Agenda item

The Chairman introduced the item and commended all involved in delivering a successful Innovation Zone at this year’s LGA Annual Conference.

Vickie Goddard, Improvement Support Adviser at the LGA, thanked the Chairman for opening the Innovation Zone, and also all members who gave their time to make it a success. Vicki went on to summarise the report with the following additional comments:

·         80 percent of sessions in the Innovation Zone were at full capacity.

·         A range of messages from a diverse audience and participants were welcomed and some common themes emerged from the sessions around shared learning, behavioural insights, pooled knowledge from stakeholders, and measured outcomes.

·         The next steps are to collate the feedback from delegates and update the database.

Board members responded with the following comments:

·         Members commended officers on a successfully run Innovation Zone;

·         Some sessions could have had a clearer focus e.g. how does a political leader drive innovation? This could have been mitigated with a strong focus on lessons learned and by providing clear examples;

·         Future Zones could have a stronger focus on how innovation can help drive the transformation of service delivery;

·         The potential benefits of building an element of challenge into the process of selecting contributors to the Zone.

The Chairman thanked the board for its constructive comments and suggested a vetting process through the board be put in place for Innovation Zone ideas for next year’s conference. Dennis Skinner, Head of Improvement, thanked members, and assured the board that their comments will be taken into account for next year’s annual conference.