Reports

A report detailing our experience and outcomes of a community research project working with young people who were, or had been, in care to design and run their own research. The project evaluated Who Cares? Scotland's advocacy services in two local authority areas. As a result of the research Who Cares? Scotland agreed to consider certain changes and improvements to their services.

Report of a full-day seminar entitled, The ecology of judgement in child welfare and protection, which was held at the University of Stirling on the 19th October, 2010. The event was part funded by Iriss and organised by the Scottish Child Care and Protection Network (SCCPN).

This study examines the relevance of social media to the development of personalised social care in general, and to self-directed support in particular. It examines the evolution of online marketplaces and describes some interesting and innovative ways in which social media is being used to find and exchange information about goods and services.

A set of case studies, produced for Iriss by the Institute of Public Care, on initiatives, which through detailed costings, have been shown to be cost effective.

The eight case studies include:

1. Shared lives
2. Extra-care housing
3. Health in mind
4. LinkAge Plus
5. Care and repair
6. Self assessment
7. Individual budgets
8. Southwark Hospital discharge.

Being innovative is not a detached activity to be undertaken once and never to be repeated again

Innovation is not only for small organisations that can react quickly, or large organisations that invest vast quantities of money in developing ideas. An innovative organisation is a place where new ideas are embraced and praised, where old ideas and traditional approaches are freely challenged and adapted, and where failure is tolerated and learnt from. Sounds simple.

There are a number of conditions that can be created by managers and leaders that can create a favourable climate for innovation to flourish. However, innovative organisations can, and do, look very different. For example:

The Linux movement has been described as a 'revolution' sweeping the software world. It describes a group of dedicated software hackers who, in their spare time, created an open operating system.

Despite a strong history of innovation and improvement in Scotland, some organisations have many structural and cultural features that impede its development by limiting risk taking and imposing tried and tested standardised solutions.

I introduced the topic of risk and innovation with a colleague the other day who managed to summarise some of the main challenges in a quick anecdote:

These guides aim to explore how you can approach innovation in your social services organisation, embracing the change that presents, and managing the risks that ensue.