- 1. Service Innovation CourseInnovation in public services 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 increasing efficiency, for delivering
new and better quality services
- Important market for innovative products (goods and services)
from across economy impact of public procurement on innovation
systems
- Important demonstrator of scope for new services,
infratsructures and standards
3. Public Services (innovation)in Crisis?
- Throwing money at problems
MPs demand transparent government IT projects Select Committee
calls for an end to 'appalling waste of public money Bryan
Glick,Computing22 Jul 2004 MPs are calling for much greater
openness on government IT projects to prevent an 'appalling waste
of public money and distress caused to thousands of people Seven in
10 government IT projects fail ZDNet.co.uk17 May 2007 Seven in 10
government IT projects have failed, according to the chief
information officer of the Department for Work and Pensions.Joe
Harley called for projects to be completed at a lower cost to the
taxpayer, and said the government wanted to reduce the number of
project failures to just one in 10. 4. Public Sector Reform
- Key Assumption (here):competitiondrives innovation
-
- Learning (esp organisational innovation?)
-
- Individuals will be motivated
-
- Organisations will be motivated
5. Drawing onhttp://www.step.no and also other MIoIR work 6. The
challenge of innovation in public services
- Research/empirical/methodological
Challenge?What challenge? 7. The challenge of innovation in
public services
- Conceptual services and public services
- Research/empirical/methodological
This presentation considers three sets ofchallenges: 8.
Challenge? What challenge?
- Beyond technological innovation
- Beyond classic product and process innovation
- Policy innovation, organisational innovation, and more
- Public versus non-market:only those provided by the state?What
definition of state provision?
- Only those inservicessectors (not all nationalised industries)
with large levels of state ownership?Or at least with traditionally
large levels in most countries?
- Huge variety cross-sector, cross-country, in modes of
governance and organisation
Challenge? What challenge? 1 Conceptual Challenges 9. N A C E "
N omenclature statistiquedesA ctivits conomiquesdans laC ommunautE
uropenne" -
- Services firms and sectors-
- economic activities covered by Sections G to K andL to Oand the
units that carry out those activities.
- ( Generate almost 70% of EU GDP )
- Grouped byactivity-notby public/private, market-nonmarket
(though some business services delineated)
Statistical Classification of Eco N omicAC tivities in theE
uropean Community 10. NACE services sectors 42 Mainlypublic
services, but much variation 100 Total services 0.1
Extra-territorial organisations and bodies Q 1.6 Private households
with employed persons P 7.0 Other community, social and personal
service activities O 14.3 Health and social work N 10.0 Education M
11.4 Public administration, defence; compulsory Social Security L
13.0 Real estate, renting and business activitiesK 5.1 Financial
intermediationJ 9.2 Transport, storage, communication I6.0 Hotels
and restaurantsH 22.2 Wholesale and retail trade G % NACE groupsEU
employment,2000 11. NACE public services 42 Non-market services:
public administration and defence, health, education , community
services, etc. However, the non-market sections contain several
activities, which are market activities (e.g. driving schools,
cinema, hairdressing, or health services supplied through the
market). The market sections are also liable to contain some
non-market activities. (Official statisticians mention, for
instance, e.g. central banking but there are service activities
ancilliary to most sectors! Andbroadcastingand certain other
important activities). Mainlypublic services, but much variation
100 Total services 0.1 Extra-territorial organisations and bodies Q
1.6 Private households with employed persons P 7.0 Other community,
social and personal service activities O 14.3 Health and social
work N 10.0 Education M 11.4 Public administration, defence;
compulsory Social Security L 13.0 Real estate, renting and business
activitiesK 5.1 Financial intermediationJ 9.2 Transport, storage,
communication I6.0 Hotels and restaurantsH 22.2 Wholesale and
retail trade G NACE groups 12.
- Beyond technological innovation
- Beyond classic product and process innovation(delivery,
interfaces)
- Policy innovation, organisational innovation, and more
1 Conceptual Challenges (b) 13. Recall our Discussions of Key
Features of Service Activities
- In contrast to manufacturing (transforming materials to make
artefacts) services transform:
-
- The state of artefacts and
environments(physicalprocessing)
-
- The state of humans and other organisms(people processing)
-
- The availability and nature of data, information and
knowledge(information processing)
- Huge variety of activities, but frequently service products are
characterised by:
-
- Intangibility (issues of transport, storage,
coterminality)
-
- Interactivity (Production and consumption often
intertwined)
-
- Information-intensity (Much specificity as to service,
client)
- Public services can be of all types, but largest groups are
person- and information-processing.
14. Services Innovation
-
- 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 .
15. Some examples of innovation
- 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
16. 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
17. Challenge? What challenge? 2 Research Challenges
Underresearched like services innovation, of which it is part
unclear how far concepts and instruments will work though we can
expect many points of convergence (from life cycles to product
champions, complementary assets to radical innovations). Search for
commonalities, specificities or both
assimilationist/demarcationist/synthesist Units of analysis,
problems of large systems, compounded by problems of access and
politicisation of issues. 18. Private == Public services
- Markets as external selection mechanism:consumer choice
- Competition between firms:marketing, sales, etc.May be
transnational competition, self-service alternatives.
- Customer Relationship and Supply chain management
- Regulation often higher in services than manufacturing
- Flexibility,e.g. in employment terms; Rewards
- Profit-driven: strong incentive
- Public policy driven services, sometimes heavily influenced by
public attitudes and media renderings of opinion and service
quality.
- Some forms of competition and coexistence, with private and
voluntary sectors and individual self-service.
- Bureaucratic systems and administration.Employee lobbies.
- (Nominally) strong emphasis on Equity and related issues, on
ethics and privacy issues.
- Personal and professional incentives
19. Many such comparisons
- 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, whioch tells a different
story..
20. Earls Canadian Comparisons 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) 21. Are there Specific/Stronger Obstacles to Innovation?
- Would expect issues to arise concerning regulations, large
technical systems, workforce issues (esp. professionalism and
status conflicts), reward structures, etc.
- Also (like other services) some strategies to deal with
intangibility etc (e.g. targets, tests, credentials) and some to
deal with public characteristics espmarketisation ,competition
,consumer-centric, cosnumer choice
- Some results from PUBLIN health
22. IT project failures 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.However, the
public sector has specific issues to address, including long
procurement timescales, high publicity, the need for accountability
and the political environment. There are some factors which can
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 for training. 23. 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 promote lack 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
24. 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
25. 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
26. 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)
27. Challenge? What challenge? 3 Policy Challenges
- 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
28. Many major initiatives with innovation implications
- 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?)
29. Policy for innovation? 30. Public Sector Modernisation 31.
Modernisation Agency
- Est. 2001 to support NHS and partner organisations in
modernising services and improving experiences and outcomes for
patients.
- Has focused on four areas:
-
- 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
32. Implications for Research
- Many commonalities many ideas and instruments can be
borrowed
- 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
33. 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
34. End of presentation