Innovation in local government is about improving the lives of the people in our
communities. Browse through our case studies to see the many innovative programmes councils are involved
in.
Festival Bridge is one of ten Bridge Organisations working nationally with investment from Arts Council England and the Department for Education. The aim of Bridge Organisations is to connect the cultural sector and the education sector so that children & young people can have access to great arts and cultural opportunities.
Archive staff in Gloucestershire worked quickly, using their specialist professional archive skills to set up a system which enabled the scanning and sending of physical post to staff working from home.
The Old Courts Arts Centre is a six year old multi-arts organisation based in Wigan. They initially had no concept of the impact the pandemic would have on The Old Courts. When the pandemic hit, they needed to find a way to stay connected to the local community.
St Helens Library Service works in partnership across the Council and beyond to ensure children and young people have a positive start in life, through the provision of quality books and activities that strengthen speech, language and communication.
With the onset of the pandemic, the employment and skills service had to pivot to online and alternative delivery approaches in a very short timescale to continue to support learners, young people and those that were being made redundant or who had lost their business.
Hertfordshire County Council developed an action plan to set out the policies and strategies needed to embed sustainability across all their operations and services.
Cumbria County Council launched an innovative peer-to-peer reward system that resulted in more than 1,200 powerful messages of thanks being received by employees from their colleagues.
Over the past year there has been considerable media speculation as to the carbon impacts of enforced homeworking. Has working from home helped to reduce carbon emissions? The home working energy usage project sought to take advantage of the enforced homeworking that became essential for most non-frontline staff at Durham County Council and Durham University to explore the empirical truth.
Not sounding like a council, and user-generated content, were the hallmarks of this successful campaign. Louisa Dean, head of communications at the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, explains how the council encouraged people to return to local high streets and attractions to support the post-pandemic economy.