Context

WHAT IS MARKET-SHAPING?

Market-shaping is the practice of designing and delivering interventions that make a public service market produce better outcomes. Services like planning, housing management, social care and education are powered by markets, including technology and other service providers. When buyers experience vendor lock-in, can't access their own data, or can't access the products and services they need to deliver well, interventions like collective buying powers, data standards, regulatory guidance and training are needed.

Introduction

ABOUT THE PLAYBOOK

Welcome to the Market-Shaping Playbook, a framework for overcoming entrenched patterns of public service failure from 'within the system'. Curated by TPXimpact, it is the culmination of years of experience working to make local public services fit for the future.

Services like planning, social housing management, social care and energy distribution all suffer similar patterns of systemic failure - from vendor lock-in to poor interoperability, and limited innovation in the market. These challenges are felt by all front-line organisations, but can only be tackled at a national or systemic level.

The transformation community now has extensive knowledge of how to address these challenges. But it's fragmented and under-leveraged. That's why we've created this playbook.

There's no simple, silver bullet that will 'fix the plumbing' and set these services up to be proactive, efficient and maximally impactful; we advocate that more common language and approaches for market-shaping would really help.

If you are working on similar challenges or have ideas for how to make this resource more useful, please get in touch!

Real-world examples

EXPLORE CASE STUDIES

VIEW ALL
Shaping Regional Tech Markets with LOTI IoT Housing Housing

Shaping Regional Tech Markets with LOTI IoT Housing

How Can Local Governments Shape Markets for Smarter ...

Read
Transforming social prescribing with the Open Referral UK standard Health & social care

Transforming social prescribing with the Open Referral UK standard

How can public services make it easier for people to find ...

Read
Shaping employment services as a charity: Insights from Shaw Trust Work & employment

Shaping employment services as a charity: Insights from Shaw Trust

How can health, employment and local services ...

Read

Main contributors

MAIN CONTRIBUTORS

user-img1

Linda O'Halloran

Sr. Partner at TPXimpact

Linda has spent the last 15 years leading innovation at the intersection of central and local government. She led the 2018 Local Digital Declaration movement, and various programmes at MCHLG and GDS before joining TPXimpact to develop our market-shaping practice.

user-img1

Megha Wadhawan

Design Strategy Principal at TPXimpact

Megha has deep expertise in systems leadership in helping central and local governments deliver digital strategies. She has led programmes, advised senior leadership and worked with policy teams in social care, planning and housing management. Previously, she co-authored Nesta’s DIY Toolkit.

user-img1

George Weyman

Principal Technology Consultant at TPXimpact

George brings the diverse lenses of communications, social research and technology architecture to his work. As lead technologist on market-shaping projects with MHCLG and HM Land Registry, he brings a wealth of insight about how to prioritise and scale the technical interventions needed to re-shape public service markets.