Professor Andy WestwoodChair of OECD LEED

Forum for Social Innovation

OECD LEED Programme

• Many international partners – national, regional and local governments• A space for experimentation, innovation, learning, collaboration• Organises studies, conferences, evaluations• Network of experts and practitioners• Expertise in social economy, employment, skills and lifelong learning, economic development, social and economic innovation policies

OECD LEED Programme

• Forum on Social Innovation created in 2000 with objective of facilitating international dissemination and transfer of best policies and practices.

• Defined as ‘conceptual, process or product change, organisational change and changes in financing, and new relationships with stakeholders and territories’

FSI seeks new answers to social problems by:• identifying and delivering new services that

improve the quality of life of individuals and communities;

• identifying and implementing new labour market integration processes, new competencies, new jobs, and new forms of participation, as diverse elements that each contribute to improving the position of individuals in the workforce.

OECD LEED Programme

UK Government & Innovation• Equal in Great Britain operates along thematic

lines defined by four pillars of the EU Employment Strategy:- employability - entrepreneurship - adaptability - equal opportunities

• But context for innovation in UK is changing...

UK Government & Innovation

• UK Government reorganised June 2007• Creates Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills• Brings together Science, Research, Adult Education to underpin economic and social change• 2008 ‘Innovation Nation’ published• New approach to economic and social innovation• Key shift to ‘User led’ innovation

• Major shift to innovation and to a user led agenda in public policy

• Using ‘both blades of the scissors’ ie demand and supply sides of policy

• Innovation to drive design of public services – personalisation, personal budgets, local experimentation

• Reshapes the context and approach to mainstreaming of Equal programmes

UK Government & Innovation

• Past history of Technological and Economic innovation• Recognition of move from supply side policy making to

demand driven innovation• ICT, technology and scientific innovation often led by

users and consumers• Broader definition of innovation across non

technological sectors such as creative economy, services and public sector

• Clear understanding of need for users, communities and local experimentation in delivering better public policies

Innovation Nation - summary

Some examples of User Led innovation...

Mobile phones invented for talking?

PC systems designed by technologists...

... But we use them to do much more... Technology is used and refined by the rest of us

Innovation beyond technologyThis is what cycling cross country used to be like...

Today its a little different...

Fundraising for charity used to look like this...

... innovation changes everything...

Government & Innovation

Signing on for benefits used to look like this...

This used to be the only way to learn

The needs of users and communities are shaping policy in dramatic and democratic new ways

Mainstreaming social andeconomic innovation?• Equal has tested new means of combating discrimination

and inequalities in the labour market, for those in and out of work

• OECD and EU will help to learn, exchange good practice, enable space for risk and experimentation...

• Citizens and communities do have the power to change the world in which they live

• To shape services and products that they use - from technology to public services

• To improve their communities and their local economies• To improve their own participation in society and the

economy• And Governments benefit from better policymaking ...