Module description
What is the module about?
The world’s public services face pressures to adapt and change to meet the challenges of contemporary societies and the needs of modern citizens and businesses. They are caught between changing expectations from citizens and increasing financial pressures. Therefore, innovation is a critical and continual requirement. It can be defined as the process of generating new ideas and implementing them to create value for society, covering new or improved mechanisms and practices for purchasing, financing, and delivering public services. Innovations in public management increasingly include co-creation, co-production, and co-governance, drawing in public, private, and third sector organisations as well as community groups and citizens.
This module examines the distinctive character of innovation in the public services; the ways in which different sectors participate in public service innovation and facilitate social change; and the challenges and opportunities for organisations to enable and drive innovation and change to improve public outcomes. Throughout the module, we explore a range of international examples and cases.
Who should do this module?
The module will develop your understanding of key issues and challenges in the provision of public services, the response to societal challenges and managing beyond profit. This will be relevant to anyone with interests in public service management and innovation, whether from the perspective of public management, the nonprofit sector, responsible business, or private consultancy.
The module will enable you to:
- Explore problems, and different solutions, to competing perspectives on values, profits, need, and social goals in the public services.
- Understand the key concepts, histories, theories, and techniques that underpin innovation in the public services.
- Evaluate alternative approaches to innovation in the public services, particularly in relation to co-creation, co-production, and co-governance.
- Think creatively in order to evaluate different issues and approaches for innovation in public services.
- Enhance your presentation skills (both oral and written) to develop systematic, persuasive and evidence-based arguments.
Provisional Workshop Outline
Workshop 1: Introduction to public service innovation: definitions and differences
Workshop 2: Types of public service innovation
Workshop 3: Design and implementation of public service innovations
Workshop 4: Ethics and evidence in public service innovation
Workshop 5: Innovation and the third sector
Workshop 6: Innovation and the private sector
Workshop 7: Co-governance, co-production, and co-creation
Workshop 8: Co-governance, co-production and co-creation in practice
Workshop 9: Dolphin Tank Pitch Competition
Workshop 10: Critical perspectives on innovation
Workshop 11: Revision and further guidance
Assessment details
80% Coursework
20% Group presentation
Teaching pattern
Weekly workshops
Suggested reading list
There is no single text that covers all the issues addressed in the module. The following books provide useful background materials and will be supplemented by other readings:
Loeffler, E., & Bovaird, T. (2020). The Palgrave handbook of co-production of public services and outcomes. Palgrave.
Osborne, S. P., & Brown, L. (Eds.). (2013). Handbook of innovation in public services. Edward Elgar.