Three key learnings on how to change UK mental health systems for the better
…transform how they operate as a whole mental health system, bringing together the voluntary, statutory, health and social care sectors, and centering lived experience . Since 2018 the movement has…
Innovation Unit Australia is hiring!
…interesting people passionate about social change. To apply Review the duties and responsibilities, person specification and role details Send us the following to contactaus@innovationunit.org by midday ADST on Wednesday, 6…
10 creatives to help bring your stories to life
…her instagram and more of her work here. Charlotte’s ‘I WANT TO THRIVE’ Digital Illustration. Image from: https://www.charlotteallingham.com/portraits Graham Tipene If you’ve been to Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), chances are you’ve…
Dione Joseph
…connection, creation and collaboration amongst those of African and Afro-Caribbean heritage in Aotearoa and is a graduate of the New Zealand Leadership Programme (2019). More info on www.dionejoseph.com and www.blackcreativesaotearoa.com…
Against the Odds: Successfully scaling innovation in the NHS
…Foundation The full report, including more detailed recommendations for innovators, adopters and system leaders, is now available on the Innovation Unit website – https://www.innovationunit.org/projects/against-the-odds — — — Notes to editors:…
Helping you adapt and adopt innovation in children’s social care
and adopt No Wrong Door. If you would like to know more about the support available for adapting No Wrong Door to your context, please contact Cath Dillon – cath.dillon@innovationunit.org….
2023 Australian Good Design Awards
…the Good Design Index and browse through the 2023 winners, https://good-design.org/good-design-index/?yr=2023 For enquiries about this model, please contact Parkerville Children and Youth Care at together@parkerville.org.au or Innovation Unit at teamanz@innovationunitanz.org…
Scaling innovation: a collective endeavour
…to adopt new ways of working. But not every successful innovation has an organisation behind it that can fund or deliver this level of support to adopters. CREATING THE RIGHT…
New research helps reimagine education
…care, learning and schools, healthy lives, early years and mental health.www.innovationunit.org About Reimagining Education Together: The report explores the growing evidence for why change is needed, the consensus building around…
Merger with NZ social change agency Innovate Change
…Who can I talk with to find out more? Contact Keren Caple, Chief Executive Australia New Zealand, Innovation Unit on +64 9 3787642 or +61 1800 953 026 or keren.caple@innovationunit.org….
Mission accomplished? Not quite.
…of what it takes to adopt and adapt new ideas, and take them to scale for greatest impact. We are a relatively small organisation with a small board, so you…
Deeper learning demands deeper purposes
…to education policymakers about a “split screen”. One side of their organisations stays focused on improvement : increasing levels of literacy and numeracy; reducing dropouts; raising graduation rates, whilst the…
Innovation Unit appointed to the Aotearoa New Zealand All of Government (AoG) Consultancy Panel
…teamanz@innovationunit.org PHONE: +64 9 378 7642 (New Zealand) MOBILE: +64 21 805 075 (Jade) Ngā mihi nui, Jade Tang-Taylor Director of Innovation and Partnerships Innovation Unit jade.tang-taylor@innovationunit.org …
IU on the radio
…alcohol consumption here: The Fix: Cutting down our drinking Find out more about how we use creativity and innovation in order to create new solutions to complex social issues: https://www.innovationunit.org/projects/…
A Journey to Recovery: shifts in thinking about women’s refuges (part 2)
…can be found at https://www.wa.gov.au/government/document-collections/two-new-family-and-domestic-violence-womens-refuges-co-design-findings Caution Some people may find parts of this content confronting or distressing. Recommended support services include: 1800 Respect – 1800 737 732 Lifeline – 13…
Healthcare professionals need to raise the ‘weight issue’
…optional continuation of the weight management service engagement. To access the full report, go to: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/weight-management-services-insights-into-user-experiences If you want to find out more about the research and the findings, or…
