Interesting link to an NHS website exploring High Quality Care for All which quotes an extract from that report that Strategic Health authorities “will have a new legal duty to promote innovation.”
They go onto define innovation as follows:
“… too often innovation has been defined narrowly, focusing solely on research, when in fact innovation is a broader concept, encompassing clinical practice and service design. Service innovation means people at the frontline fi nding better ways of caring for patients – improving outcomes, experiences and safety. In this country, we have a proud record of invention, but we lag behind in systematic uptake even of our own inventions.” [High Quality Care for All, pg 55]
Given Scotland’s proud record for invention perhaps we should be emboldened to see public service innovation – particularly in education – as a duty, as opposed to a threat?
It’s interesting that this is effectively one of Deming’s 14 principles for management:
5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
It seems odd to legislate for just this one. I wonder what Deming would have made of that?
What a superb idea. We have been doing some work on helping schools to think through the issues raised within the Journey to Excellence website. The journey to excellence has to be one that sees innovation and creativity as a normal part of what we do daily.
‘Learning Rounds’ (observing practice with a focus on key AFL strategies) e.g. questioning, sharing learning intentions, can lead to highly innovative and creative practice in the classroom through learning from colleagues in classroom observations and professional dialogue. Earlier this week teachers from ‘cluster’ primary schools observed secondary colleagues in action in Dumfries Academy, with a focus on ‘LIs’ and ‘Questioning’. Joining them in the ‘Learning Rounds’ activity were colleagues from Ayr Academy. One current example of an inter-authority cross-sectoral innovative approach to professional development at a variety of levels.
Instrumental music teachers in Dumfries & Galloway schools are being highly innovative in teaching young people in remote schools through the medium of video conferencing.
We don’t need to search too far in Scotland to find top-notch creative and innovative work in Scottish schools.
In reply to this post, but also to David Gilmour’s post, W.E. Deming also said that we have to drive out fear. In Scottish education we have done the opposite, which is why in my view Scottish school education is now in almost lock-down in regards of innovation to its new curriculum (practical curricular and institutional) and trapped in a mire of reductive ‘how goodery’ instead of systemic learning. We are in a state of paralysis over ‘what is permitted’ and those schools which did innovate came up against an inspectorate who said ‘We are not evaluating Curriculum for Excellence’. They want to see reams of paper clutter and wouldn’t see the likes of this because it is situational learning and reflection rather than planning to the nth degree.