The author closes this opening section with a civic truth: repair is not a fix. It is a form of presence, it is what makes life within systems possible again.
Example 1: Redesigning Housing Allocations with Discretion Loops Context: A London borough council found that its automated housing allocation system disproportionately deprioritised applicants with complex but non-standard needs, such as informal carers, survivors of domestic abuse, or those in temporary work.
Repair Action: The council introduced a discretionary review panel staffed by housing officers, social workers and community advocates. Every week, flagged cases were reviewed manually, with space for narrative context and citizen testimony. Overrides were logged in a custodian’s register, with reasons and reflections recorded.
Impact: Applicants previously excluded were rehoused more quickly. Staff reported greater confidence and moral clarity. The system was updated to incorporate patterns from the overrides.
Why it matters: Repair was not just a fix, it was a redesign. It restored discretion, documented care and reshaped the system itself.
Example 2: Embedding Human Review in NHS Digital Triage Context: An NHS Trust piloting AI triage for outpatient referrals noticed that patients with complex or poorly understood conditions; like long COVID or chronic fatigue, were frequently deprioritised.
Repair Action: The Trust mandated a human-in-the-loop checkpoint for all “non-urgent” classifications. Clinicians could annotate the triage record with contextual notes, including patient voice. A dialogic record was introduced: each override included a brief reflection from the reviewing clinician.
Impact: Misclassifications dropped. Patients reported feeling “seen” even when delays remained. The Trust published anonymised examples to train future staff.
Why it matters: Repair was relational. It restored presence within a system that had become silent.
Example 3: Rewriting the Appeals Process in Further Education Context: After the 2020 grading algorithm crisis, a Midlands college restructured its internal appeals process to prevent future harm.
