2011 version of my presentation in the MIoIR [MBS] MSc seminar series, module on Service Innovation
- 1.Service Innovation CourseInnovation in public services
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research IAN
MILES[email_address] MIoIR, University of Manchester
2. Why is this important?
- Public sector is a huge area of expenditure, employment, etc.
and under heavy political pressure and facing challenges of social
change (e.g. ageing).Innovation is vital for increasingefficiency ,
for deliveringnew and better quality services
- Importantmarketfor innovative products (goods and services)
from across economy impact of public procurement on innovation
systems
- Importantdemonstratorof scope for new services, infrastructures
and standards
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 3. But what are
public services?
- Not necessarily ownership, butGovernance.Not market- or third
sector- led.Structured through state financing/control by state
employees, or through public service industry or outsourcing to
charities.
- Funds from taxation/national insurance/government revenue
- Different levels of governance national, (regional),
local.
- Varies a lot across countries
- Typical services include...
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 4.
- Social care, community services, social and employment
services
- Sanitation, waste disposal
- Business support services
What are public services? - 2
- EU employment shares,2000
-
- Public administration,defence; compulsorySocial
Security11.4%
-
- [Other community, social and personal service activities
7.0%]
-
- NACE1 sections L to O ACTIVITY (not governance)groups
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research Huge employers
-
- Health and social work 14.3%
5. Services Innovation Manchester Institute of Innovation
Research
-
- Intangibility (issues of transport, storage,
coterminality)
-
- Interactivity (Production and consumption often
intertwined)
-
- Information-intensity (Much specificity as to service,
client)
- Need to relate service product and production process to
service client often extended affair, degree to which individual
details involve specialised or customised production varies
immensely.Affects scope for innovation of various kinds.
- Public services have to confront the variety ofhuman
characteristicswith the dictates of large systems andbureaucratic
rationality .
6. Manchester Institute of Innovation Research Drawing
onhttp://www.step.no (and other MIoIR work) Specific Research on
PSI is limited, though many studies of, e.g. New technology in
hospitals, local gvt. 7. Confronting the received wisdom: Geoff
Mulgan Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 8. Public Sector
Modernisation Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 9. Public
sector IT project failures Manchester Institute of Innovation
Research Government IT projects July 2003 Report 200
http://www.parliament.uk/post/pr200.pdf Difficulties with IT
delivery occur in both the public and private sectors.... the
public sector has specific issues to address, including long
procurement timescales, high publicity, the need for accountability
and the political environment. ... some factors ... lead to
particular problems with IT, such as rapidly changing technology,
difficulties in defining requirements and high complexity. Much
government IT is now delivered by external suppliers, so government
needs to be an intelligent client. Departments require a range of
skills to scrutinise bids, keep up to date with technology, be
realistic about what systems are likely to deliver, understand
commercial drivers and actively manage suppliers. Breaking projects
down into smaller parts increases the chances of success and makes
contingency planning easier, but requires considerable time and
effort. It is important to include the final users in project
development and provide time and resources fortraining. 10. Public
Service Innovation
- There can be ambitious innovation programmes (e.g. Current NHS
IT programme)
- There can be substantial problems (this applies to all
sectors)...
- .. these can become highly politicised and debated in media
(less common, though not unknown, in private services).
- Governments target public sector though whether this is really
innovation is at issue
- Many commentators conclude that public services face particular
problems.
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 11. Private / Public
Services Contrasted Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 12.
Private / Public Services Contrast2 Manchester Institute of
Innovation Research 13.
- competition drives innovation
-
- Threats and rewards->doing better
-
- Individuals will be motivated
-
- Organisations will be motivated
- Solution: make PS more like private sector:
-
- Performance measurement[Acted upon!]
Thus a Prevalent Approach to Public Sector Reform Manchester
Institute of Innovation Research 14. But...Is Reform enough?
- Reform without considering impacts on innovation may be
problematic.
- Thus we see various efforts to stimulate innovation in new ways
alongside general reform and modernisation efforts.
- E.g.NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement
http://www.institute.nhs.uk/
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 15. (earlier)NHS
Modernisation Agency
- Est. 2001 to support NHS and partner organisations in
modernising services and improving experiences and outcomes for
patients.
-
- increasing local support,
-
- raising standards of care,
-
- capturing and sharing knowledge widely.
