Redesigning local childcare access across Flanders: a whole‑system co-creative approach

Themes: Co-design and participation | Centralised vs decentralised services | Collaboration across organisations | Working in complex systems | Designing across levels of government (local and regional)

How do you redesign a critical public service when responsibility, data and day‑to‑day work are scattered across local authorities, digital providers, NGOs and central government? 

This session shares how Opgroeien, Digitaal Vlaanderen and VBJK co‑created a new digital strategy for Local Childcare Service desks (Lokale Loketten Kinderopvang) across 95 municipalities in Flanders. 

Working across organisational boundaries, the project brought together parents, childcare organisers, local service desks, IT vendors, NGO/non-profits and policy‑makers to understand the current system and design future scenarios that improve both frontline journeys and back‑office data flows. 

Participants will explore concrete artefacts (journeys, architecture sketches, governance and data concepts) and reflect on what it takes to build shared ownership and change in a politically sensitive, capacity‑constrained domain.

Participant takeaways: 

• an example of a concrete, large‑scale case where service design, data architecture and policy design were genuinely integrated, rather than run as separate tracks
• how to collaborate with commercial IT vendors as partners in interoperability, not just suppliers
• how to revisit lessons from a failed earlier pilot and turn them into explicit design principles and pre‑conditions for future implementation
• how to take away concrete questions and principles for balancing local autonomy, digital inclusion, data quality and administrative burden when designing centralised or federated solutions
• practical tips and practices for co-creation and active involvement of all stakeholders
• concrete questions and principles for balancing local autonomy, digital inclusion, data quality and administrative burden when designing centralised or federated solutions