Chapter 3: Public Service Innovation
Our vision of inclusive growth is to lift living standards across the region. Our demography—the size of our population and how it is projected to grow over the coming two decades, in addition to our youthfulness—is one of the West Midlands’ distinctive economic strengths. Yet, as we outlined in our Theory of Growth, our population faces a range of acute challenges which we need to overcome if we are to realise our vision and harness the potential of our demography. We will do this principally through what we call Public Service Innovation (PSI).
PSI aims to transform residents' lives, prevent the challenges they face from arising the first place and reduce pressures on public services, with a particular focus on developing systemic innovations in how public services are delivered.
The Importance of Public Service Innovation. Our theory of growth document and State of the Region report paint a challenging picture of the health and wellbeing of large numbers of our residents, alongside distinctive challenges in particular parts of the region. Across the West Midlands as a whole, 39% of children in the WMCA area live in poverty— among the highest rates in the country. Our youth unemployment rate (8.8%) is higher than the UK average (5.0%). The life expectancy of our residents is significantly below national averages—77.6 years for men and 81.9 years for women, compared to 79.4 and 83.1 nationally. 5,600 people live in temporary accommodation. These factors make it all the more harder for our residents to gain the skills they need to secure and progress into good quality, well-paid jobs and hold our economy back, moreover they very often lead to unhappy and unfulfilled lives.
The Case for Public Service Innovation. PSI represents a transformative opportunity to break free from traditional, centralised approaches to delivering public services, which all too often fail to meet the holistic needs of local communities. Rising demands for public services, reducing budgets to provide them and inefficiencies in how they are delivered, underline the need for a new, collaborative approach to public services—one focused on helping our residents access a higher quality of life and, ultimately, higher living standards.
Our Approach to Public Service Innovation. PSI is gaining momentum across the West Midlands. Successful initiatives like the Supporting Families Programme, which reduced foster care placements by 32%, have demonstrated the power of preventive, integrated approaches in not only reducing long-term public expenditure but also enhancing community well-being. To harness the full potential of PSI, the WMCA and our local partners are working together to deliver three types of innovation.
- Incremental Innovation. We are identifying small-scale improvements to existing systems, such as co-commissioning services and achieving economies of scale in areas like SEND placements, youth mental health, and temporary accommodation.
- Breakthrough Innovation. We are experimenting with different, more innovative models of public service delivery, such as the Kinghurst family hub, which seeks to demonstrate how local-level innovations can be scaled across the region.
- Transformational Innovation. We are exploring how we can scale-up our ‘test and learn’ innovations to redesign public service systems, through early, preventive interventions and incentivising long-term, sustainable change. This includes exploring the potential for a PSI ‘pillar’ of the region’s Integrated Settlement.
Key Principles of Public Service Innovation. Our approach to PSI is guided by four key principles that underpin every initiative and partnership we do.
- Subsidiarity and Community Empowerment. We deliver innovation at a local level because this is the best way to generating positive outcomes for our residents, exemplified by health and wellbeing hubs in Kingshurst.
- Integrated and Sustainable Systems. We foster collaboration between regional partners from different sectors, promoting early intervention and embracing predictive analytics—as seen in Coventry’s AI-driven demand reduction initiative.
- Evidence-Informed Decision Making. We leverage both qualitative and quantitative to ensure our strategies are informed by evidence on what, and to hold our services to account for the outcomes that matter to our residents.
- Inclusive Growth and Social Innovation. We are creating the foundations for inclusive growth, by developing cradle-to-career pathways that bridge education, skills, and employment.
Emerging Areas of Focus for Innovation. We have been working closely with local authority partners to identify the most significant issues that our work on PSI should focus on. These are outlined as follows, with further evidence for this focus provided in our accompanying Theory of Growth document.
| Area of focus |
What this could mean in practice |
| Early Years |
|
| Youth and Intergenerational Unemployment |
|
| Health and Social Care |
|
| Homelessness |
|
Partnerships for Innovation. Collaboration is at the heart of our approach to PSI. Led by local authorities, with the support of the WMCA, we will work closely with key partners across sectors, including the NHS, the Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise sector, and the government.
By embracing PSI, the West Midlands is setting the stage for long-term, sustainable transformation—empowering residents to realise their full potential and contributing to a more inclusive, prosperous region.
Outcomes:
Over the coming ten years we will prioritise our collective efforts to:
- Ensure all of our children are better prepared as they start in school including by improving the quality of available childcare.
- Lower the barriers to youth employment and tackle the root causes of the poor health that prevents people from accessing good work.
- Tackle the root causes of homelessness and provide pathways out of temporary accommodation.
Questions
19) Do you agree with the principles and priorities for public service innovation in the West Midlands?