Frances Flaxington
…She was part of the team assisting local authorities in Greater Manchester to adopt and adapt No Wrong Door for children and young people in or on the edge of…
Sarah Ward
Sarah works across Innovation Unit’s International Education portfolio, blending inclusive and culturally responsive approaches to research, service design methods, and innovation adoption and implementation. She is deeply committed to supporting…
Janice Nicholson
…Door model both within North Yorkshire County Council, then more widely to other local authority areas as part of an ‘adopt and adapt’ and sector led improvement approach. This incorporated…
Jahaan Abdurahman
…Network team, where she facilitates a growing understanding of how NHS organisations can effectively adopt and implement anchor missions. Before joining Innovation Unit, Jahaan had diverse career experiences. Her early…
Charlotte Billington
…in their co-design & creation, development of an ambitious multi-disciplinary approach to Alternative Provision, and a large scale adopt and adapt programme across the North West to drive regional innovation…
Aimee Hadrup
…of our work. She works with bold organisations, sectors and communities to help realise their ambitions for achieving social change at scale. She is driven to build capability of the…
New solutions, impact at scale: innovation for the many not the few
In January 2018 three major reports about scaling innovation were published. Adoption and spread of innovation in the NHS, Growing innovative models of health, care and support for adults and…
Innovation Unit Privacy Policy
…us to make corrections. To do that, simply email us at contact@innnovationunit.org. Our website When you visit www.innovationunit.org, we use google analytics to analyse traffic in order to understand our…
5 things we’ve learnt about play in Aotearoa (so far)
…conversation about what the future of play could look like in your region, neighbourhood, and whānau. For more information about this kaupapa, please get in touch with Emily Preston: emily.preston@innovationunit.org…
Classrooms are not enough – new research report suggests
…Qatar will be from November 19-21, 2019 under the theme “ UnLearn, ReLearn: What it means to be Human”. For further information about WISE, visit www.wise-qatar.org About Innovation Unit: Innovation…
Innovation Unit nominated as MCA Awards 2018 Finalist
…a hugely challenging context.”Henry Leak Hub Manager, West London CCG Read more about the project here or to discuss the work in more detail, please contact Jonny Mallinson – jonny.mallinson@innovationunit.org…
Listen to the community to tackle violent crime
…by organised crime, serious violence and the sale of weapons and drugs. With ideas including linking police officers to schools, recruiting community guardians and partnering with social media companies to…
Innovation Unit ANZ is recruiting!
…Innovation and People to set up a time for a conversation martin.james@innovationunit.org 027 3599394. Send the following to teamanz@innovationunit.org by 12 noon NZT on Friday 14 January 2022: a CV…
‘Be a man’ – toxic masculinity, social media and violence
…overwhelmingly male. Nationally, 74% of offenders and 69% of victims connected with serious violent crime were male in 2018. When we look at younger males, 87% of weapon users were…
Matt Berry
…through to prototyping and implementation. Matt’s expertise sits across a range of content areas (including education and climate and environment) and practice areas (particularly facilitation, learning design and entrepreneurship). He…
Tally Daphu
Tally is a Senior Project Lead at Innovation Unit, joining the team in 2018. She is interested in whole systems approaches that deliver impact for people at scale. She is…
George Aye: Doing Design Differently
…ask your burning questions. A keynote presentation and panel will be followed by a sundowner, the chance to connect with others over light refreshments. https://events.humanitix.com/using-design-for-good-with-george-aye 🧠 Gut Check Workshop Monday…
Named Social Worker Update
…webinar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb537uI0cFE&t=2374s Named Social Worker Portrait We asked a named social worker, Beth from Shropshire, about her experiences in the programme so far… What made you want to be…
What does it take to deliver truly person-centred care?
