We’re living in rapidly changing times. From conflict and climate change to the rise of AI and digital transformation, the challenges and opportunities the country and the world are facing are complex. It’s no secret that the public sector needs to adopt new technologies, systems and processes so that it can keep pace with change, solve problems and deliver public services.
This is where the civil service’s One Big Thing initiative comes in. Following last year’s inaugural campaign, which saw more than 200,000 participants improve their data skills, this year’s iteration focuses on innovation. Civil servants are being encouraged to learn a step-by-step innovation process before experimenting with delivering small, tangible changes.
The idea is to harness the innovative potential of civil servants and capitalise on the transformative power of collective action. The cumulation of many small changes can have a bigger impact, hence this year’s tagline: “One Big Thing starts with one small change.”
The programme aims to equip civil servants with knowledge and skills to help them in formulating and developing new ideas to deliver impact for their team, department and the public. Ultimately, One Big Thing will help civil servants to deliver small changes that realise tangible benefits and demonstrate that innovation can come from anyone, anywhere. It’s part of a wider focus on continuing to build towards a culture of continuous improvement where civil servants are encouraged to share ideas, collaborate to refine them, and safely experiment with delivering them.
What is innovation?
At its heart, innovation is about the novel application of ideas, methods and technologies to improve outcomes. It’s not just about generating ideas – it’s about creating genuine value. One Big Thing is based on four pillars to reinforce a culture that supports innovation:
Capability – Ensuring everyone has the right skills and tools
Incentives – Celebrating and rewarding experimental approaches
Leadership support – Creating a blame-free environment where failure can be accepted as part of learning
Resources – Providing the time, space, and investment needed for innovation
This year’s programme is split into three parts. More than 110,000 civil servants having already taken part in the first step: an online ‘Innovation Masterclass’. The civil service has packed its e-learning offering with advice and tips from innovators in both the private and public sector.
The second phase comprises team conversations in which participants reflect on their learning, share ideas and agree on the practical change that they can make as a team. So far over 1,500 of these conversations have been recorded.
Heading into the New Year, One Big Thing is approaching its final stage – experimentation. Following learning and team conversations, groups of civil servants across the country will experiment with delivering the agreed ‘small change’ and share their stories including what they learnt across the civil service.
Innovation Squads
Already the civil service has been taking steps towards greater innovation. At the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), digital teams have worked in multidisciplinary agile teams for years. Drawing inspiration from similar initiatives like Virgin Media’s Innovation Squads, a team at MHCLG piloted an Innovation Squad concept with non-digital colleagues.
A team of six civil servants, who had not worked together before, were drawn from different specialisms and divisions across the department. The team was given six weeks to improve a process of their choice anywhere in the organisation. The only ask of them was that they be creative, think innovatively and be unafraid to disrupt.
After workshopping ideas, the squad agreed that speeding up access to accurate information was a problem that was worth solving and could be of benefit to the entire department.
The answer: a chatbot called ‘HR Harry’. Built using Microsoft’s Power Virtual Agents app, by squad members who had no prior coding knowledge, HR Harry is being tested by the MHCLG HR team as part of their suite of internal digital services. The Innovation Squad is now supporting other functions to test and develop their own chatbots.
Sparking innovation
Already across the civil service, there are steps being taken to encourage more innovation. The Government Communication Service (GCS) established ‘Project Spark!’ – a programme to identify ideas for innovation, test them, and quickly scale them up through a ‘Dragons Den’ style opportunity.
The Met Office won the support of Spark! when they pitched a project that addresses the fact that one in five people in the UK have disabilities affecting their internet and social media use.
The team pitched their ideas to improve digital communication accessibility to a panel of experts. The pitch focused on centralising tools and training, collaboration with existing accessibility projects, and exploring generative AI applications. The presentation itself demonstrated accessibility best practices, including alt text, accessible colour schemes, and audio overviews.
Following unanimous support from the Dragons, the team has been working with the GCS Innovation Lab to develop and scale their solutions across government communications. Through workshops with communication specialists, they identified three key focus areas: improving access to best practices, developing an AI virtual assistant for accessibility guidance, and expanding British Sign Language usage.
The project has fostered valuable partnerships, including collaboration with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and Google.
Ones to watch
The public deserves and expects to see improved, targeted, responsive services from the government. Civil servants are already working in this area to embed a culture of innovation and improve many services:
• The Department for Work and Pensions has developed a Passport Benefit Checking Service to speed up identification of whether someone qualifies for free medication.
• HM Revenue and Customs has integrated Open Banking, a cutting-edge payment technology and has saved over £1m in processing costs and reduced error corrections.
• Natural England has pioneered the use of artificial intelligence to restore peatlands, automatically analysing huge volumes of peatland images to identify where maintenance is needed.
What’s next?
Civil servants have until 14 February 2025 to undertake their training, take part in team conversations and get experimenting with their ideas. By Valentine’s Day it is hoped that a majority of the civil servants across participating departments will have taken part, and possibly become enamoured with innovation. Beyond One Big Thing, the civil service as a whole will be continuing its efforts to think and do things differently.