The idea of risk avoidance and aversion has become a dominant and crucial feature in the way public services are designed, managed and reviewed.

Public servants are often tasked with managing the possibility of something bad happening, and services are designed to respond to and mitigate against these negative risks.

The problem is that too often, negative or ‘downside’ risks (children being abused in foster care, for example) are managed in ways that limit the opportunities for positive outcomes or ‘upside risks’ (children helping to co-design the type of care they receive), obstructing collective problem solving, mutual accountability, the ability of frontline staff to respond to the root causes of people’s needs and the sharing of power with citizens.

This approach to understanding and managing risk in public services limits opportunities for innovation for two key reasons: it focuses on managing downside risks rather than enabling upside possibilities, and on organisational rather than societal risks – the risk of fraud, or abuse or neglect of vulnerable individuals, for example – rather than looking at the wider conditions that create disadvantage.

This paper, based on the insight and practical experiences of members of Nesta’s Upstream Collaborative, explores how local authorities can reframe risk to enable innovation by widening the lens and expanding the space for downside and upside possibilities. This active learning network supported local government innovators to share, accelerate and assess new operating models that work upstream of social problems to help create the conditions that enable citizens’ needs to be met in empowering and inclusive ways.

These local authorities represent some of the bright spots of public service activity, demonstrating more human and collaborative ways of addressing complex challenges. During the programme participants formed workgroups, collaborating around a challenge or opportunity relevant to their work and sharing perspectives and stories to amplify and improve practice.

This paper is written by Collaborate on behalf of the six local authorities and their partners who participated in the Risk and Innovation Workgroup:

Cambridgeshire County Council, Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust, ClwydAlyn Housing Association, Denbighshire County Council, Derbyshire County Council, London Borough of Newham, Staffordshire County Council, Surrey County Council.