…that they may enjoy what Tricia Nicoll calls ‘gloriously ordinary lives’. Here we highlight some key themes of the discussion from the webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb537uI0cFE&t=2374s We’re all individuals The first step…
Thrive: Schools reinvented for the real challenges we face
…around the world including in Europe, South Africa, Australia and America. www.innovationunit.org.uk For an interview with Valerie, please contact Becky Slack on 07854 221 568 or at becky@slackcommunications.co.uk Our specialists…
Transforming care experiences for young people in Sheffield
…– what we, at Innovation Unit, call ‘adopt and adapt’. One such project is the adoption and adaptation of North Yorkshire County Council’s ‘No Wrong Door’ (NWD) model of children’s…
Innovation Unit welcomes Heather Rolinson as Director
and I’m excited to be part of an organisation that is doing just that. My particular focus for 2018 is to work with places who have used innovation to transform…
Children’s social care innovation programme
In 2014 the Department for Education (DfE) announced a two year, £100m innovation fund to support 53 bold new approaches to transform outcomes for children and young people…
Looking ‘under the bonnet’ of No Wrong Door
…your adopting and adapting efforts If you would like to know more about the support available for adapting No Wrong Door to your context, please contact Cath Dillon – cath.dillon@innovationunit.org…
Lateral leadership and custodianship – a legacy of Covid?
…the full report on our Learning from Innovation in a Crisis page and follow us on Twitter @Innovation_Unit for updates. For more information on Innovation Unit’s work, please contact david.jackson@innovationunit.org….
Always Hope: Transforming the lives of care experienced young adults in the UK justice system
…done and it is important to remember that together we have already achieved something powerful. Together we can do much more. Get in touch with jessie.ben-ami@innovationunit.org to find out more….
Trapped on site: scaling new practices in Australian schools
…to commit to adopting the innovations but become more involved over time. Active engagement is key. For example, involving potential early adopters in adapting and evolving new practices through activities…
Preventing gendered violence: what we have learnt from young people
…the development and deployment phase of our co-designed creative intervention. If you would like to learn more about the FDV Primary Prevention Youth Co-Design Project, please contact Matt Berry (matthew.norman@innovationunit.org)…
Patients must be at the heart of the NHS – and of innovation
…doing their research to be DrDoctor’s first adopter. Committed work with patients to deeply understand their needs is in itself an adoption mechanism, and models a way of creating change…
Revealing potential for Healthier High Streets
…involved have collaborated on community events and workshops and offered each other informal advice and support. Watch our video on the project and read the final project report here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=BDHwPFE-d0Y&feature=youtu.be…
Ka Mua, Ka Muri
…your work? We’d love to hear your thoughts and pātai/questions. Or, if you’d like somewhere to start, you can download this booklet here. Watch Rachel’s and Kataraina’s talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY7u8M_QCos&t=43s…
Four things we’re learning about digital access for people experiencing homelessness
…Retrieved from http://www.accan.org.au/files/Grants/homelessandconnected/Homeless_and_Connected_web.pdfNote: this is the most recent research in this field in Australia. However, there are challenges experienced by rough sleepers that don’t typically affect the rest of the…
Innovating our way through a pandemic: the Strengthening Families, Protecting Children programme
…to adopt and adapt their innovation. In March 2020, IU, alongside Mutual Ventures and the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), joined the partnership delivering the programme. Drawing on our…
A perfect storm: What the end of the rental moratorium says about the state of social housing in Western Australia (part 1 of 2)
…is a need for reform in our social housing sector. We need to adopt innovative strategic approaches to increase the supply of affordable housing. We need to build a resilient…
Tender opportunity: Evaluator for the Living Well UK programme
…three-year programme to adapt and adopt a Living Well system for better adult mental health in four different sites across the UK. Through this programme, Innovation Unit and Big Lottery…
Big Picture Learning
…was ‘spun out’ of Innovation Unit in July 2018. Today, Big Picture Doncaster has become an alternative provision provider for young people across Doncaster. Read all about the powerful impact…
We’re one of the UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2018
…not-for-profit organisation listed among 22 most recommended consultancies in the Innovation, growth and new business models category, receiving a four-star rating. We think we may also be the smallest organisation…
How edtech can transform learning for the better
…country’s eduLab–schools that are tasked with developing ICT innovations so that they can be adopted by schools across the system–has adopted better and more advanced data technology to help in…
Growing cultures of Radical Caring
…Care workshops will start in February 2022. If you are interested in taking part, or want to explore opportunities to join us as a partner please contact righttothrive@thriveldn.co.uk / daisy.carter@innovationunit.org….
