Public Service Innovation
Why Innovation Now | The Innovation Hub Strategy | Hub Key Objectives | Public Service Innovation | Transforming Government
Most public service innovation is driven by one or two people passionate about making a difference. Those closest to the problems are usually the first to provide solutions.
Patient Opinion, the Eden Project, Grameen Bank and the Big Issue were all nurtured by social entrepreneurs - and successful government programmes such as Sure Start are dependent on the motivation and commitment of front-line staff.
What is public service innovation?
Some examples include:| Service innovation | Systemic innovation |
| User-led service design in NHS | Investment Funds, NESTA, SITRA |
| The Sure Start Programme | Innovation Hubs and platforms |
| The Open University | Danish fixed tariffs for green energy creating market for wind energy |
| Creating value through recycling (Lewisham) | Government incentives for new forms of waste and disposal |
| Barbed Design - recovery model for prisoners in Gloucestershire | Commissioning and procurement for holistic interventions |
| Women Offenders' personal service centre, Kirklees | Commissioning and monitoring frameworks that value personal/behavioural change |
'What starts as an innovative approach
gets bogged down in the treacle, when
projects start to come alive it attracts
and involves more officials, each with
their own view and institutional role,
they translate the programme from their
perspective and then inertia takes over.'
Director, Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
Innovative responses are diverse and vary with each adaptation. However, public service innovation can be characterised as:
- a solution to a particular social, economic and environment problem
- those coming up with a solution tend to be close to the problem and to frontline staff
- new ways of working, new relationships and radical new ways of delivering public services - rather than new ideas or products
- collaboration is at the heart of public service innovation
- innovation has moved beyond improvement, which is more concerned with making existing systems work faster - and involves a redesign of systems, relationships and practices
- being galvanised by champions of change
- early adoption of new practices is also usually brokered by intermediaries.
Public service innovation requires support and encouragement from government
The public system needs to have the capacity to reinforce innovation behaviour and approaches, not hinder them.
Public service innovation calls for government transformation and commensurate innovation in policy making and governance. Public service innovation pilots often fail to take root because of a lack of investors, or appropriate or sustained government support.
It is too early to be prescriptive about managing innovation but developing a new landscape for innovation and the networks and relationships that will build connection between those in government procurement and commissioning with social and public innovators will be critical.
Barriers to public service innovation
Diffusing innovation across the public services is an ongoing challenge - not least because of the lack of contact between policy and practice and the fact the spread of public service innovation is often stifled by:
- a concern with process rather than with outcomes and impact
- a linear model of knowledge transfer when innovation flows between receptive players not through formal channels
- few incentives and too many disincentives - innovation is not at present career-enhancing for public servants
- short-termism and unrealistic expectations
'People like me are not rewarded, I'm
less interested in money and more in
recognition. There are no incentives
or alignment between performance
appraisal and innovative work. I've
always been interested in improving
processes, but managers do not listen.'
Government Official at Civil Service Live 2008