Senior figures on innovation council

Barking & Dagenham LBC chief executive Rob Whiteman and Peter Housden, permanent secretary of Communities & Local Government have both been invited to join the panel.

The new council will fast-track ideas generated by frontline staff and citizens to deliver better and more efficient services, minister for the Cabinet Office, Liam Byrne said.

Mr Byrne said: “Change in the years to come has to be driven by frontline staff - not ordered from the top. My view is very simple: frontline staff doing the job day in and day out will often see clearest what needs to change. I want those ideas put to the top tables in Whitehall without delay.”

The Innovators Council, which draws members from the private, public and third sector and will meet for the first time in June.  

The government pointed to two pilot schemes currently underway to illustrate the sort of schemes the new council will be tasked with producing:  

• The Tell Us Once initiative will mean people only have to contact the Government once when their circumstances change - the idea developed from a project that helped people cope with bereavement, where frontline workers discovered how distressing it was to have to contact dozens of agencies when a loved-one died.
• Online Free School Meals is joining up central government with local authorities to cut the time it takes to process an application from six weeks to just a few hours, making sure people get the help they need quicker and cutting administration costs too.

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