Innovation is now expected of public services organisations with the aim of improving their performance and increasing the quality of services. These expectations extend beyond the shores of Britain and are not just the prerogative of the Labour government and its ‘modernisation’ agenda. They are international, described in the USA as ‘Reinventing Government’ and clearly seen in the English-speaking nations of the world. However, the innovative capacity of public services organisations is not widely proven. Furthermore, if public services organisations are to meet their innovative expectations, as exhorted to by government, precious little information exists on the management of innovation to help in this pursuit. This study explores the innovative claims of one group of public services organisations: housing associations or Registered Social Landlords. They are excellent examples to draw upon. They were propelled into the centre stage of housing policy in the late 1980s because they were seen to be innovative. Extensive change has subsequently taken place within the sector and they have increasingly experienced exposure to the market, beyond that encountered in many other public services organisations. Our findings have relevance to the housing association sector and to other public services organisations that are facing similar experiences as the market comes to play an increasingly important role in our hospitals, local authorities and universities. Our work reports on:

• • the policy context which makes innovation imperative;

• • the nature of housing association innovation;

• • the characteristics of innovative housing associations;

• • the management of innovation, with recommendations for best practice; and

• • proposals on techniques for sharing innovation knowledge and best practice within the sector.

The findings from this work are important as public policies become more ‘evidence-based’. The evidence presented in the book, from which our lessons are drawn, is based on longitudinal case studies of housing associations and data sets, including the Housing Corporation's Innovation and Good Practice database on housing association innovation. The research was undertaken between 1997 and 2000.

Innovation

The notion of innovation came into popular use within the housing association sector during the 1990s as government and national housing agencies started to promote the importance of innovation and associations themselves claimed to be innovative. However, housing associations’ claims to their innovative capacity are unproven and because guidance from government on innovation is limited, it was appropriate to research the nature, extent and scope of innovation among housing associations.