-
- Treat day surgery as the norm for elective surgery
-
- Improve access to key diagnostic tests
-
- Manage variation in patient discharge
-
- Manage variation in patient admission
-
- Avoid unnecessary follow-ups
-
- Increase the reliability of performing therapeutic
interventions through a Care Bundle approach
-
- Apply a systematic approach to care for people with long-term
conditions
-
- Improve patient access by reducing the number of queues
-
- Optimise patient flow using process templates
-
- Redesign and extend roles
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research
webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk 16. What do we know?
- Numerous essays on why public services might have an innovation
problem
- On why the solution might lie in introducing new public
management and/or market principles
- Various studies of public service innovation start off from
this perspective
- Even PUBLIN only examined public services
- But there is one comparative study, which tells a different
story..
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 17. and: is the
Public Sector reallyless innovative? Manchester Institute of
Innovation Research
- Earl, L. (2004)An historical comparison of technological
change, 1998-2000
- and 2000-2002, in the private and public sectorsOttawa:
Statistics Canada (also see Earl 2002)
- Can you find any other comparisons?
- - EC is trying to develop a public sector equivalent of
CIS
Education Healthn 18. Different types (or levels) of
Innovation:
- PUBLIN differentiated between innovations involving:
- changes incharacteristics and design of service
- products andproduction processes including development, use
andadaptation of relevant technologies,
- delivery innovations involving new or altered ways of solving
tasks,delivering services or otherwise interacting with clients for
the purpose of supplying specific services,
- administrative and organizational innovations involving new or
alteredways of organizing activities within the supplier
organization,
- conceptual innovations in the sense of introducing new
missions, newworldviews, objectives, strategies and rationales
(particularly important to institutions operating under social or
public objectives, linking the social objectives of the policy and
institution and the operational and economic goals and functions of
the agency)
- system interaction innovations new or improved ways of
interacting withother organisations and knowledge bases.
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 19. Some examples of
innovation in health services
- Electronic patient records system huge scale, clear benefits
(and professional risk perception)
- NHS Direct:most radical innovation in recent history of health
service
- Tier Two reduced waiting lists through appropriate secondary
care rather than using hospitals
- Creation of new mental health trust specialisation
- Pilot out of hours link with Aus/NZ consultants
- [and now organisational change GP commissioning -is this
innovation? ]
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 20. Exercise
- Each group is providing a online and/or phone-based interface
to a public service.
- What are the design features of this innovation?(what does it
provide, to whom, when and how? What does this mean in terms of
ease of use by different population groups?Availability of
platforms?) 10 mins
- What stakeholders need to be engaged (public, professionals,
telecomms, private services, etc.?) How can alliances and
partnerships be built?10 mins
- Whatskills and training are required?10 mins
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 21. Results
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 22. Mulgan : sources of
innovation Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 23. Mulgan
again: innovation checklist Manchester Institute of Innovation
Research 24. Public Sector Opportunities?
- High level of staff expertise, creativity, problem solving
- Strong public spirit ethos, motivations beyond personal
financial rewards
- Controversial shifts underway (e.g. competitive framework of
Foundation hospitals) believed by proponents to increase innovation
by:
-
- Allowing for flexibility and experimentation within target
culture and common standards
-
- Incentivise staff (and management) financially, status-wise,
and through improved service quality
-
- Improve patient choice (will drive resources as money follows
patients) aand consumer feedback into innovation process
-
- Management draws on external sources for directed creativity
and organisational innovation and knowledge mananagement
- Conscious efforts at innovation management (under various
guises)
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 25. Policy
Challenges Manchester Institute of Innovation Research
- Research Policy bringing in the public sector where it is
absent, taking better account of it where it is present
- Public sector policy governance, regulatory reform, efficiency,
modernisationBuilding innovation into public policyAssessing
innovation processes and impacts to guide policy, validate
expenditure
26. Implications for Research
- Many commonalities many ideas and instruments can be borrowed
can we use innovation models (PLC etc)?
- Different selection processes internally and
externally.Processes of diversity generation too.
- Much is public-private mixture (many kinds)
- Public services highlight areas where innovation studies are
weak
- Explore new innovation strategies
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 27. Public Service
Innovation
- is a topic crying out for research
- Policymakers desperately want good knowledge
- Innovation studies themselves can benefit from looking at
this
- Its important for public expenditure, social well-being, and
innovation across the economy
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 28. End of
presentation - extra slides from previous years follow see also my
presentations at http://www.slideshare.net Manchester Institute of
Innovation Research 29. SOME SLIDES ON RESULTS OF MANCHESTER STUDY
FOR PUBLIN OF HEALTH SERVICE INNOVATION Manchester Institute of
Innovation Research 30. Manchester PUBLIN (health) results
- Concept of innovation recognised and people can work with it
(to some extent) in interviews, but the actual term innovation
often was not employed many other terms used.
