Project summary
A recent report published by the National Audit Office on innovation in central government found that:
- the key role of innovation is to boost productivity but this specific theme has not been prominent
- the innovations submitted by organisations were of organisational change rather than large scale policy change, possibly indicating lack of ownership of major policy change
- the median length of time to implement innovation was 24 months
- senior managers were the main originators of innovations, showing a top down process with little front line involvement
- the single most important internal factor is funding for new work approaches
- the key barrier to innovation is reluctance to embrace new ways of working
- another critical factor is internal communication in organisations, especially leadership generating ideas for improvement from the grass roots
- innovations to reduce core costs and improve work life of employees are least successful
This project is designed to ask the same questions of local government organisations in the North West. We aim to produce new and useful data that:
- highlights the extent of innovation already happening in the region
- informs future innovation prospects
- improves consistency in innovation across the region
We are collecting quantitative evidence from local authority organisations in the North West through a survey of Finance Directors. We are asking about:
- Types and numbers of innovations
- Costs and timescales of innovations
- Main influences on origins of innovations
- Main barriers to and impacts of innovations
- Challenges facing the NWIN network in improving the rate of successful innovations and potential gains from doing so
Project investigators
Relevant links
- Knowledge Creation and Transfer Programme
- The Use and Effectiveness of Best Practice in English Local Government
- Achieving innovation in central government organisations (National Audit Office report)
Publications
The executive summary for this and the 'What is the role of good practice in innovation?' project is now available for download.