Here is a brief description of some of the social innovation models that I became familiar with during a visit to NESTA, the social innovation fund for the UK. These come from what they call their Public Services Lab.
Radical efficiency in public services
People-based services are getting a re-think in the UK because of budget cuts and also because of the demographic shift that is increasing the portion of elderly in society. Case studies from several countries were analyzed by the Innovation Unit and NESTA in a joint effort to develop principles that local authorities in the UK could keep in mind in re-designing public services.
A first principle for radical efficiency is expanding your thinking about who are the customers – for example, not just one individual but the family or even neighbors and the community. Then find out what the customer values and needs. This may go beyond what was considered the service currently provided (eg. job training) and reflect a continuum of related needs (such as wellness/mental health, stability, capability and confidence) so that they can benefit from the end service. These are the cross-service challenges.
Prototyping of services is an essential part of radical efficiency in public services. The reason for prototyping is to put learning as part of the development / design of services for iterative improvements. This means putting customers into the driver seat of design and continuously getting their feedback on how service is meeting expectations. In the concept of radical efficiency, the user of the service is a partner in the design.
Doing more with less involves finding resources in many places. The users are themselves a resource and some responsibilities can be shifted to them. This can be for data collection and monitoring or for actual partial delivery of the services, as in the case of the patients’ hospital for recuperation. In the case of a citizen law enforcement analysis and reporting in Chicago, digital technology allowed community members as well as patrol officers to transmit information on potential problems as they arise and have them be mapped. The police also asked for information from schools and managers of public building to contribute information.
We were lucky to participate in a learning session on the Neighborhood Challenge that worked with 17 community organizations around the UK. They received financial support, mentoring from the national charity voluntary organization (NCVO) and digital support for drawing done online expertise and creating an online presence. One of the innovations of how the project was implemented was moving to visual stories and the monitoring of progress through blogging by the community organizations. By blogging – a fully transparent reporting – there was a shift in accountability to the community and not just to the funder.
The Neighborhood Challenge utilized an asset-based approach to community development, to unlock unused potential in the community, meaning people and their talents, local enterprises, physical assets as well as community match funds. Very simple skills surveys were used to find free or cheap human resources in the community or available to the community. The real creativity came with finding ways to surface ideas among the community members. In “Stand Out in Darwen” a mobile living room was taken to places where people collect naturally to have conversations and draw out their ideas. Communities that seemed to have very low social capital came alive. In their words, “Nobody asked us the right questions before.”
The community organizations then had to just which ideas to support. Good ideas coming from people with more aspirations than experience meant they had to hire coaches to build confidence so people felt they could lead projects. People were given space to fail – them emphasis was on learning, not necessarily succeeding. Another emphasis was investing in supportive relationships.
As the community organizations didn’t have a clear plan when they started, NESTA used milestones to renegotiate targets and budgets and also had contingency funds when unexpected things happened.
Social entrepreneurs supported by UnLtd
Another organization at the NESTA learning event was UnLtd, which was launched 10 years ago to invest in individuals as a driving force to regenerate social capital in the UK. It provides both financial support and mentoring to help develop the business skills of the social entrepreneurs.
Social entrepreneurs can be a bridge to meet the wider needs of a community beyond traditional public services. Using social entrepreneurs can enable local governments to work more effectively with civil society.
UnLtd greatly relies on mentor relationships and expects reciprocity among the social entrepreneurs it supports. It provides small grants first to allow the social entrepreneurs to take risks and puts in accountability standards proportional to the assistance received so as not to overburden them with reporting requirements.
Some final thoughts
There is a natural tension between accountability and innovation. We need to re-think accountability in terms of change processes. To produce transformational change, we need to accept open-ended results because the path is not clear – each community will have its own journey.