The PSTA case clinic host guide
Six sessions over three months

Agree the participants, host, dates, format, confidentiality, access needs, and any fee before the group starts. Use or adapt this guide when planning the group. Dates and places need to be agreed separately.

Participants and responsibilities
Choose six cases, with someone able to act on each. Name a convenor and a host for each session. Start with six to eight people, and adjust the group if cases need other experience or authority. Include people in different roles. Say whose experience the group is missing.

Working agreement
No sales pitches. No identifiable case material without permission. Ask the case-holder what help they want. Distinguish what people have observed, what they think caused it, and what they advise doing. Participants can question the method and the host's choices. Case-holders decide what to act on. Check the record and get explicit agreement before publishing anything.

Sessions and preparation
Hold six 90-minute sessions, about a fortnight apart, over three months. Between sessions, case-holders try the actions they have chosen and record what happens. Adjust the schedule when the work requires it.

Month one: describe the cases
Introduce the six cases in sessions one and two, and work on the first two in detail. Establish what each case-holder is trying to change, whose views are missing, and what remains uncertain. Each chooses an action they can take. Agree when to review it and what evidence could change the group's view.

Month two: review the first actions
Work on two more cases in sessions three and four, and review what the first two case-holders did. Compare what they expected with what happened. Check whether an apparent improvement transferred cost, risk, or work to someone else, or excluded anyone. Revise the explanation where the evidence warrants it.

Month three: review all six cases
Work on the remaining cases in sessions five and six, then review all six. Decide what continues, changes, or stops. Name who will maintain the case records. Agree whether anything is ready to share beyond the group.

A 90-minute session
10 minutes: check access needs and the case-holder's question.
15 minutes: hear the case and ask questions to understand it.
20 minutes: discuss the evidence, assumptions, and views of people who aren't in the room.
20 minutes: consider possible actions, who could take them, what they depend on, and their likely effects.
15 minutes: the case-holder chooses an action, names who will take it, and sets a review date and the evidence to collect.
10 minutes: review how the group worked, and check what participants have agreed to do.

Publishing a case or resource
Choose a specific case, diagram, or correction to a tool that others could use. State what happened, what remains uncertain, and what evidence is available. Check permission with the case-holder and the people or organisations concerned. Nothing is published by default.

Use a Compass workspace or another record the group can maintain to keep answers, actions, and reviews together.

Discuss facilitation with the PSTA: info@publicservicetransformation.org