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

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UK funding cuts: $A25 billion by 2020 (37% 2010-15)

What to do?

– 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

• • • • • 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

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Creative Councils - Getting ready to innovate 5.31

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Creative Councils - Developing the best ideas 5.48

CC 10 lessons for LG innovators

1. Look from new vantage points 2. Make sure the change is measurable: focus on results 3. Need to turn the ideas into action 4. Test and improve initial ideas 5. We need to identify people who can make ideas work 6. 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

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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