Policy Hub
On 8 February 2010, the Whitehall Innovation Hub, a unit in the National School of Government’s Sunningdale Institute, published a report which suggests that the public sector at all levels needs to transform its approach to innovation, putting citizens and front line staff at the heart of this transformation.
The report insists that the leading examples of this approach tend to be locally-based. It contends that the growing strength among place-based leaders illustrates how a connection to one’s local area and community can provide the motivations for a more creative approach to innovation.
The report suggests that there are two sets of lessons for Whitehall from these examples of place-based innovation: firstly to emulate them in their own practice, and secondly to address the systemic impediments to innovation across the public sector which are highlighted through the experience of innovative place-based leaders.
It concludes that the focus on ‘place’ demands a wider and more systemic approach to innovation and an emphasis on the need to make the public sector more resilient and adaptable in the face of enormous challenges.