All about Innovation

Defining innovation

A key challenge for children's social care is how to improve service experiences and outcomes for some of the most vulnerable members of our society in the face of complex social problems, increased demand for services, greater public accountability and pressure on public spending. Innovation is increasingly being used as a way of fundamentally rethinking the nature of such practice problems and transforming the ways that services are structured and delivered. But there are a number of key questions about innovation and its processes in social care that are difficult to answer:

Building new knowledge about innovation

In year 1 of the project, we will reviewing literature on the ways in which innovation is understood and practised within social care settings, both in the UK and in countries with a similar approach to social care. We will interview a range of expert informants with significant experience of innovation in the sector, including politicians, policymakers, senior leaders, operational managers, academics, researchers and representatives from social enterprises and charities that are leading on and promoting public service innovation. Combining analysis from the review and the interviews will enable us to build new theory about the nature of innovation in social care. This will shape our thinking on innovation and inform the fieldwork stages of the project.

If you are interested in being interviewed as a key informant, please get in touch. 

The findings from the review and interviews will be available to read and download from the website in Summer 2020.