediately. In the early days, it was a hectic scramble to make the most of technology for teaching and to produce virtual training resources quickly.
Two years on, we are delighted to announce the launch of our new eighth-edition Outcomes Star Core Star training course with improved exercises and a training manual suitable for use in both face-to-face and virtual learning settings.
After creating a new set of training resources for the virtual training environment we quickly developed a vision to combine the two and used the opportunity to update and revise the Core Star training resources.
We can now provide learners with the same high-quality, engaging, and consistent training experience in both environments and trainers with a single source of resources.
How we created the resources
In the summer of 2021, to start this initiative and achieve our aims, we brought together our in-house training team, associate trainers, and licensed training community to harness our collective knowledge about training in the Stars.
Over 18 months, we carried out 1-2-1 interviews, focus groups, and workshops with our community of trainers to completely revise and update the resources.
Key members of our in-house training team upskilled and undertook industry-leading LPI online training course designer and facilitation qualifications to meet the challenges of achieving the same high level of engagement virtually as in the classroom.
We drew on best practices for successful virtual learning and incorporated the latest thinking on trauma-informed language and accessibility needs. We also infused our thought leadership views on into the new resources.
“I am excited to be able to offer this new training package for the benefit of our learners and to support our community of Licensed Trainers to deliver great training in their organisations. We have all learnt so much, and I feel that the package has really benefited from our new skills and experience. I want to thank everyone involved in its development, particularly Laura Baker, who led the project – the training specialists, our implementation team and licensed trainers, designers, associates and other partners”.
With the needs of our learners and their managers at the heart of our work, we considered what they needed to know to enable them to use and implement the Star well within their service. We tested new resources with our in-house training and implementation teams and our associate training professionals, all experts on the Outcomes Star.
We collected, organised, and modified the information and delivery methods. We then tested the new resources with new learners to see what worked and didn’t, ensuring they were equally effective in both learning environments.
What’s new?
The first thing Licensed Trainers (LTs) will notice is how different they look visually. The second thing LTs will notice is the increased number of slides. We can reassure LTs by saying more information is displayed visually to make it easier for learners and accommodate different learning styles.
We’ve also introduced new graphics, icons, multimedia, and links to support and embed learning. We have included a new trauma-informed practice session, visuals of the different Journeys of Change, and the materials learners need to use in practice.
There is a greater emphasis on pre-and post-session objectives and new engaging activities to reinforce learning in each session. The slide deck and training manual are also coloured-coded to match each other.
New course structure
Now delivered in two half days or one full day
Reduced sessions from 5 to 4
Greater emphasis on pre-and post-session objectives
New learning methods and terminology
New graphics, icons, multimedia, and links
“The new course reflects the changes we’ve made in helping to ensure the Star is used consistently well by practitioners and in being more trauma-informed. The materials are more engaging, taking into account the different learning styles of our learners. I am so looking forward to delivering it!”.
Sarah Brimelow, Associate Trainer for Triangle, views on the new resources:
Mick Caroll, Associate Triangle Trainer said:
“I was part of the St Mungo’s team that first worked with Triangle Consulting to develop the Outcomes Star in 2003. I have used it in many other organisations in the years since. Seeing its growth and development in that time has been inspiring.
These new training support materials are the culmination of that: clear and simple, and very powerful. They contain the distilled knowledge and insights of frontline social care, academic and policy practitioners, as well as seasoned trainers. And it shows.
Triangle used pencils and rulers to draw the first stars and Windows 3.1 for the slides. These materials result from a constant reinvestment of passion for human development. They put 21st-century tools in the hands of trainers for learners to inherit all that brilliance for the people they support. I’m very proud to have been there at the start and to have been able to witness this wonderful process”.
How can I access the latest resources?
Training package [PowerPoint slide deck & training manual] will be available from Star Online from March 2023
Triangle will send hard copies of the new Training Manual to all LTs after they have attended a CPD session.
When can I start using the new resources?
We are holding several launch events to introduce the new Star Core package and training manual over the next six months, you only need to attend one of these.
LTs will be able to start using the new resources after this training.
Licenced Trainers (not Aus/NZ) will receive an email listing all the upcoming launch events and CPD sessions with registration links. We look forward to you joining us!
January 2024 update: The introduction of the new Star Core package and training manual has now finished. To book for CPD sessions, please access the booking link via Star Online.
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Further information
If you would like further information about Outcomes Star training or becoming a licensed trainer, please email us at info@triangleconsulting.co.uk
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