Innovation Exchange

I have been thinking recently about specific housing support for elderly people after a personal experience with a grandparent.
Often, elderly people have little available funds to move out of a house that has become impractical (size, stairs etc). This is all very well if the person owns the house and can afford to move […]

The chancellor announced the government’s spending plans for the next three years recently, and many people in central or local government seem to have responded to the smaller increases (or cuts) by turning their back on innovation and getting on with protecting their existing service provision and creating cost savings. Surely this is not the […]

I attended an interesting ACEVO dinner for ‘Young CEOs’ a couple of weeks ago. Phil Hope, Minister for the Third Sector, gave an excellent account of himself and shower himself to be just as well informed and insightful as his predecessor.
Discussion inevitably turned to commissioning and the challenges facing those of us trying to […]

Opportunities have never been better for social enterprises to really make a difference in primary and social care for people who find it difficult to access services. The DOH has just published the first stage of the Darzi review of the NHS. They are particularly  interested in new models of primary care to address health […]

The week before last I was lucky enough to see Trevor Baylis speak at the Social Entrepreneur Show at Olympia. He was, for me, the epitome of both an inventor and innovator. White-mustachioed, gesticulating wildly, and quoting himself on successive power-point slides, it seemed as if he had just, after several years, burst out of […]

Dear friends,
Please note that the deadline for submitting expression of interests (in relation to both themes) is Thursday, 31st July 2008.  
If you are interested in participating in the Next Practice Programme and applying for the Innovation Exchange NESTA fund please follow this  link to the right page on the website.
In order to understand what the Next Practice Programme […]

“Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” (Tony Blair, 2004).
The Prime Minister’s words still resonate today. Unless we tackle the causes as well as the consequences of crime, we will not grasp the root of the problem. The answer has to lie in action centred on communities and those at risk.
More police, tougher […]

Innovation is being actively called for by the government and employment agencies in finding new ways of helping people back into work, particularly those most excluded from the jobs market. Gaining employment is a key goal for many people seeking to live independently and part of a service offered by many social enterprises, charities, and […]

When people speak about this topic (and I’ll skip merrily past any attempted definitions of “excluded” or “youth”), they often refer to the lack of activities / centres for young people to get involved in. Not just politicians, but people at the grassroots who live and work across the UK.
So what is needed? Are youth […]