NESTA and Young Foundation urge government to support local innovation
23/01/2008
"Many of the solutions to our big social problems – whether it's climate change or chronic illness - inevitably rest with the individuals and communities who are dealing with them on a daily basis. Local and central government must do more to drive innovation from this quarter."
Innovation in public services will remain underdeveloped without significant changes to funding and to the leadership and support provided by local and central government to ideas generated on the ground, according to a new report from NESTA and the Young Foundation.
Innovation in public services will remain underdeveloped without significant changes to funding and to the leadership and support provided by local and central government to ideas generated on the ground, according to a new report from NESTA and the Young Foundation.
The report cites a failure to innovate in local areas as a cause of the decline in local government powers over the last 30 years, and as one reason why some parts of the UK haven't recovered from recent downturns.
It further suggests that with the solutions to major social issues like youth offending and climate change likely to come from people dealing with them every day, local and central government will struggle to tackle these issues if they don't put more emphasis on local innovation.
The report uses a series of case studies to explore why some places are better at coming up with new ideas than others and identifies the ways in which local authorities and central government could better nurture and support innovation, calling for:
• New kinds of funding to be made available to experiment with new ideas. This could take the shape of grants for frontline workers, social venture funds or pre-identified risk capital within public budgets;
• Greater incentives for local government to be innovative – arguing that being penalised for not reaching performance targets and working in an environment in which failure is punished makes risk-taking a tall order;
• Better leadership training – umbrella bodies like the LGA must provide coaching and support and challenge leaders and organisations to be more experimental;
• Greater collaboration between local government and social entrepreneurs, community groups and businesses who can help develop ideas.
Central government is urged to allow local authorities to have more freedom while sharing the costs and risks associated with innovation.
Commenting on the report, NESTA CEO, Jonathan Kestenbaum, said:
"Many of the solutions to our big social problems – whether its climate change or chronic illness - inevitably rest with the individuals and communities who are dealing with them on a daily basis. Local and central government must do more to drive innovation from this quarter".
Nicola Bacon, one of the report authors, and Local Projects Director at the Young Foundation added:
"Local government has paid relatively little attention to innovation in recent decades and focused instead on hitting targets. While a continued focus on performance is critical, a much stronger emphasis on innovation is also needed if public services are to meet public expectations, and if we're to rise up to challenges in fields like eldercare and education."
NESTA and Young Foundation spokespeople are available for comment and interview. Please contact the NESTA press office on 020 7438 2608.
1) NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts. With endowed funds of over £300 million, its mission is to transform the UK's capacity for innovation. It does this in three main ways: by working to build a more pervasive culture of innovation in this country; by providing innovators with access to early stage capital; and by driving forward research into innovation, with a view to influencing policy.
2) The Young Foundation is a centre for social innovation that undertakes research to identify and understand social needs and then develops practical initiatives and institutions to address them (www.youngfoundation.org).