This week at work I was asked to pull together a list of our team’s all-time favourite social innovations and methods. It started with bicycle lanes (because they encourage cycling, fight obesity on two wheels, and reduce noise and air pollution) as our team is dominated by cycling fanatics. Second on the list was walking school buses (because they instil the importance of exercise in children, build social capital and cohesion, and fight obesity on two legs). We also had some service based innovations such as NHS walk-in centres that allow patients to visit a GP without an appointment and innovations that capitalise on new media. We returned to the transport theme with trains – “the peoples’ chariot” – and for methods, alongside collaboration, observation and piloting, we included trainstorming. It’s brainstorming on a train – who said social innovation had to be rocket science?
I wanted to add chocolate fish to the list of methods claiming that surely it’s innovative inspiration, but I was hampered by the fact that my colleagues here don’t know what chocolate fish are. It was another little reminder that, while we share a common history, we have developed differently and there’s a lot England can learn from New Zealand and vice versa (such as the value of trains).
The differences go beyond chocolate fish and trains though. New Zealand is a small country and that’s where its strength lies. It means its politicians are accountable because people see them on the street. The idea of “parachuting in” candidates is still frowned upon in New Zealand. Here Whitehall’s been trying to decentralise decision making to the local level for the past fifteen years without much success. Its local authorities are racked with party politics that cause stalemates at the expense of the local good. In New Zealand local politics is thankfully still largely political party free and social movements were born on the Marae. Sir Apirana Ngata and Dame Whina Cooper knew the importance of talking to the people.
So what does this have to do with social innovation? Accountability to the man or woman on the street is critical if you want to build trust and create support for new ventures. That’s something the UK could learn from New Zealand. So what could New Zealand learn from the UK? Perhaps a little about risk.
The number eight wire mentality is something New Zealand prides itself in – we want to believe that any problem can be solved with a piece of wire and whatever else you might have going. But at the same time we’re not good at learning from our mistakes or being systematic about our approach to pressing issues. We want to believe that “she’ll be right mate”. This risk-averse culture prevents us from addressing issues more pertinent then the next round of tax cuts.
Social innovation is rarely led by politicians. Politicians thrive on setting the agenda, photo opportunities, capturing the public mood and putting their opponents on the back foot. They reach for the low hanging fruit. Difficult issues such as managing the ageing population, promoting behaviour change, or limiting the growth of public health expenditure, are rarely on the cards. You’re unlikely to see the Minister of Corrections publicly promoting the idea of top-slicing ten percent of her departmental budget to divert it to early-years education as a means of reducing the inmate population. (You’re unlikely to even hear the Minister publicly differentiate between early childhood education and childcare.) Risk is not compatible with the politics of government.
The UK is a more fertile ground for cultivating new ideas. Politicians here are no less risk adverse, but the ideas culture in civil society and the fourth estate is more established and has the critical mass to make it sustainable. It can begin difficult conversations. It can start with a problem – not a political agenda. New Zealand is not without good ideas and ideas people, but there’s still a hesitation in throwing our weight behind new ideas.
In the coming years both New Zealand and England face vast challenges that will test the boundaries of state provision and the nations’ resilience. Some of these will be unforeseen, while others have been on the horizon for many years. The recession is on the tip of everyone’s tongue at the moment. What will it mean in terms of pressure on public services and the public purse? How will it play out in our neighbourhoods? How bad will it be? There are also other elephants in the room, for example, the ageing population and climate change. To meet these challenges we need to be prepared to discuss them, think about new ways of doing things, generate ideas, test them and scale them up if they work. It won’t be easy, but there’s a lot we can learn from each other, perhaps even starting with chocolate fish.
Corinne Cordes is a New Zealander working in London. She moved to England in 2007 to do a placement in the House of Commons. She now works for the Young Foundation, a centre for social innovation based in East London. Prior to relocating to the UK she worked in the New Zealand public service.
