Organisation information
Our Public Service 2020 and Innovation
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Our Public Service 2020 is the framework for development and innovation in the public service. It was launched in December 2017, succeeding two public service reform plans which began in 2011.
This phase of public service reform focuses on supporting sustainable, continuous progress across the public service.
It aims to build a stronger public service and to deliver better quality services to the Irish public.
Our Public Service 2020 is built on three pillars:
Implementation of the framework began in 2018 and incorporated 18 headline actions spanning the three pillars and representing cross-cutting strategic reforms that are being implemented across the public service.
The vision for this Action 14 of Our Public Service 2020 is the development of a public service that values learning and development to support meaningful career pathways for professionals and generalists, irrespective of grade or location, and provides opportunities for personal and professional development that benefits the individual, the organisation in which they work, and the citizens which they serve.
The aim is to encourage a culture across our public service organisations that is people-centred and learning-focused. This is to provide an environment in which learning and personal and professional development are recognised and valued as key success factors in building an agile workforce, developing and retaining people and delivering quality services.
This action incorporates all of the learning and development initiatives and opportunities which impact on the roles that people currently have across the public service, as well as the roles they will have in the future. It is not limited to purely ’professional’ training as required in specific areas, such as medicine and teaching. Instead, it includes providing for learning and development opportunities, allowing for mobility and temporary secondments, and, where necessary, changing cultural values to reinforce Continuing Personal and Professional Development (CPPD) offerings. It is about developing an agile workforce which is prepared for, and can work with, change and complexity.
This project is now complete. The Action 14 Team was jointly led by the Secretary General of the Department of Education, Seán Ó Foghlú, and the Director General of the Higher Education Authority, Dr. Alan Wall. The following initiatives were developed by the Action 14 Team:
These are available to view on the Action 14 section of OPS2020 Website.
The next phase of Public Service Reform is now under development and the PSR Programme Office will lead in its implementation across the Education Sector.
Innovation involves doing things in new or different ways in order to make them better. Our changing world requires innovation to plan and develop services. Our Public Service 2020 , the current public service reform plan, established teams to focus on encouraging innovation throughout the public service. Increased use of digital resources focused on the needs of service users, improved strategic planning and better collaboration across the public service has helped to promote an innovation culture, based on evidence and evaluation.
The Public Service Innovation Strategy was published in November 2020, to embed innovation in order to deliver improved services now and in future. In accordance with this Strategy, which is now a commitment within the Department of Education’s current Statement of Strategy, the department’s three priorities to support innovation will be:
Encouraging innovative approaches empowers staff to provide high quality, effective and relevant services to the department’s stakeholders and is encouraged across the department and the wider education sector. The Public Service Reform Office will continue to work with partners to deepen and continue to drive a culture of innovation across the department and the sector to deliver now and to help shape the future.
The Public Service Reform Office organises the department’s Innovation Week, which provides staff and the wider education community with an opportunity to focus attention on innovation within their organisations and to inspire others to see the opportunities to deliver better and more efficient services to the public.
Innovation Week 2021 , which took place from 8 to 12 November, focused on the three priorities identified in Public Service Innovation Strategy through sharing learnings arising from the new ways of thinking and working that have emerged over the past year.
The Public Service Reform Programme Office hosted eight interactive webinars, an outdoor musical performance by Music Generation and an online art exhibition during Innovation Week 2021, highlighting how the education sector is innovating to bring creativity and an innovative approach to the classroom. Department officials joined agencies and students. The Innovation Week 2021 schedule of events can be found below:
| Date | Event Overview | ||
| Monday, 8 November | "Why and how the Department of Education is designing, developing and delivering innovative, creative and considered approaches in the classroom" Curriculum Assessment and Policy Unit and Creative Ireland | "How Nao the robot is assisting students in Co. Sligo primary schools to learn French”, Debbie Woodward, Lecturer Sligo IT | |
| Tuesday, 9 November | “How inter-agency collaboration led to shared approach paperwork and increased teacher autonomy in planning for teaching and learning” Joint presentation by the Inspectorate, National Council for Curriculum Assessment, National Council for Special Education and Professional Development Service for Teachers. | ||
| Wednesday, 10 November | ‘The evolution of post-primary school building design in Ireland’ , Niamh Barry, Inspector | Performance by Music Generation at Clock Tower in Department | |
| Thursday, 11 November | “Experiencing the power of change in education and building capacity for innovation among students” Alan Morgan, UCD Innovation Academy | ||
| Friday, 12 November | Online workshop with students – “From Stress to Co-creation – re-imagine our role through the eyes of service-users” Workshop facilitated by the Burren School of Art | Providing Accredited Grades and Leaving Certificate Examinations 2021 in Parallel – presentation by the State Examinations Commission | |
| 8-12 November | Online Photography Exhibition – ‘A day in the life of Rathkeale – images, video and brochures hosted online . This project emerged through a youth voice consultation carried out by the LCYP Coordinator with young people from Limerick Youth Service, Foróige and West Limerick School Completion in Rathkeale |
The Public Service Innovation Fund is a competitive fund which aims to support innovative ideas from across public service organisations and turn them into a reality. Twenty diverse projects received funding of up to €60,000 in 2021. The 2022 Innovation Fund funding is open until December 17th 2022 (please see DPER Information Guide )
A number of innovation projects in the education sector have previously been awarded funding under this scheme, including:
The Public Service Innovation Fund is a competitive fund that aims to support innovative ideas from across public service organisations and turn them into a reality with funding available of up to €60,000 in 2021.
A number of innovation projects in the education sector have previously been awarded funding under this scheme, including:
Making Innovation Real - Ireland's Public Service Innovation Strategy - encourages public service organisations to connect and collaborate across the wider ecosystem to enable greater scaling of innovation. Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Michael Mc Grath, recently launched a new pilot challenge in partnership with industry called the "Future Tech Challenge" . This competition encourages public service organisations to pitch potential problems that they believe might be solved using newer technologies. The competition sponsors will offer prizes of work, product or materials, up to value of €100,000 to the most worthy and impactful challenges posed by Public Service Bodies. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will publish a series of case studies outlining how this new technology performed in the challenge following the solution being put in place.
While this first challenge focuses on engagements with established technology companies that have a global reach (Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, and IBM with advice from IDA Ireland), a further iteration of the challenge is being planned for Spring 2022, focusing on greater collaboration with small and medium enterprises with the expert assistance of Enterprise Ireland.
The Public Service Innovation Hub holds innovation related news, information on events, case studies of great public service innovation, and opportunities for self-development and funding.