Enabling Spreading good ideas relies on tools, methods and support getting to the right people at the right time.
Image Research Dementia and Diversity This project aims to understand the different ways in which dementia is experienced by diverse communities (in relation to ethnicity, sexuality and disability) across Wales.
Image Governance Innovations in decision-making, whether in national or local politics or communities and places, are changing the way that people are involved in services.
Image Inclusion We are working on research that looks at the role gender plays in public services innovation, using data from funders. Our team also has expertise in co-production and co-creation and how to involve people in designing services.
Report HARP COVID-19 Sprint Challenge Final Report How could the arts support people living through lockdown? How could access to arts interventions be improved? Our sprint challenge aimed to build our knowledge to support more people in Wales. Download
Report Delivering Public Services Innovation: Evidence from Wales This report highlights case studies of public services innovation in Wales and brings together shared challenges and barriers facing innovators across the public sector. Download
Toolkit Guide: Repayable Finance for Innovation in Public Services We produced a guide to running an Innovate to Save programme, taking you through the three phases of supporting projects to improve services and deliver cashable savings. Download
Programme of Work InFuSe: Innovative Future Services Our partnership with Monmouthshire County Council and Cardiff University will work with ten local authorities over three years to build capacity for innovation.
Research Data Poverty in Wales and Scotland We are working with partners to find out more about the scale and depth of data poverty in Wales and Scotland and the impact on people's lives.
Programme of Work Cardiff Capital Region Challenge Fund We are working with the Cardiff Capital Region to deliver a new challenge fund that aims to use innovation to address societal challenges.
Programme of Work Public Services Innovation Case Studies What are the innovations already happening in Wales?
Programme of Work Innovate to Save Innovate to Save aims to tackle some of the most complex issues facing public services.
Programme of Work HARP - an arts and health programme Launched in 2019 in partnership with Arts Council of Wales, our Arts and Health programme, HARP, aims to increase our understanding of how the arts can play a more prominent role in people’s wellbeing in Wales.
HARP Sprint: Conversations/Future Selves Commissioning six D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists to create works reflecting on their experiences of the pandemic and hopes for the future.
HARP Sprint: Rengarific Supporting two groups of adults experiencing mental health problems and a third group of brain injury
HARP Sprint: Family Arts Roundabout Supporting families where one family member is shielding, through an intergenerational arts project where the family works together online to create a joint pi
HARP Sprint: 15 a Day Adults experiencing loneliness undertook 7 days of creative activities (drawing and writing), 15 minutes a day, inspired by virtual reality videos that they wa
Supporting wellbeing for older people in Solva: Direct payments and domiciliary care Solva Case used Innovate to Save funding to explore ways of improving choice for older people who need extra help at home.
Co-producing a new sexual health information service for young people Promo-Cymru used Research and Development funding from Innovate to Save to develop and test a new information service helping young people find out and take action on their sexual health.
Help to Move: How can older people be supported to move home? When staying put isn’t best, how can older people be supported to move home?
Implementing the Mockingbird Family programme in Wales How Flintshire Council used Innovate to Save funding to introduce a constellation of care for looked after children in Wales.
Strengthening the Rule of Law in Lesotho Supported by a Cardiff University Impact Accelerator Grant, Y Lab partnered with Seinoli Legal Centre and Protimos to explore if 10 years of collected data could be used to build a proof of
Piloting a sustainable social investment model Llamau explored the viability of a new kind of funding model to ensure that charities, whose work benefits the public sector, are funded more sustainably and fairly.
Time Credit Social Prescribing Pilot Cardiff South West GP Cluster and Tempo worked together to explore how offering Time Credits for people with low-level depression and anxiety could generate savings.
Community Gardening as a Social Prescribing Tool Staff and volunteers working with Grow Cardiff have experienced first-hand the positive health benefits associated with growing food.
Developing a Fairbourne Community Interest Company Fairbourne is a village in North Wales, served by Gwynedd Council. In 2014, a Shoreline Management Plan was published estimating that it would not be sustainable to maintain flood defences in the
Smart Speakers for Supported Living Innovate Trust developed an Innovate to Save project to test how smart speakers and intelligent digital assistants (such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home) could meet the needs of adults with learnin
Integrating Health and Social Care Transport in North Wales Wales Ambulance Service Trust (WAST) and the three local organisations involved in this project, operate free non-emergency patient transport, including Special Educational Needs (SEN) transport, a
Testing Together As One for more choice and control for people with disabilities Leonard Cheshire aimed to empower disabled people to use their social care budget and direct payments to take part in activities that interest them, to create more opportunities to socialise and be
Community Accommodation for Young People Leaving Care FABRIC identified a need for ‘step-down’ accommodation amongst young people currently living in and transitioning out of care.
