Programs to Support LG
Innovation: case studies
Can LG innovate its way out of funding cuts?
Transition to people-powered public services
The new environment
• Almost every organisation is re-thinking their
business model and transforming service
delivery strategies
• Gov 2.0: putting government in the hands of
citizens with infrastructure platforms, open data
• Will redefine government: community-based
leadership emerging
• Does LG have a game plan? Is this a threat
or an opportunity
The challenge is to
respond ahead of the
curve
If local government
don’t respond, other
levels of government
will –and hasn’t that
always been the issue?
The reality of austerity
The UK LGA Funding Outlook 2013
www.local.gov.uk
UK funding cuts:
$A25 billion by 2020 (37% 2010-15)
• What to do?
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Program cuts
Integrating back office functions
Networked technology (from call centres to 24x7 self-service)
Charging more for services
Transforming health and social care (strategic alliances)
Passing responsibility to the public (eg. parks management,
library volunteers, culture, meals on wheels, volunteering)
– Whole of place community budgets: redesigned around people
and places rather than organisations (co-design)
– Political leadership: public debate
• What are you prepared to give up?
• What are you willing to pay more for?
• What are you prepared to do more of yourselves?
New relationship between citizen and
state
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•
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Identify local priorities: demand pull
Innovation
What can councils do?
Councils are furiously innovating: they have
radically rethought how they ought to serve
the people who elect them
• Councils are outsourcing and redefining
services at a terrific clip
UK Improvement and Innovation
Board
To influence the performance framework within
which LG operates to achieve
• significantly less inspection, intervention and
central targets and
• more self-regulation through a combination of
self-assessment, peer review and user
assessment
Innovating out of Austerity in LG (LSE)
• LG faces a time of both crisis and opportunity
• In the next 5 years will see:
– More involvement of citizens in co-production,
community budgeting and priority setting, and
local use of social media
– Shared services
– Making more use of ‘cloud’ provision
Innovating out of Austerity in LG (LSE)
• In austerity conditions pooling resources and
combining efforts will be even more vital
• In every hierarchical organisation, front line
staff know the most about services and their
delivery, yet their views are not often sought.
Actively looking for ideas for change and
sustaining staff commitment will become even
more important in the future.
Creative Councils UK
• LG is in a trap: it needs to do more with less
• CC is a program run by NESTA and the LGA in
developing and implementing radical, transformative
ideas. They exemplify the role innovation can play in
solving long term challenges.
• If LG is to overcome these challenges it needs to
rethink how it functions from the inside out. It needs
to think differently about how it delivers services.
• Councils have succeeded in developing innovative
ideas but can struggle to put them into practice and
maximise their scale
Creative Councils UK
• ‘We need to make LG as good at creative
problem solving as the most successful
business’ NESTA CEO
• Assumptions:
– LG challenges demand more than incremental
change
– LG would be part of the solution
– Great ideas should be spread across LG
– Councils can be supported to be better innovators
Creative Councils UK
• Over a third of all UK Councils applied for support
from Creative Councils
• 17 Creative Councils were chosen: given support
including additional expertise when required
• Example: in Wigan, they are helping the council
to devolve its adult social care budget to local
people so they have the opportunity to control
the way in which their needs are met.
YouTube
• Creative Councils - Getting ready to innovate
5.31
• Creative Councils - Developing the best ideas
• 5.48
CC 10 lessons for LG innovators
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Look from new vantage points
Make sure the change is measurable: focus on results
Need to turn the ideas into action
Test and improve initial ideas
We need to identify people who can make ideas work
Often have to reduce existing services so others can take
their place
7. Seek allies, create a movement
8. Develop good political antennae
9. Innovation is fundamentally a team activity
10. Innovators need to combine patience and perseverance
Learnings to date
• LG needs to transform itself: plenty of drivers
• Innovation and collaboration are critical to a more sustainable
future
• The Council organisation
– Develop a culture of innovation (key area of focus)
– Ideas generation process
– Focus on innovation in the 4 year Council plan
• The LG sector/regional groups
– Roadmaps (strategic directions)
– Plan the Plan
– Embed innovation on the agenda
– Improve knowledge-sharing