The Future of Learning arrives in Bermuda
…Bermuda, visit the Learning First website. To talk to us about how we support partners to transform complex systems, contact Innovation Unit Australia New Zealand CEO Keren Caple at keren.caple@innovationunit.org….
Growing a movement of Radical Caring with community and grassroots projects across London
…conditions and permission for Radical Caring in our organisations We each have different levels of tuning in and attending to our own needs. It was observed that in some organisational…
Stories of hope and humanity
…Send a maximum of 10 minutes of footage to: lwuk@innovationunit.org Please write your name and contact number in the email in case we need to get in touch. If the…
How Greater Manchester rapidly adapted systems and processes to meet people’s needs
to us to write what happens next… You can read the full report here and you can follow Innovation Unit on Twitter @innovation_unit To talk to Innovation Unit, contact seb.chapleau@innovationunit.org….
Working in a crisis: what Greater Manchester learnt about how we work
…neighbourhood – its people and its strengths. You can read the full report here and you can follow Innovation Unit on Twitter @innovation_unit To talk to Innovation Unit, contact daisy.carter@innovationunit.org….
From programmes to people
…lead the way in practice and innovation. You can read the full report here and you can follow Innovation Unit on Twitter @innovation_unit To talk to Innovation Unit, contact daisy.carter@innovationunit.org….
IU expands its leadership capacity in New Zealand and Australia
…social care, learning & schools, healthy lives, early years and mental health. Interviews and case studies can be arranged. Please contact: Keren Caple at keren.caple@innovationunit.org or +61 400 140 277….
Harakeke
…initiatives when well-meaning organisations seek to work in their space. While we would love to influence how other organisations create opportunities for community leadership, our greatest hope is that changemakers…
Bridging the Gaps
…want to challenge the system to get better outcomes for young people who fall into the cycle of reoffending. To work with Innovation Unit on the pilot , contact jessie.ben-ami@innovationunit.org…
The opportunity of a generation
…the big shifts taking place in mental health and will soon publish our findings. If you are interested in learning from our work, please get in touch via nick.webb@innovationunit.org ….
Update on Named Social Worker Pilot
…to supercharge social work in their communities. ”Lyn Romeo Chief Social Worker for Adults at the Department of Health More information is available below and you can contact nsw@innovationunit.org for…
Remind me — what is it that you do?
…find out more about Innovation Unit, tell us about your impact in 2017, or work with us to make some of this happen, contact Sarah Gillinson, Managing Partner at contact@innovationunit.org….
Family Hubs: what are we learning about designing forward differently
…multi-disciplinary partnerships and working hand-in-hand with communities to meet local needs. If you are interested in working with us, or hearing more about what we have learned, please contact charlotte.billington@innovationunit.org….
Better Endings: creating new solutions for end of life care
…also aim to influence a growing movement for change in the way we think about and behave around death and dying. Follow us @_BetterEndings or get in touch at betterendings@innovationunit.org….
Scale and innovation in early years
…Too often we hear about brilliant initiatives, services, or innovation teams who do great work in pockets of organisations — but the core business or offer of that organisation stays…
Health in community: VCFSE-led partnerships tackling health inequalities
…to update these over the coming months, as the programme progresses, so watch this space! To find out more about the programme or Innovation Unit’s work, please contact Lizzie: lizzie.cain@innovationunit.org…
Ella Walding wins International Service Design Award 2017
and which have the potential to create change in any organisation. The tools have been implemented in Servizz.org , a platform Maltese citizens can use as a single point of…
Congratulations to our first Coach4Care coaches!
