Peter Ramsden gave an overview on the process and scope of social innovation. He pointed out the essential role of the public sector and emphasised the need to involve all the stakeholders – above all the target group – and to focus on results. Part of his presentation also focused on the chances of innovative financing.

1. Social Innovation
and
the labour market
Peter Ramsden
BerlinTransfer
10th June 2014

2. 100 years of innovation in job
centres

3. Churchill’s 1909 Labour exchange

4. 1970s

5. 1978 campaign poster and 1980s
Peterborough

6. UK Job centre plus circa 2014

7. New challenges: The future labour
market
• No job for life
• Not much security (zero hours contracts, yet more
flexibility)
• under-employment
• Self-employment an option at key transitions (from
education to employment, from employment to
retirement)
• Patching a portfolio of jobs and personal projects
(subsidising what you want to do with what you have
to do)
• Certain groups will struggle – migrants, lone parents,
youth, and disabled

8. • ‘Social innovations are new ideas (products,
services and models) that simultaneously
meet social needs (more effectively than
alternatives) and create new social
relationships or collaborations.
• In other words they are innovations that are
not only good for society but also enhance
society’s capacity to act.’ YF, SIX 2010
Defining social innovation: a new
concept (for an old idea)

9. Who are the social innovators?

10. shifts from:
– random innovation to a conscious and systematic approach
to public sector renewal
– managing human resources to building innovation capacity
– running tasks and projects to orchestrating processes of co-
creation
– administration to leading innovation
(Christian Bason 2010 Public Sector Innovation Polity Press)
Key role for public sector

11. The Spiral model of social
innovation

12. Social Innovation methods

13. • Co-everything – co-creation, co-design co-
production, co-management, co-ownership
• Open rather than closed approach to the sharing
and ownership of knowledge
• Demand-led rather than supply driven
• Designed ‘solutions’ – many prototypes
• Tailored rather than mass produced,
• solutions have to be adapted to local
circumstances
No single method

14. The aggregation of marginal gains
• Electronic reception Check-in
• Text messaging of Appointments
offering cancellation
• Smart phone apps for job
opportunities

15. Copenhagen youth employment centre: Co-ownership
with the young people
• Use of anthropologist to improve understanding of needs of young people
and perception of job centre
• Introduction of hosts in welcome area
• The prototype ’Welcome to ckb. Your personal travel guide’ information
about job centre, regulations, opportunities and data about their counselor.
• ckb uses user stories
– portraits and narratives, so the
new users of the house know,
what to expect.
• five innovation vectors:
– progress,
– expertise,
– visibility,
– seriousness and
– transparency,

17. New financing: funny money
 micro finance, micro credit and peer to
peer (e.g. Kiva)
 diaspora finance
 Alternative currencies – time banks, air
miles, LETS local exchange trading systems,
points money, internet money
 Impact investing and exotic products like
Social Impact Bonds
 Crowd funding
 Challenges (e.g. Bloomberg challenge)

18. System change
• Reframing the question
• Moving from ‘end-of-pipe’
• Focusing on results (not outputs)

19. Follow the Money: Swindon’s family analysis
Title of presentation I I Page
19

20. Intelligent data: transparent
lending

21. Think outside the box: data sharing
Cardiff Accident and emergency 40% reduction in
serious injury admissions by geo coding and data
sharing

22. Better (maybe bigger) data
• Online tools for users
• Real time data for
analysts and citizens
• Understanding other
aspects of the clients
• Moving beyond
claimant categories
• Next step – mixing with
other data

23. Examples: Microfinance
– Fair Finance in London providing
personal loans, business loans
and financial advice
– Permicro, in Turin - established
microfinance practitioner
operating in Northern Italy. Focus
on socially excluded
communities, Now operating in
12 cities
– NEEM in Sweden - supports
migrants to go into self
employment, backed by ERDF.

24. Crowd funding
 What is it?
 Is it new? Mark Twain, Beethoven,
Mozart used crowd funding
 Can it replace bank finance for
start-ups

25. Facts on kickstarter
 a for profit platform for funding
independent creative projects: films,
games, music, art, design, and
technology.
 4.9 million have people pledged $800
million, funding 49,000 creative projects
over 4 years
 Funding on Kickstarter is all-or-nothing
44% of projects have reached their
funding goals.
 Creators keep ownership of their work.

26. Social Impact Bonds SIBS
 A public private financial circuit
 Bond holders get a return if they achieve target social
impacts
 Peterborough Prison Bond is first example aimed to
reduce recidivism on short term sentences from over 60%
 Reduction by 7.5% over 5 years to achieve return
 ‘Through the door’ services delivered by two social
enterprises (St Giles and Ormiston). Main advantage is
long term funding
 £5million initial offering mostly raised from trusts
 New bonds for reducing street homelessness in London,
recidivism at Rikers island prison, pre school provision in
Utah, investing in success on East coast

27. SIBs: A Faustian pact?
Efficiency and
effectiveness
Virtous: Finance
follows results
Complexity
Transparency &
accountability

28. How to judge whether new
finance will be good?
 Is it transparent? Is it accountable?
 Do you understand it? Will others?
 Does it meet real human needs?
 what types of projects does it deliver on
the ground?
 Who benefits and who loses?
 How long will it take to set up?
 Should you do this? (legally, morally,
practically, financially)

29. Judging the results
• Randomised control groups are
OECD ‘gold standard’
• Used in social experiments (see jpal
europe
• Qualitative results are also
important and harder to measure
• Value for money and social return
on investment are key measures

30. Social innovation can make a major
contribution to labour market policies
 Involving users and front-line
staff often combined with
designers is a key part of the
method
 Marginal gains can make a
contribution but sometimes
systemic change is required
 Finance can drive innovation
especially when linked to results
 But metrics are slippery and
need careful calibration
 Scaling is harder than spreading
 Beware of ‘technocratic
solutionism’

31. Thank you for your attention!
Peterramsden2@gmail.com