Innovation Exchange celebrated the first anniversary of its Next Practice programme in London last Wednesday. 13 of our Next Practice projects came from far and wide – with big shouts of gratitude to our friends from Liverpool, Huddersfield, Bristol and beyond - to share stories of their development and future ambitions. Projects were joined by a great collection of guests, including Innovation Exchange stakeholders, senior policy leads from DCSF and DoH, social investors and other third sector innovation supporters and champions.

We were  delighted to be joined by Rt Hon Anne McGuire MP and Cabinet Office Advisor on Third Sector Innovation – Anne has been a great champion of the programme since its inception. If you’d like to see her comments on challenges and opportunities for third sector innovators, watch this space. We’ll be uploading some snippets of video soon. 

Next Practice One Year on showcased a collection of outstanding innovation projects working on critical challenges, including enabling independent living, supporting excluded young people, reducing re-offending and tackling worklessness and financial exclusion. But the event also asked guests to be part of the exchange; to offer challenge and support to projects  so that they might be strengthened and make new connections which help them to develop and grow.

Our inboxes at Innovation Exchange have been pinging with messages from participants wanting to be put in touch with each other. For an innovation broker, this is all great news. We hope most of all that the event started conversations that might lead to our projects growing their great work so more people can feel its benefit.

Innovation Exchange will soon be publishing a learning paper on its Next Practice prorgramme – let us know if you’d like to be put on our mailing list.

We attended a workshop on meeting the challenges of worklessness hosted by Clean Slate’s energetic director/founder Jeff Mitchell and Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) council. The workshop brought together key stakeholders for the launch of and discussion around Aspiring to More: The work/training goals of people facing barriers to employment, a piece of research Jeff has recently undertaken for B&NES.

‘Worklessness’ is a term we’re hearing a lot these days from government, generally referring to folk who are of working age but are not working and not in eduation or training. Some people who’d be considered ‘workless’ are outside the labour market voluntarily (they may have family responsibilities, for example)  but many want or ajob or would work if they had the right opportunity and support.

Aspring to More finds that around 60% of ‘workless’ people would actually like to find employment now or in the future. What holds them back is fear about how employment will impact benefit payments during transition back to work, along with the fear that work would entail pressures and changes that they couldn’t handle. Another barrier identified was the desire for more flexible working arrangements - many people are fit to work but unable to commit to full-time or regular hours.

The finding of Aspiring to More provide good news in one sense. The majority of workless people would like to work. This throws down a challenge to innovators in the third and public sectors. How can we best support people back to work?  Where is the good practice here and how can we grow it and replicate it in other parts of the country so that more people can benefit? What better ideas can we develop?

The movement to tackle worklessness is gathering momentum.   Read BITC’s Making Work Work - recommendations for supporting people to gain and sustain employment, and the Tackling Worklessness review. Join CREATE’s campaign for a Community Allowance in the UK benefits system to enable peope to get out of the benefits trap and lead the regenerations of their communities. Check out the great work Clean Slate are doing, as well as other stunning third sector examples, such as The Big Issue or Tomorrow’s People.  

If you know any outstanding examples of services for supporting people back to and into work or have a brand new idea, let us know here.

“We need to work together with passion and commitment to help everyone lead fulfilling, independent lives. This is an important event for the JIP in helping us to find high-potential innovation projects that are making personalisation a reality”.
Eric Robinson, Lead on Personalisation, ADASS and Corporate Director of Social Care and Health, Staffordshire County Council

Personalisation depends upon our ability to innovate in social care – to develop new services, relationships and organisational approaches. Across the West Midlands, people in the public and third sectors are already using their passion and ingenuity to deliver personalisation. But no one person has all the answers and we can always do better.

Innovation Exchange is working with the West Midlands Joint Improvement Partnership to seek out and support some of the innovation projects that can help to drive further progress. We are staging a Festival of Ideas on Thursday 26th November, drawing together commissioners, investors and supporters around the best innovations in this field. You can view highlights from our last Festival of Ideas here. This event will look at innovations ranged across, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Support brokerage and advocacy
• Advice, information and guidance
• The potential of user-led and community-led approaches
• Safeguarding and risk-management
• The potential of new technology

If you are an innovator in the third sector and would like to attend this event to promote and develop your work and to connect with commissioners and investors in this field, please respond to our Call for Ideas.

If you are a commissioner of services in the public sector or work for a trust, foundation or another organisation looking to collaborate with innovators in this space please email us for a place at this event.

“We need to work together with passion and commitment to help everyone lead fulfilling, independent lives.”
Paul Hanson, Chair of the North East Joint Improvement Partnership

Innovation Exchange is working with the North East Joint Improvement Partnership to seek out and support some of the innovation projects that can help to personalise social care and generate new efficiencies.  We are staging a Festival of Ideas on Thursday 12th November, drawing together commissioners, investors and supporters around these innovations.  You can view highlights from our last Festival of Ideas here.

This Festival will launch the North East JIP’s ‘Provider Development Innovation Fund’, which aims to support providers to work with the public sector on personalisation to better meet the care needs of service users.  The event is an important opportunity in its own right and an excellent way to learn about the ‘Provider Development Innovation Fund’ and to start to develop a possible application. The event will look at innovations with the potential to create new effectiveness and efficiency across, but not limited to, the following themes:

• New approaches to providing personalised personal care
• Support brokerage and advocacy
• Advice, information and guidance
• The potential of user-led and community-led approaches
• Safeguarding and risk-management
• The potential of new technology

If you are an innovator in the third sector and would like to attend this event to promote and develop your work and to connect with commissioners and investors, please respond to our call for ideas.

If you are a commissioner of services in the public sector or work for a trust, foundation or another organisaion looking to collaborate with innovators in this space, please email us for a space at this event. You can see a copy of the invitation for investors and commissioners here.

Innovation Exchange’s Next Practice programme is supporting 15 of the country’s most outstanding third sector innovation projects in the areas of independent living and supporting excluded young people selected from a competitive field of around 200 applicants.

A year ago in November, many of us gathered at Amnesty International in London for the launch of the programme to share our aspirations. One year on, we’re meeting again to see how we’re going. What successes have we had? What impact have we made? And what challenges remain for Next Practice projects and for third sector innovators more generally?

Next Practice: One year on is an important learning event for Innovation Exchange and an opportunity for projects to engage policy champions, potential supporters and other stakeholders in their work.