…truly understand what it is like to care for someone with an illness. In addition to their own lived experiences, coaches receive training and ongoing support from professional coaching organisation…
Innovation Unit Design Academy Australia
well as how to form a team within or across organisations. For any questions, contact Jethro Sercombe, Director of Innovation Practice at jethro.sercombe@innovationunitanz.org We are able to bring IUDA to…
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InnovationUnit Formula 2018
Our Way Home: new roles, insights and stories of impact
…Care Team, where they help to capture and reflect and/or centre the perspectives and aspirations of the child and their family, to feed into personalised care planning and decision-making. Both…
Social innovation is a serious business. Seriously.
…the huge issues that feed it in new and positive ways — inequality, racism and global migration to name but a few. It’s not enough to have some social impact….
Apart of Me
…of Me is children can create a legacy alongside their ill family member.”Olly Clabburn PhD Watch their inspiring short video to see how they are helping families. https://vimeo.com/225147072 We believe…
How do you design a structure for partnering across the NHS, local authorities and community groups?
…as new Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) are embedded in legislation and look to develop partnerships. In March our organisations came together to host an online webinar and networking session on…
Hertfordshire Family Safeguarding wins top Guardian award
…the first year alone were £2.6m. Since then, more investments have been made by the Innovation Programme so that the model will be scaled to an additional four adopter sites….
Working at Innovation Unit might be your next big adventure
…innovation programmes that identify, nurture and help to spread innovation, to adopt and adapt innovations that have already been shown to be successful and enable place-based transformation that really sticks….
Reform of NHS England: Innovation Unit’s view
…at scale. Reflecting the ambition of the White Paper, we have a strong track record of bringing together different organisations and layers of the health system to develop shared vision,…
We need more and different perspectives, skills and experience to meet the challenges ahead
I’m writing this blog on a beautiful, crisp winter day and feeling cautiously optimistic. We are relieved and grateful to have survived and learnt a vast amount as an organisation…
What the Voice teaches us about co-design
One of our key principles that we adopt across all our work is listening to and amplifying the voices of people most impacted. It seems impossible, then, that we would…
Greater Manchester Guide: Developing Asset Based Approaches to Primary Care
…to make asset based primary care work in practice, and what it would take to adopt it, not just in isolated pockets but across a whole neighbourhood, system or region….
Scaling innovation twitter chat
…found here . “Often we forget to really address the contextual issues, we focus on the innovation rather than all the surrounding conditions.”David Albury Board Director, Innovation Unit THE REPORT…
Scaling up innovation requires action at multiple levels
…hinder spread, and building the underlying capability of NHS organisations to learn and adopt new ideas. Improving how we replicate innovations at scale requires action on a range of fronts,…
Human-scale at Scale – Cultivating new education cultures
…protocols in new adopter sites – a more cultivating, gardening notion of change. There exists at worst a gap in understanding and at best an underestimation of the role culture…
Green energy, local jobs, warm homes
…my own memories as project administrator and council officer. So if there are any inaccuracies with dates and numbers, then please forgive me. At that time Islwyn had around 6,500…
Disruptive learning in and from a crisis
…very high levels of consensus, and this led to a more radical set of big ideas: Dissolve sectoral and organisational boundaries – which might mean creating leadership roles that span…
Department of Health and Social Care Named Social Worker
Between 2016 and 2018, Innovation Unit and the Social Care Institute for Excellence supported nine local authorities to develop, implement and evaluate a Named Social Worker approach. The programme was…
Why a bold, positive vision is essential for any successful transformation of place
…The Living Well Network Hub was open to anyone and was delivered by mental health practitioners in partnership with a network of statutory and voluntary sector organisations helping with housing,…
Healthy High Streets in the news
…working in Lambeth and Southwark to gather insights and test new solutions which encourage families and young people in the local community to eat healthier. About Tasters In January 2018,…
Turning the tide on tragedy
…or another bind everyone (think for example of families, workplaces and clubs, and all the rules of engagement that they maintain). COMPASSION January 2018 saw the launch of the Power…
Innovation through collaboration: Co-designing mental health systems
I work as a freelance Senior Associate for Innovation Unit based in Edinburgh, while my colleague Daisy is a Service Design Consultant based in London. Together we have…
Changing UK mental health systems for the better: Learning #3
…the UK’s mental health challenges, failing to unlock the abundant potential of families, friends, neighbours, communities and community organisations. An enlarged perspective on what impacts our mental health Our Living…
Changing UK mental health systems for the better: Learning #2
…organisations and cross-organisational relationships to collectively create impact for everyone. Our Living Well sites , and other pioneering places like Lambeth and Trieste, have shown that a radically collaborative response…
Changing UK mental health systems for the better: Learning #1
…The great Professor Marshall Ganz, a senior lecturer on leadership and organising at the Kennedy School of Government, refers to two kinds of urgency. There is the urgency associated with…
We’re one of the UK’s Leading Innovation Consultants!
