Innovation in the Public Service - changing how we work and think?

From the outside, a key charge made against the public service is that it is too rigid, bureaucratic and reactive in nature. From the inside, managers sometimes feel constrained by a culture and environment leaning too often towards compliance with legal and governance requirements. Yet the Task Force on the Public Service (2008) report and recent government thinking is to incentivise innovation through ‘managed risk-taking’. Innovative work practices also present huge potential in improving the way the public service works. Thus how can we increase innovation and what kind of examples are there of innovative work practices and approaches? These will be key questions for this seminar involving senior practitioners from the public service and private sector.

This seminar is part of a four seminar series Modernisation and Change: Public Services in 2010, which will look at various aspects of the modernisation agenda for public service leaders and managers.

• The Public Service and Budget 2010 - 11 December 2009


• Leadership and the Human Resource Challenges in the Public Service - 19 January 2010


• Getting the Senior Public Service Right: Learning from Abroad - TBC January 2010