Learning from the journey

Most of the really interesting innovation in local government has very similar characteristics. Within Creative Councils, the same themes appear over and over again – different, better, lower cost approaches all seek to change radically the relationship between a local authority and the users of its services. Like Monmouthshire’s Your County, Your Way programme. They seek to change the balance of power – handing back more responsibility and more resource to communities, making the most of their insights, strengths and motivation. Like Derbyshire’s £50k bond given to children in care to invest in their futures. They act as a broker, uncovering and harnessing local assets – from businesses, to landscapes, identity and well-networked individuals. Like Stoke’s plan to become an energy self-sufficient city. In short, local authorities are finding different ways to become really great facilitators of change and growth in their areas – without having to make it happen all by themselves.

So in one sense, the ideas are not the major revelations in local government innovation. We could write – and many people have written – a clear and relatively detailed statement about what local government could look like if these ideas took hold. But we know this wouldn’t make much difference. Telling people the answer just doesn’t work.

It is the journey to these ideas that is the really transformative bit. How the ideas reveal themselves to local authority staff and communities in ways that feel real to them. It is this process that makes them feel worthwhile pursuing, despite the many barriers (identified by my colleague David Jackson in a previous post).

In Derbyshire, a new approach to foster care is no longer just a great idea. By undertaking deep research with users into what their lives – and prospects – are really like at the moment, the need for change has been revealed in a way that can’t be taken back. These ideas are now driven by a deep belief that being a better corporate parent, and empowering young people to direct their own lives, is a glaring necessity. Coming to an answer in this way gives it urgency – and mobilises staff and users to make it happen – in a way that being told about a great idea never could.

Reading have had a similar experience, through the Transforming Early Years programme and through their Creative Councils work. By reconnecting with families and their lives they have a new perspective on the challenges they face – which enables them to get to better answers that cannot be ignored. They also have a new relationship with those families as partners – rather than recipients. Staff and families have become a coalition for change. New ideas become possible and natural – and have the resources to make them happen when everyone is working together.

Through the Creative Councils programme, all of these authorities hold each other to account for this authenticity of commitment. ‘What do your communities think about that?’ ‘Is that really innovative?’ They are not just sharing ideas but sharing conviction.

So local government innovation is certainly about new ways of doing things – and brilliant ideas. But it is about something before that too. It is about an openness to reconnect with communities and what is of value to them. It is this process that reveals ideas in a way that is meaningful to all involved – and generates a personal commitment and energy to make them happen