Next up: Putting practitioners and users at the centre of innovation in the public services

Those who work in the public services, and more particularly those who use them, are becoming increasingly convinced of the growing need for innovation—that is, fresh thinking that works and creates new value. The drivers of innovation, including new technologies; exponential increases in knowledge; and populations with very different lifestyles, expectations and demographics, are well known and documented. However, it is one thing to make strong arguments for the need to innovate; it is another to create a culture of innovation where practitioners themselves, in partnership with users, drive the search for new and improved approaches to public service delivery. This paper is concerned with the problem of establishing such a culture. The argument is that we now understand the conditions required to enable an innovation culture. Two cases studies from the UK illustrate the importance of the role innovation intermediaries play in the developing field of social innovation

These Occasional Papers are jointly published by ANZSOG and the (former) Victorian State Services Authority.

Suggested citation

Hannon, V. (2010). Next up: Putting practitioners and users at the centre of innovation in the public services. SSA/ANZSOG Occasional Paper, 1. Melbourne: ANZSOG.