Project Background
DEFRA is changing the way farmers are funded from a subsidy funding model to a grant payment model. The objective is to direct farmers to become more business-minded and plan their agricultural projects to meet the grant requirements, which incentivises eco-friendly farming in line with government carbon reduction pledges.
My Role
As a Lead Service Designer, I wanted to understand who the different farmers' groups are and how they currently find out about upcoming government grants and the process required to apply for them.
What We Did
We interviewed different types of farmers. I also approached farmer groups and invited them to participate in online co-design sessions. From these interviews we learned that farmers have very different needs — some were business-focused and knew what they needed to do, while many others had to use 3rd party agencies to help fill in their applications. Some lived in rural areas with no reliable internet. Many were at an age where digital technology itself was a challenge.
The Problem
Many farmers waste their time completing applications when they aren't eligible, leading to frustration and wasted money. This creates an unnecessary burden on the application assessors and an added risk of not getting quality applications approved.
The Idea
I created a Service Blueprint which included a pre-preparation stage that the business was previously unaware of — some projects required planning permissions that could take a long time to obtain, causing farmers to miss application deadlines. The solution was a pre-application questionnaire giving an immediate result so that farmers could tell if they have a good chance of success before submitting a full application.
The Solution
We identified five major design themes from research: Simple and intuitive, Risk reduction, Improved confidence, Understanding the process, and Being informed.
Project Outcome
The new designs tested well with users and were approved by the DEFRA grants team and business stakeholders. The cost reduction in time and effort was clear, and the process will form the basis for all new grants. The project also passed a GDS service assessment.
