This report provides a window into local authority innovation in England and Wales in 2011.

Key findings:

38% of all local authorities across England and Wales applied for the scheme

• There is exceptional interest into doing things differently with 74% having a senior staff member named as leading the project
• 58% of councils are seeking to deliver highly innovative projects (reinvention and transformation)

Local Authorities in England and Wales are going through perhaps their greatest upheaval in a generation. Driven by the reduction in the local authority settlement and a growing awareness by many in local government that the way they work has to change, a new enthusiasm for innovation is sweeping through local authorities across the country.

The data that this report is founded upon comes from the 137 applications received for the Nesta and Local Government Group Creative Councils programme in June 2011. The authorities analysed in Catching the wave are perhaps best described as ‘pliable’ to becoming drivers of local innovation.

The Creative Councils programme aims to change how local government functions from the inside, out by improving how staff work with one another and with external organisations, dissolving historic barriers between people and instead focusing on better services and stronger communities.

Authors:
Richard Wilson and Thom Townsend