We have won a ‘silver medal’ in the innovation, growth and business models category – building on our ‘bronze’ medal of 2018. A silver medal is earned for ‘frequent recommendations’…
Commissioning Innovation
…hosting us in their lovely Brown Street studio, and thank you again to our excellent panellists. If you’d like to get in touch, you can reach out at matt.berry@innovationunitanz.org. …
CCG Innovation Fund wins patient experience award
…health and care services smoother. Since 2014, the Innovation Fund has supported 27 projects with £800,000 of funding. Projects are tested on a small scale and supported to develop a…
What Does it Mean to Thrive?
…that are big. Lives that matter. And, that whatever the context or the content of an argument, the most important opinion being expressed is that we should all have a…
Why the UK needs to understand when and how PBL really ‘works’
…on student learning. (And to be clear, when we say PBL, we don’t mean the themed curriculum kind that reorganises subject content to make it seem relevant, but the kind…
Learning Live: nine months alongside Health Equality Development Grantees
…activity has culminated in our new storybook which captures what our grantees learned and the approaches they used in real time – and provides deeply relevant content for other place-based…
Developing innovation with impact
…numbers of students into university each year, most of whom are the first in their family to do so. Being literate and numerate matters, knowing “content” about how the world…
New school models in the US: 10 things we have learned
…supporting the opening of a new kind of school in the UK and in so doing we are adapting and adopting the approaches we’ve admired. Here are 10 things we’ve…
Thoughts on the Long Term Plan
…And it followed the advice that accompanies most new year resolutions – that the key to good change is to make it sustainable and ‘long term’. The content of the…
A Journey to Recovery: shifts in thinking about women’s refuges (part 1)
…adopted the recently published definition from The National Scheme’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Cultural Safety Strategy 2020-2025 as culturally safe practice being “the ongoing critical reflection of…
How we’re trying to bring anti racism to our practice and project work
…programmes. St John Ambulance were particularly interested in improving their engagement with young people from communities currently under-served by the organisation, such as young carers or care leavers. Throughout our…
Example Ethnographic Report
…embarked upon a process of person centred co-design to develop innovative interventions that will support early learning. Click on the image to download. Authors: Innovation Unit Publish date: January 2018…
Example Personas
…about and inform what kind of support they can give to families through their UK programmes. Click on the image to download. Authors: Innovation Unit Publish date: January 2018…
Example Reports
…24 January 2018 Bloomberg Philanthropies European Mayors Challenge Bringing Bold Ideas to Life This report provides an update on the implementation of the winning challenge ideas that each solve urban…
Example Posters
Learning and impact from the projects involved in the Innovation Programme, including evaluation outcomes. Click the image to download. Author: Spring Consortium Publish date: February 2018…
InnovationUnit_ModelforScale_2018
Innovation Unit Model for Scale
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Adopting Innovation to improve health and care
Innovation Unit is working with four health and care systems to set up innovation hubs where they can develop knowledge, skills and confidence to identify, adapt and adopt the innovations…
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BRIDGING THE GAPS – RESEARCH REPORT…