EPISODE · Oct 23, 2025 · 1H
Productivity Pitches #8: Spreading innovation across public services
from IfG Events · host Institute for Government
Productivity in public services has never been more important. Most services are struggling to return to pre-pandemic performance levels, and the new Labour government has indicated that spending will remain tight. Improvements in performance will likely come from frontline workers finding new, innovative ways of delivering services. So what can be done to improve productivity? By highlighting outstanding examples of innovation across public services, Productivity Pitches, a series of events hosted by the IfG, aims to share and support ways to improve performance levels. This event was the eighth in the series and focused on innovation across public services. Each speaker had 10 minutes to present their innovation, followed by 10 minutes of audience questions. The chair and a guest from The Productivity Institute – which kindly supported this event series – brought together the common themes from the pitches and discussed the lessons for improving productivity. The speakers for this edition of Productivity Pitches were: Aoife O'Higgins, Director of Evidence at Foundations, the What Works Centre for children and families explained how their work showing the efficacy of Family Group Conferencing (FGC) has led to the government legislating in the Children, Wellbeing and Schools Bill to mandate that councils offer parents a Family Group Decision Making meeting before referring a child to social services. This substantially expanded the use of FGCs. Rhian Gladman and Gary Hughes on LGA’s peer challenge programme and transformation support. For its peer challenge programme, the LGA recruits senior local government officers and political leaders to act as peer reviewers. Following a meeting with the council that will be reviewed, a small team of peer reviewers is sent in to speak to people, assess processes and documents, and use their knowledge to provide peer-led feedback. For transformation support, the LGA matches peers with transformation experience with councils that need that specific advice. The event was chaired by Nick Davies, Programme Director at the Institute for Government. Joel Hoskins, Research Assistant at The Productivity Institute joined to the discuss common themes. Productivity Pitches was kindly supported by The Productivity Institute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What this episode covers
Productivity in public services has never been more important. Most services are struggling to return to pre-pandemic performance levels, and the new Labour government has indicated that spending will remain tight. Improvements in performance will likely come from frontline workers finding new, innovative ways of delivering services. So what can be done to improve productivity? By highlighting outstanding examples of innovation across public services, Productivity Pitches, a series of events hosted by the IfG, aims to share and support ways to improve performance levels. This event was the eighth in the series and focused on innovation across public services. Each speaker had 10 minutes to present their innovation, followed by 10 minutes of audience questions. The chair and a guest from The Productivity Institute – which kindly supported this event series – brought together the common themes from the pitches and discussed the lessons for improving productivity. The speakers for this edition of Productivity Pitches were: Aoife O'Higgins, Director of Evidence at Foundations, the What Works Centre for children and families explained how their work showing the efficacy of Family Group Conferencing (FGC) has led to the government legislating in the Children, Wellbeing and Schools Bill to mandate that councils offer parents a Family Group Decision Making meeting before referring a child to social services. This substantially expanded the use of FGCs. Rhian Gladman and Gary Hughes on LGA’s peer challenge programme and transformation support. For its peer challenge programme, the LGA recruits senior local government officers and political leaders to act as peer reviewers. Following a meeting with the council that will be reviewed, a small team of peer reviewers is sent in to speak to people, assess processes and documents, and use their knowledge to provide peer-led feedback. For transformation support, the LGA matches peers with transformation experience with councils that need that specific advice. The event was chaired by Nick Davies, Programme Director at the Institute for Government. Joel Hoskins, Research Assistant at The Productivity Institute joined to the discuss common themes. Productivity Pitches was kindly supported by The Productivity Institute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Productivity Pitches #8: Spreading innovation across public services
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