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.
The Story Buses were initially launched in January 2020. The buses arose from the need to replace the library vehicle fleet and resulted in two Story Buses, named Sam and Nelly by the children, with exciting exterior designs by illustrator Nick Sharratt and interiors with well-designed spaces to sit and read.
Reception Reading Stars is a reading activity to help foster a love of books and reading targeted at parents/carers of children about to enter reception class in September.
The idea of reading to a dog originated in America. Alison Tutill had seen some research carried out by BookTrust and thought it would be something we could offer in libraries.
Ronan Carolan set up HealthConex, which specialises in recruiting nurses and care staff to the UK and Ireland, and, having seen a wide variety of practice within the industry, he was driven by a desire to recruit ethically and see candidates as clients, not commodities.
Joint health and care teams have been established in the West Yorkshire district of Wakefield. The teams work from community hubs, helping keep people out of hospital.
In Barnsley the hospital trust and council have worked together to create a diagnostic unit in the new retail and leisure centre, which has been developed as part of a £200 million regeneration of the town centre.
The Edge Café in Cambridge provides support to people recovering from substance misuse and those with mental health problems by running recovery groups and providing opportunities for volunteering.
Gateshead Council run their own in-house monitoring and response centre for all of their housing stock including general needs and specialist housing. This includes approximately 3,000 community alarms in people’s homes in the area – a traditional telecare offer.