Peter ramsden june 2014

Social Innovation and

the labour market

Peter Ramsden

BerlinTransfer

10th June 2014

100 years of innovation in job centres

Churchill’s 1909 Labour exchange

1970s

1978 campaign poster and 1980s Peterborough

UK Job centre plus circa 2014

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

• ‘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)

Who are the social innovators?

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

The Spiral model of social innovation

Social Innovation methods

• 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

The aggregation of marginal gains

• Electronic reception Check-in

• Text messaging of Appointments offering cancellation

• Smart phone apps for job opportunities

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,

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)

System change

• Reframing the question

• Moving from ‘end-of-pipe’

• Focusing on results (not outputs)

Follow the Money: Swindon’s family analysis

Title of presentation I I Page 19

Intelligent data: transparent lending

Think outside the box: data sharing

Cardiff Accident and emergency 40% reduction in serious injury admissions by geo coding and data sharing

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

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.

Crowd funding What is it?

Is it new? Mark Twain, Beethoven, Mozart used crowd funding

Can it replace bank finance for start-ups

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.

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

SIBs: A Faustian pact?

Efficiency and effectiveness

Virtous: Finance follows results

Complexity Transparency & accountability

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)

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

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’

Thank you for your attention!

[email protected]