- Innovation often seen as fashionable jargon or as new
technology or problem-solving
- Or as a matter of adoption of top-down guidelines, meeting
targets (important procedural innovation).
- Often incremental developments, often hard to establish
boundaries between innovation and replication.
- Huge number and range of developments, not subject to much
direct recording/compilation in databasesThough some recording
through incentive schemes, and through efforts to impose IPR
models
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 31.
Specific/Stronger Obstacles to Innovation? - from PUBLIN Health
- Internal diffusion / roll-out repeatedly a major issue - much
effort now being spent on identifying, codifying and spreading good
practice, new procedures. Lack of structures and mechanisms for
organisational learning seen as major issue efforts being made
here. But
- Initiatives to diffuse good practice seen as short-lived
reorganisations lead to loss of corporate memory
- Infrastructural and procedural/occupational heritage and
legacy, entrenched practice and procedures are commonly
experienced.
- Professionalised resistance e.g. clinicians, ambulance service
form disconnected hierarchies, some self-governing professionals,
others quasi-military forces.Lack of common command and control
structures conflict with established roles, politics, empires
- In particular lack of commitment to consumer orientation was
often cited as a major issue (mirroring political rhetoric in
UK).
- Public resistance to reorganisation though public seem very
open to new ways of operating
- Lack of ownership of innovation top-down initiatives
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 32.
Specific/Stronger Obstacles to Innovation?- more
- Resistance to out of the box thinking plus risk aversion
(generic issue in public sector related to nature of service
(large-scale and severe risks) and to political cycles. High
public/political profile plus blame culture, accountability and
risk of litigation (but US?).
- Pace and scale of change (NHS in particular) shifting targets
and absence of opportunity to reflect/asses consequences
- Very complex organisation composed of multiple tiered
interlinked systems with - Huge staff numbers; Many occupations;
Many organisational arrangements; Many service processes
- Lack of patient information connectivity between actors in
system
- Lack of dedicated budgets for innovation at relevant (local,
Trust) level.
- Some areas (mental health) not high profile priority for
investment (cf. surgery)
- Requirement to consult, lack of clear picture of all eventual
effects
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 33. In our studies,
the innovations exciting management were:
- Those more at the strategic/management level
- Organisational:governance relation changes, new agencies,
etc
- New roles, responsibilities, new ways of operating (need
forknowledge managementcapacity), role in training
- Technical and technological(huge) some systemic,
esp.IT-based,
- New specific practices e.g. round pharmaceuticals, clinical
practice, techniques, devices, etc.Huge range of artefacts
involved.Again, much IT impact.
- Often technological innovation closely tied to further
organisational/process change/innovation
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 34. SOME SLIDES ON
INNOVATION POLICIES AND INITIATIVES FOR PUBLIC SERVICES -Manchester
Institute of Innovation Research The present crisis and government
worldview means that many of these activities are now very
different (if they exist) 35. Many major initiatives with
innovation implications Manchester Institute of Innovation
Research
- Could we have innovation audits? We have yet to measure public
service innovation and impacts systematically (several partial
attempts)!
- Can we do better in assessing costs and benefits of attempts to
impose certain private sector models on the public sector are there
other elements of innovation management that should be engaged with
(first?)
36. Discussion and Exchange Manchester Institute of Innovation
Research 37. Policy for innovation? Manchester Institute of
Innovation Research 38. Innovation Unit
http://www.innovation-unit.co.uk/
- Research, Consultancy, facilitation for gvt, local gvt, CSOs,
etc.
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research 39.
http://www.dius.gov.uk/innovation/public_sector_innovation
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research But the effort seems to
be diminished with the new government and its focus on top-down
reforms (of the sort the parties promised not to make before coming
to power).Thus this BIS activity now seems stalled. 40. EFFORTS TO
MEASURE PUBLIC SERVICE INNOVATION Manchester Institute of
Innovation Research 41. MePIn Copenhagen Manual
- Working Party of National Experts on S&T Indicators
(NESTI): methodological guidelines for measuring S&T activities
(Frascati, Oslo Manuals) Task Force
- Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) measuring
innovationin education and training
- OECD Public Governance and Territorial Development
DirectorateGovernment at a Glance (2009 and 2011) + various
activities on innovation in public governance
- OECD Health Division performance indicators for health systems,
ICTs in health
Manchester Institute of Innovation Research
http://www.mepin.eu/