Innovation Exchange to be delivered by consortium
Phil Hope, Minister for the Third Sector, today announced that a consortium
including the Innovation Unit, ACEVO
and Headshift has won the £1.2 million contract to deliver the new
Innovation Exchange pilot – a programme to support the third sector's
capacity to innovate.
The Innovation Exchange forms part of the Government's ‘Partnership in
Public Services Action Plan’, which aims to remove barriers to greater
third sector involvement in public services. The Exchange will offer
innovators online resources including information, contact with other
innovators and contact with appropriate sources of investment. Beyond this
the programme will offer tailored support to the most promising innovators
including training and guidance. This will help innovators to see their
bright ideas become reality improving services for those that use them.
Phil Hope, Minister for the Third Sector said:
‘I'm very pleased that we have found a partner to deliver the
Innovation Exchange that combines both the know–how and creativity to
make it a real asset for the sector.
‘The Innovation Exchange will open up a range of exciting opportunities
for people in the Third Sector who have great ideas for making services
better. As well as an accessible online presence the Innovation exchange
will offer peer–to–peer learning and help innovators find appropriate
support.’
Mike Gibbons: Chief Executive of The Innovation Unit said:
‘The diverse talents of the 3rd sector are widely recognised. This
project is an opportunity to bring them together and create more space
for innovation.’
Valerie Hannon, Director of Strategy at The Innovation Unit, who led the
winning consortium's bid, said:
‘We are delighted to be working with our partners on this ground-breaking
project for the 3rd sector. Together we're confident we can create
the structures needed to break through the operational barriers that
currently inhibit innovation.’
Livio Hughes, co–founder of Headshift, commented:
‘We are excited by this opportunity to apply our specialist social
computing and Web 2.0 expertise to support the fostering and sharing of
innovation in the Third Sector.’
Stephen Bubb: Chief Executive of the Association of Chief Executives of
Voluntary Organisations (acevo) said:
‘Innovation and developing pioneering practice is very important to third
sector chief executives and I am delighted for acevo to be part of this
project. We know that there is a huge volume of innovation within the
sector, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to share, encourage and
develop the innovators’
He went on to say
‘Gathering an evidence base for the innovative work of the third sector
must be our priority if we are to bring about real change in public
services and real learning in how to develop innovation in the sector.’
Work is starting immediately on the web dimension of the project and the
programme is expected to be officially launched in October.
Notes to editors
-
The Innovation Unit is one of the country's leading organisations for
innovation in education. It acts as a catalyst for change drawing on
talent from both the public and private sectors to improve education and
other related services. One of The Unit's central roles is to combine
the expertise of teachers and school leaders with the ideas and ambition
of policy–makers The Unit runs a range of projects. Currently the largest
of these is the “
Next Practice
” education programme in which the
Unit supports schools and local authorities as they take forward their
own cutting–edge ideas to improve education. www.innovation-unit.co.uk[External
website]
-
Headshift is a professional social software consulting and development
company, which has rapidly emerged as the UK market
leader in this specialist sector. It works with a range of
knowledge-based organisations in both the corporate and government
sectors to create online communication projects that exploit the power of
social networking. Headshift has been building award-winning online
communities, knowledge-sharing applications and websites for 11 years. www.headshift.com[External
website]
-
acevo stands for The Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary
organisations. acevo is the professional body representing charity and
not-for-profit sector chief executives in the UK. It has over 2000
members and is committed to improving third sector leadership skills
worldwide. www.acevo.org.uk[External
website]
-
The not-for-profit sector now employs the full-time equivalent of 1.5abbr
title="Million">m staff, with a collective annual turnover
of £46bn.
-
The Partnerships
in Public Services action plan brings together the opportunities for
the third sector to play an enhanced role in public services. Actions
include, a national programme to train 2,000 of those who commission
public services on how to involve the third sector in services and £30
million funding for community groups to work with Local Authorities to
take over management or ownership of local assets.
-
The job of director for the Innovation Exchange will be advertised
shortly. For more details see The Innovation Unit website www.innovation-unit.co.uk[External
website]
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