Abstract
This interview with Lord Michael Bichard, one of the most distinguished public sector leaders in the United Kingdom, explores his ideas around the relationship between leadership, creativity, and innovation. A champion of place-based approaches to public services, where citizens are actively involved in service design, delivery, and appraisal, Bichard advocates the need for inclusive and supportive leadership that enables the emergence of the kinds of creativity required to respond to the financial challenges facing the public sector. Bichard’s ideas resonate with recent research on creative leadership and provide a practical illustration of place-based and systems leadership in the public sector and beyond.
Highlights
The United Kingdom, like many nations, is facing a crisis in public sector funding
The ‘Total Place’ approach (HM Treasury, 2010) arose out of his work on the Operational Efficiency Programme in 2009 to identify potential cost savings and efficiencies across the UK public sector (Dhar-Bhattacharjee et al, 2010) and, despite the change in government in the 2010 election, has become a key pillar of public sector reform ever since
As he argues: “Total Place is not just another Whitehall initiative. It is about giving local providers the incentive to work together in new ways for the benefit of their clients and citizens – and the opportunity to tell Government how it could behave differently to make this kind of collaborative action more likely.” (Leadership Centre for Local Government, 2010). In this interview, based on a public address at the University of the West of England in January 2016, Bichard outlines his views on the relationship between leadership and creativity and the opportunities this promises for the transformation of public services
Summary
The United Kingdom, like many nations, is facing a crisis in public sector funding. The National Health Service (NHS), for example, despite the allocation of an additional £10 billion in the November 2015 Spending Review is facing a real-terms reduction in public funding for health services of 20% over the five years (Nuffield Trust, Health Foundation and Kings Fund, 2015, BMA, 2016). “Total Place is not just another Whitehall initiative It is about giving local providers the incentive to work together in new ways for the benefit of their clients and citizens – and the opportunity to tell Government how it could behave differently to make this kind of collaborative action more likely.” (Leadership Centre for Local Government, 2010). In this interview, based on a public address at the University of the West of England in January 2016, Bichard outlines his views on the relationship between leadership and creativity and the opportunities this promises for the transformation of public services. The paper ends with a brief commentary, identifying key themes and their relationship to contemporary issues in the academic literature
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