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Social Innovations in the State of Vorarlberg, Austria: Keynote for the State Audit Court

Elke Loeffler was invited by the State Audit Court of Voralberg in Austria to give a keynote on 23 November on the role of social innovations in the public sector. Her key message was that public sector organisations need to undertake experiments when working on complex issues, in order to throw light on which pathways to outcomes are effective. Otherwise there is a risk that we invest taxpayers money in public services which may not bring about the desired improvements of outcomes. The newspaper Vorarlberger Nachrichten reported Elke’s speech and followed up the keynote by highlighting social innovations “made in Vorarlberg”, such as a crowdfunding initiative by the local authority, Dalaas Town Council, to rescue the village pub.

The people on the photo are (from left to right): Dr. Gabriele Nußbaumer (Vice President of the State Parliament), Dr. Bernadette Mennel (Leader of the County Council), Dr. Brigitte Eggler-Bargehr (Director of the State Audit Court), (Dr. Elke Löffler, Governance International) and Mag. Harald Sonderegger (President of the State Parliament).



Co-Production Lecture Tour in Australia and New Zealand

In March and April 2017, the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) invited Prof. Tony Bovaird (Emeritus Professor at the University of Birmingham) and Dr. Elke Loeffler (CEO, Governance International) to visit the public administration schools of its member universities, delivering a programme of lectures and workshops on the co-production of public services and outcomes. The audiences included public sector leaders and senior public managers, as well as academic colleagues. The lecture tour generated a great deal of interest and lively discussion.

A particular highlight was the  roundtable for senior New Zealand government officials, hosted by the Policy Project, where Tony and Elke had the chance to discuss how the New Zealand government could seek to embed co-production more deeply in the culture and practices of public services. Governance International would like to thank Sally Washington and her team for setting up this very stimulating discussion. Download the excellent summary (pdf) of the Wellington Workshop and give us your comments on the questions discussed at the end of the workshop.

The lecture tour has already resulted in a published case study on co-designing better health and social care with young people living with disabilities in Western AustraliaGovernance International would like to thank Matt Burrows, CEO of Therapy Focus in Perth, for this contribution to the Governance International Good Practice Hub.

We are looking forward to receiving more co-production case studies from Australia and New Zealand!


Co-Production of Health and Wellbeing in Scotland

Click on the image to look inside

A co-production resource published by Governance International and the Joint Improvement Team in association with the Scottish Co-Production Network and the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland.

Click here to see the list of chapters.

In Scotland co-production is no longer just a ‘nice idea’ but a necessity to deal with increasing health inequalities (Sir Harry Burns) and changing demographics and expectations (Gerry Power). This book shows how and why Scotland has become one of the leaders in public service co-production – and how the lessons learnt so far can be applied more widely.

The wide range of case studies in this book shows that there is now a critical mass of co-production champions in health and social care in Scotland. This includes national co-production initiatives which have already proven their worth, such as the Family Nurse Partnership and the Food Train, but also exciting local assets-based approaches such as the NW Kilmarnock project and timebanking in Argyll and Bute. The case studies in the book show how these initiatives overcame the barriers facing them and spells out the benefits achieved when the co-production approach is used.

Of course, the challenge of mainstreaming co-production in public services still remains. This will require “whole systems change which spans commissioning of public services through to organisational and individual performance improvement” (Dr Margaret Whoriskey). Local authorities such as Midlothian Council have already made progress on this transformation journey, supported by JIT and Governance International. This book provides a framework and practical case studies to help other local councils and the NHS in Scotland to follow their lead.

Download the book (PDF) or contact yvonne.harley@govint.org to receive a hard copy.

 

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