Innovation is one of the biggest buzzwords in public policy today. But unlike most buzzwords this one has a hard imperative behind it: the impending budget crunch will mean the public sector having to deliver with a lot less money. The only way that service quality can be maintained is by working in new and innovative ways.
There are many individual examples of the public sector developing new products and services – from the postage stamp to NHS Direct. The challenge remains to make the public sector more consistently innovative. To achieve this goal, public sector leaders need to look at the way their organisations encourage and support innovation.
The way forward is clear, as companies as diverse as Google and Virgin Group highlight the characteristics that make organisations consistently innovative.
First, they have a clear commitment to innovation, demonstrated by the attention leaders devote to supporting innovation and the time that employees are given to develop their ideas.
Second, they reinforce that commitment by rewarding staff for being innovative. This needn't be immediate financial reward: career progression, professional status and public recognition can all be powerful incentives to motivate innovators.
Third, innovating organisations take a sophisticated attitude to risk, recognising that some ideas will not make it all the way to implementation. They reinforce this by putting in place mechanisms that manage innovation in a structured way without stifling creativity.
Fourth, they seek out different perspectives – be that from customers, partners, or other sectors. This free flow of ideas explains why Silicon Valley – with its concentrated mix of technologists, financiers, and academics - is home to so many innovative organisations.
Finally, the most innovative organisations match rigorous processes for testing innovations with specialist support to help innovators develop their ideas. This is essential to giving customers confidence that innovations have been developed thoroughly before they are put into practice.
In its current condition, the public sector as a whole may not be synonymous with many of these qualities. In places, however, there are instances of public sector organisations starting to rise to the challenge.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families, for example, is showing many of these characteristics in its work exploring new ways of helping looked-after children.
Taking inspiration from the health sector, the department is piloting the establishment of practitioner-led organisations that create the freedom for social workers to design services that best meet their children's needs. These pilots will test out whether independent, social-worker led organisations can deliver innovative new ways of working and better outcomes for children in care alongside increased social worker job satisfaction.
The National Policing Improvement Agency, meanwhile, is using its workforce modernisation programme to test different ways of using civilian staff to relieve the burden on police officers.
By giving police forces the opportunity to take their own approach to the problem, the NPIA has facilitated a number of different models to develop, each of which can be tested for its effectiveness – and all of which may be the means through which innovations are developed. Recognising the need to support its partner forces, the NPIA has also made professional support available to help deal with the challenges that come from implementing new ways of working.
These examples show that innovation is not impossible in the public sector. In the current climate that is crucial. With the budget squeeze no more than 18 months away, leaders have a small window of opportunity in which to seize the initiative and face the future on their own terms. And if necessity is the mother of invention, now – more than ever – is the time when we need the public sector to innovate.
Gill Hunter is director of innovation, strategy and change at Avail Consulting
