Heather Rolinson
Director of Children & Families Innovation
Heather leads our innovation consultancy business. She has overall responsibility for the quality of our project work, the development of new commercial relationships and business development. She spends most of her time focused on ensuring that our services and work meet the needs of our clients and exceed their expectations.
Heather was, until recently, the lead coach on the Department for Education’s Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme. She has coached on the Programme since its inception, supporting innovation projects from the early development of their innovation ideas to scaling to other authorities. She has also coached on the Regional Adoption Agencies Programme. Heather has worked in public sector consulting for fourteen years and has wide experience of innovation, organisational development and design, and new structural models, as well as managing the delivery of large scale transformation programmes.
Heather joined Innovation Unit in early 2018 from Mutual Ventures, where she led the Children’s Services team. Prior to this she worked for Avail Consulting, a central government advisory firm that later became part of Tribal Consulting. She started her career in the Australian federal government, working in both internal and domestic policy development and for the national competition regulator.
Collaborating for greater impact across the UK public sector
We’re delighted to announce that Innovation Unit support and services are now available across the UK public sector through a pan-government framework agreement.
08 Nov 17
Hertfordshire Family Safeguarding wins top Guardian award
Congratulations to Guardian Public Service Awards 2017 overall winner Hertfordshire County Council for their Family Safeguarding model, funded by the DfE’s Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme.
29 Nov 17
Innovations in children’s social care
The care system can be transformative, giving young people and their families the support they need at the most difficult points in their lives. But too many young people have a poor experience of the system and poor long-term outcomes, leaving care without the skills, relationships or emotional stability to ready them for adulthood.
30 Jun 17