Over the last year, FutureGov and the RSA have supported Camden Council with the design and development of their local Innovation and Development Fund. Camden used the current local government funding situation as an opportunity to re-define their relationship with the organisations that they give money to, creating a fund that encourages risk taking and experimentation to develop new ways of solving long standing problems or to redesign services.

FutureGov delivered user workshops and conducted research to inform the design of the fund and then delivered two events to support applicants to develop ideas that were both innovative and enterprising. The RSA conducted a survey to uncover local networks of people and resources to support the development of the ideas. We also provided the council with technology and evaluation scoping reports to support the improved delivery of the fund. The council launched the fund in September 2011 and received over 70 applications from local organisations both known and unknown to the council.

FutureGov has recently launched Simpl Challenges to enable councils to have their own dedicated area to run local challenges, using this transparent forum to pose problems for the local community to solve by designing and delivering innovative and enterprising projects to be supported (both financially and with other in-kind resources) by the innovation fund.