5.47 To ensure that progress is made in both collaboration and innovation right across the public sector, the right incentives and capabilities need to be in place for public sector leaders. Leaders need to take a strong championing role in order to build the behaviours and culture that are critical to the success of a collaborative or innovative agenda.
5.48 Different organisational cultures inevitably inhibit closer joint working between local agencies, and a key success factor in greater collaborative working is strong leadership which looks beyond a single organisation. Public service managers should be equipped and held to account for working across different organisational cultures as well as enabling their own organisations to work effectively with local partners for the benefit of clients, citizens, taxpayers and the community.
5.49 Senior management are key to fostering innovation and creating a culture where frontline staff feel empowered to bring forward their own ideas on service redesign and better value for money. Accountability structures and risk aversion are often cited as inhibitors to innovation.22 The NAO has repeatedly stated the importance of innovation for improving public services and responding to changing social and economic conditions.23 Leaders should be held to account for their track record in innovating and engaging with their delivery partners, in order to provide a robust incentive to build a culture of innovation throughout their delivery chain.
Box 5.G: Building capability in innovative and frontline engagement techniques Whitehall Innovation Hub: Leading Innovation The Whitehall Innovation Hub, located within the National School of Government and set up by DIUS as part of its Innovation Nation strategy, has a vital role to play in spreading awareness about how public sector leaders can make the argument for innovation and effective frontline and user engagement. Their recent paper, Change you can believe in: the leadership of innovation,24 outlines the challenges that innovation presents to government, why the transforming government agenda is a foundation for the implementation of any innovation strategy, and why leadership is critical to innovation and transforming government. Coaching for Performance The capability of managers at every level to engage with their people is vital to frontline empowerment. In 2007, HMRC's Child Benefit and Tax Credits frontline workers worked in a culture that failed to use their own know-how to solve problems and improve performance. A new leadership radically transformed this culture to an efficient, inclusive, highly motivational coaching style. This resulted in 95 per cent of frontline workers reporting confidence in suggesting productivity and efficiency improvements. |
5.50 There are two tools that should be used to greater effect to encourage collaboration and innovation. Firstly, Sir Michael Bichard and Sir Gus O'Donnell have been asked to look at proposals for revising the Capability Review process25 and wider civil service performance management structures and make recommendations on how to improve them. Capability Reviews are a major driver of departmental activity and by measuring departmental progress and capability to innovate and collaborate, central departments and their senior civil servants will increasingly have the incentives to lead from the front on these issues.
5.51 Secondly, leadership academies develop leaders right across the public sector. They should be equipping leaders with the capability to meet the most pressing challenges for public services, and innovative and collaborative approaches should be at their core. A review of the public service leadership development provision, with a focus on public sector leadership academies, is currently ongoing to ensure that leadership development is fit for purpose. This review should consider whether the curricula currently reflect the importance of local collaboration and innovation. Also, DIUS and the Whitehall Innovation Hub will look to embed leadership for innovation in leadership programmes at the National School of Government.
Recommendation 5.7: Embed innovation and collaboration in Capability Reviews and public sector leadership training programmes: • the Cabinet Office should embed departmental capability and track record in fostering innovation and collaboration in Capability Reviews and performance management structures; and • leadership development programmes across the public sector should include leadership of place and innovation as a core of the curriculum. The Cabinet Office should work with DIUS and the leadership academies to deliver this as part of their current review of public service leadership development provision. |
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22 Innovation across central government, National Audit Office, March 2009.
23 See Achieving innovation in central government organisations, National Audit Office, July 2006 and Innovation across central government, National Audit Office, March 2009.
24 Change you can believe in: the leadership of innovation, Whitehall Innovation Hub, March 2009.
25 The Cabinet Office's departmental Capability Review programme aims to improve the capability of the Civil Service, help departments act on long- term key development areas and therefore provide assurance on future delivery.