Public Services Innovation Conference

Thursday 20 - Friday 21 November 2008, Business Design Centre, London N1

People want to live in places with high-quality services, a safe environment, accessible transport links, a strong sense of community and opportunities for all. This aspiration is not new but the world in which councils and other local public service providers are seeking to achieve it is changing rapidly and becoming increasingly complex. So much so that it is no longer simply enough to speak of improving council performance as the solution to creating the sort of places people want to live.

Local Area Agreements have now been signed and the issues we face - climate change, community cohesion, affordable housing, teenage pregnancy, and worklessness are not things we can crack by simply doing more of the same but better. They require innovations in local public services, which by definition, do not yet exist and require local public service providers to design. They require us to harness the collective expertise and knowledge we hold to generate new ideas.

This new conference will help you to deliver the top priorities for your locality. It will provide a unique opportunity for public service policy makers and providers to come together to share ideas and insights, showcase emerging good practice and design together solutions to the most intransigent problems.

Facilitator Gene Payne, a Senior Associate of The Innovation Unit, will shape this event around the issues you want to tackle. With the help of innovation experts from the Young Foundation, the Innovation Catalyst, Forum for the Future, Improvement and Development Agency and the Leadership Centre for Local Government, we will explore what we already know, develop new ideas and ways of taking them forward.

For more information on the conference and for details on how to apply to attend please download the flyer.