# 7 Innovation specialists within local government

What is it?
Innovation specialists within local government are either individuals or teams of people that have a mandate to recognise and promote innovation within an organisation.

How could I use it?
1.    Access an intermediary
Individual intermediaries, brokers, editors or scouts aim to stimulate innovation within public services by negotiating relationships between the 'inventors' or creators of a new idea and policy makers. They seek out the best practice and innovation within an organisation and bring it to the attention of policy makers, circumventing traditional hierarchies. They can also introduce new ideas from outside of the organisation and expertise about what works and what doesn’t. The new NESTA public services innovation lab works in this way.

2.    In-house units
In-house teams, or ‘Stunk Works’ [see #5] are comprised of individuals pulled together from different parts of the organisation. By approaching the same problem from different perspectives the theory is that more robust interventions can be developed.

In-house teams are often given responsibility to find a solution to a single persistent problem that may seem entrenched and intractable. These teams work outside of the regular organisational structure and are given the freedom to break the rules of the organisation to allow for innovation. Sometimes they are also physically separated from the company.

Where has it been used?
1.    The Social Innovation Lab for Kent (SILK) is an in-house innovation team. The unit was set up in 2007 and works within Kent County Council. It brings together council staff and draws on best practice from both the public and private sector to deliver resident-focused results.

2.    The Innovation Unit acts as an innovation intermediary in the public sector. It was originally set up within the Department of Education and Skills as a stand-alone unit of innovation experts, tasked with thinking about problems in the education sector in a new way, and is now a stand alone company. The Unit developed ideas on subjects such as personalised learning and parental involvement.

3.    Denmark’s MindLab brings citizens and representatives of business together with innovation specialists to develop solutions to problems in the public sector such as climate change and business regulation. It places value in cross-disciplinary solutions and draws on expert advice from thinkers in the fields of design, anthropology, sociology and political science.

4.    Kafkabrigade – based in the Netherlands the Kafkabrigade aims to 'solve problems in the public sector from the perspective of citizens and civil servants'. The project’s website (‘Trouble with the government’) lets citizens report problems they are having dealing with the bureaucracy. A number of these cases are then selected to work on in more detail. The Kafkabrigade begins by interviewing the end service user who made the complaint and any relevant civil servants. They then work with the organisation in question to resolve the issue at a structural level.

More information?
•   Robin Murray, Geoff Mulgan & Julie Caulier-Grice, Generating Social Innovation: setting an agenda, shaping methods and growing the field