Office of the Third Sector Homepage
Last updated: 23 November 2008
Phil Hope, Minister for the Third Sector, has launched the Innovation Exchange with the announcement of a new £200,000 fund to support the programme’s work in 2008-09, drawing on investment provided by NESTA.
The Exchange was set up to foster innovation within the sector and to find ways of improving relationships between third sector social innovators, public service commissioners and investors.
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 access to online resources and provide a point of contact both with other innovators and with appropriate sources of investment. It will also offer tailored support, training and guidance to the most promising innovators, helping them to see the impact of their ideas on improving public services.
Speaking at today’s launch Phil Hope, Minister for the Third Sector, said:
“I am delighted to be here today to launch the Innovation Exchange and to support its important work in increasing third sector involvement in the delivery of public services. The Innovation Exchange provides much-needed recognition of the sector’s vital research and development and will help third sector organisations not to give away their best ideas but to work together to improve them and to grow their own work.
“I am particularly pleased that the Exchange will begin by focusing on young people and on adult social care, areas where there is a vast amount of untapped knowledge and creativity within the sector.”