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Learning Labs - Liberating Front-line Staff
Front-line staff understand the services they are delivering, know the
needs of their users, can identify the barriers to delivering a better
service, and are well-placed to propose effective solutions. But their
ideas all too often fall victim to unnecessary red-tape and bureaucracy.
That is why Learning Labs have been piloted to test new ways of working by
suspending rules that stifle innovation.
Learning Labs are intended to empower front-line staff to bring forward
ideas and see them through to fruition. This reflects experience in the
United States where 'reinvention
laboratories' have made a significant contribution to improving the
quality and efficiency of services provided by many US government
agencies. As in the US, departments and agencies will not be able to waive
statutory rules, but that still leaves a large number of other rules and
regulations that can be tackled using a Learning Lab approach.
Given the wide range of functions performed by public sector
organisations, Learning Labs are likely to take many different forms and
vary in scope and structure but at the same time share several common key
characteristics. In general, Learning Labs will be:
 | driven by front-line staff, with support from the parent or
sponsoring organisation, to implement and evaluate new ways of
working; |
| able to benefit from increased operational flexibility as a result
of Learning Lab status; |
| subject to on-going evaluation; |
| capable of identifying lessons for broader dissemination and wider
learning; and |
| able to add value to existing work. |
Labs involved in the pilot are:
| in the north-east where several public services are working together
to develop a ‘public services pre-release course’ and a ‘personalised
passport’ for prisoners to help them integrate more quickly
into the community upon release; |
| in the south-west where a discrete, cross-organisational team,
including Benefits Agency
and local authority representatives, has been created with the aim of
developing proposals to improve services to pensioners in the Torbay
area; |
| in the Midlands, where Birmingham
City Council plan to use labs to stimulate innovation and
change throughout its organisation; |
| in East Anglia, where Suffolk County Council are using Labs to encourage innovation and
cultural change, and as a means of ensuring the continuous involvement
of front-line staff in the drive to provide improved services; and |
| in London where
The Metropolitan Police
are working together with the Police Complaints Authority and the
Crown Prosecution Service to reduce the time it takes to action
complaints against the police. |
The Cabinet Office commissioned, with support from the Improvement
& Development Agency, research into the lessons emerging from the
Learning Labs initiative. University College Northampton has carried out
this work and have drawn up a framework
to help those who want to use a
Learning Lab to improve their performance. The Cabinet Office are
continuing to carry out work in this area, and this framework may be
subject to further development.
Learning Labs are part of a concerted effort to fully involve
front-line staff in the modernisation programme, and utilise their
knowledge and experience. Through a series of personal visits, workshops
and seminars, Ministers are hearing at first hand the views of staff.
Last
Updated: 05/2002 |