Innovate Trust Innovate Trust has supported people with physical and learning disabilities for more than 50 years.
Wales Ambulance Service Trust (WAST) Wales Ambulance Service Trust (WAST) and the three local organisations involved in this project, operate free non-emergency patient trans
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Innovative Design How can we use design thinking to help innovate? This is a test description for the CTA
18 December Next of Kin: a performance and discussion about dementia, D/deaf communication and healthcare As part of the 2020 Festival of Social Science, Y Lab presented the performance of a new play 'Next of Kin' alongside a discussion about dementia, hearing loss and the role
17 December HARP Seed: The Health Challenges Find out more about the health challenges set by our HARP Seed health places.
16 December Call for Arts Places to apply to HARP Seed Health Challenges Applications are now open for arts places, including artists, to join health places in Wales to tackle some of their biggest challenges.
23 November Put your money where your mouth is: Improving diversity in funding What are the limitations in the system that mean funding isn't more equal?
18 November HARP Seed and Nourish FAQs We have collated answers to some of the frequently asked questions about the new HARP Seed and Nourish strands.
1 November HARP: About Nourish In partnership with Arts Council of Wales, Nourish is a strand of the HARP programme, focused on scaling and sustaining.
30 October HARP: About Seed Seed is a strand of the HARP programme, focused on research and development. Find out more about what we are looking for in this strand and how to apply.
29 September Innovating in arts and health during a pandemic Programme manager, Rosie Dow, talks about the challenges and joys of arts and health innovation during COVID-19.
28 August Evaluating a programme: What have we learned so far about Innovate to Save? How and why does innovation happen in public services?
12 August We need you: Arts and Health during the COVID-19 pandemic Y Lab has launched a survey that aims to find out more about how arts and health can address challenges and improve access to online delivery.
2 June Y Lab and COVID-19 Our Academic Director, James Lewis, writes about what we are working on and how we are responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
18 May New Public Involvement Group for Arts and Health Research We are launching a public involvement and patient experience in research group (PIPER) for Arts and Health in Wales. Read more about what it will do and how to join.
11 May Flintshire Council becomes first in Wales to introduce Mockingbird programme Council in North Wales will use £1.15million in Innovate to Save funding to roll-out the Mockingbird family model for looked after children and their foster families.
27 April HARP COVID-19 Sprint Challenge How can the arts support people living through lockdown? How can access to arts interventions be improved? Our sprint challenge aimed to build our knowledge to support more people in Wales.
27 March Arts and health in creative isolation: What now? HARP programme manager, Rosie Dow, explores what we know so far about arts and health in the context of a coronavirus pandemi
18 February Introducing Public Services Pioneers: tools for change and how to use them Alexis Palá explains more about our event: What is it and why should you come?
8 January Why measure public sector innovation? What we’ve learned so far from the Nordics For the past 6 months, Y Lab has been exploring how countries around the world measure public service innovation in different ways. Here's what we've found out so far.
9 December Why we are taking a People Powered Results approach to Arts and Health In April 2019, we announced a new Arts and Health programme with Arts Council of Wales and Welsh NHS Confederation.
6 November Why I have joined Y Lab: Introducing Dr Steve Garner We are delighted to welcome Dr Steve Garner to the team. In his first blog for Y Lab, he shares his research background and what he plans to focus on next.
25 October Transparency in innovation funding: What are the invisible barriers facing women? Are funders reaching the widest possible pool of innovators to publicise their programmes? What are the barriers that face women that we may not be able to see?
30 September How can governments increase public participation in decision-making? What are the best ways to involve people in decisions that affect their lives? Research Fellow, Emyr Williams, explores some options that could be more widely used in Wales.
31 July What do you really need to innovate? We know that the innovation can’t happen with just funding alone.
18 July Using the arts for health and wellbeing Y Lab has launched a new programme of work to explore the contribution of the arts in keeping people healthy in Wales.
17 July We need to change government's innovation mindset Mindsets greatly affect the tools we use and the outcomes we achieve; it’s time for governments and those working with public services to confront this reality.
12 July Announcing the first Innovate to Save Loan Leonard Cheshire will use a loan of £1million to develop and scale their Innovate to Save project across Wales.
21 June Can we mitigate gender bias in innovation funding? Research shows that gender influences the outcome of innovation funding applications. How can we understand this better and test ways to guard against unconscious bias?
