In the first two and a half years of its existence it received some 10,000 suggestions from the public and, amongst the ideas that it helped put into action, were National Heritage (for the improvement of museums), WAM (Working Association of Mothers), decimal braille and charity postage stamps. In the later stages of its work, the Centre decided to concentrate on building up a 'Community Innovations Register' of already existing innovations in the field of health and welfare, whilst running down the suggestions side of its work and ceasing to publish its magazine.
'The main reason the National Suggestions Centre failed was because we did not have enough skilled people who were able to get the good ideas put into practice. For the most part, it really needed a great deal of innovative skill to see what the best approach was in each case.
'I remember I must have spent several hundred hours just in trying to persuade the Electricity Council to go for an experiment with tokens for electricity meters which had an enormous advantage over coins. I failed. I took it up later when I was chairman of the National Consumer Council and had a bit more weight behind me, and, after an even greater effort, they were persuaded and the first trials of the tokens in the North of England turned out well.
'It's not exactly an earth-shaking issue but it took about 15 years to get the authorities to budge, even though we knew that they worked like a charm in Japan. The idea is pretty well as good as it ever was and there ought to be much more use of such non-cash-like tokens. Since the tokens are self-destruct, no money has to be collected and no money is vulnerable to theft. Also they have their cash flow problems eased because the money is up front. The concept has since been used with Phonecards but it has much wider possibilities for all sorts of coin boxes.
'Some things just fell into our lap like National Heritage, which was pretty well fully formed when we took it on and it has gone extremely well ever since.
'I do not think there was anything wrong with our idea but just the lack of the right people with the right sort of nous.'
Michael Young, The Institute of Community Studies, 18 Victoria Park Square, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PF (tel 081 980 6263).
I am trying to see what other lessons I learn for our Institute from the relative failure of the National Suggestions/Innovations Centre - apart from the factors mentioned in your letter. To judge by the scanty remaining evidence:
- I think the new baby required looking after longer by you as initiator. It needed people with a track record of successful social innovation steering it, supported by a team of similarly innovative people.
- It seems to have been a mistake to drop the magazine and the contact with the public.
- The venture was perhaps too paternalistic towards the public, at least at the outset: we will do your idea for you, rather than supporting a person in taking it further themselves; like a hospital that takes the baby away from the mother rather than leaving it by her side for breastfeeding.
- There was no evidence of an attempt to build up a club-like network of socially innovative people.
- The overseas network to let you know of socially innovative projects that could be implemented in the UK does not seem to have materialised.
- There was no educational work with the aim of showing people ways to become more innovative for themselves, by running workshops, etc. No one appreciated the value of the 10,000 suggestions from this perspective of encouraging people to start thinking of better directions for society - even if you considered the suggestions themselves to be not so good.
- There was no setting of criteria to help people judge whether their suggestions were as finely tuned as they might be.
- There was not enough focusing on neighbourhood schemes that people could carry out without government or bureaucratic approval.
- Most crucially, there was no serious attempt to make the Centre financially self-supporting within the lifetime of the grants.
This is probably all too harsh, building up an unreliable picture from the fragments that remain. And it neglects the substantial achievements - a highish circulation magazine, thousands of suggestions and several good projects.
Nicholas Albery, 20 Heber Road, London NW2 6AA (tel 081 208 2853; fax 081 452 6434).