Transforming debt collection: a journey towards holistic support and sustainable change

Session type:

Talk

Presented by:

Elsa Bardout

Camden Council

Bonnie Cheng

Camden Council

Habiba Hussain

Camden Council

Session time:

12 Mar 10:00 — 11:00

Session duration:

60 minutes

About the session

Camden’s Tackling Poverty team and Strategy & Design team worked closely together to develop a new approach to supporting residents in debt towards financial resilience. We addressed the misconception that debt collection is opposed to relational support, by showing how a human-centred approach can help us both nudge residents who can pay, and support residents who can’t until they reach financial stability.

We will share our journey through designing and piloting a new service: how we got people on board and moved from idea to implementation and testing. We’ll explore how we navigated uncertainty, supported service teams to lead change, and worked with leadership to demonstrate the value of preventative work.

Participant Takeaways:

How to navigate change; getting people onboard and moving from an idea to implementation and testing
How to kick off and move things forwards in an ambiguous space
How to collaborate effectively and develop a sense of shared ownership
How to work effectively with leadership

Themes:

Design & service leadership, Debt, Financial stability, Empowered delivery team, Pilot, Implementation, Service Design, Change

About the speaker(s)

Elsa Bardout

Elsa Bardout is a senior service designer based in the UK, with a commitment to addressing social challenges and climate change. Her multidisciplinary skillset, spanning service design, research, graphic design, and prototyping, allows her to approach problem-solving holistically.

Elsa has worked with various public-sector organisations on social care, employment support, debt assistance, housing services and more. She promotes inclusive practices through co-design and democratic participation. Now at Camden Council, she shapes best practices, mentors colleagues, and leads end-to-end projects. Elsa collaborates closely with residents, council members, and charitable organisations, delving deep into challenges to effect meaningful change.

Pronouns: She / Her

Habiba Hussain

Habiba is Hardship Support Manager at Camden Council, London. She manages the team delivering the Council’s Cost of Living support for residents with one-off grants and holistic financial support and advice. She collaborates with services across the council and external advice partners to develop joined up ways of working and arrange outreach programmes to target hard to reach residents.

Habiba has a background in debt advice and is a member of the Institute of Money Advisers. Her experience in supporting residents with in-depth casework has given her valuable insights into the experiences they face, particularly navigating the welfare system and making contact with creditors. She has used this insight in her current role to help design and deliver the Council's proactive benefit uptake campaigns and early debt intervention services.

Pronouns: She/Her