Changing the future of public service delivery with Infuse

The Innovative Future Services initiative aims to help public sector workers develop skills so they can support communities, accelerate decarbonisation and improve the health and well-being of citizens in Wales.

The Innovative Future Services (Infuse) programme aims to help public sector professionals in local authorities throughout the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) access new skills, methods and tools that will improve their ability to innovate.

The Infuse programme, which has £5.6 million in funding, will run for three years. It is funded by the European Social Fund through the Welsh Government and is led by Monmouthshire County Council in partnership with Cardiff University, Y Lab – the Public Services Innovation Lab for Wales – and the CCR.

Rooted in real-life challenges, the programme will be delivered through three ‘Labs’ that have specific workstreams:

Adaption Lab

Supports officers to design and deliver experiments that test potentially scalable solutions to regionwide problems.

Procurement Lab

Supports officers to develop and test new methods for buying innovative products and services to achieve better results for the people who use and provide the services.

Data Lab

Supports officers to better collect, manage, analyse, understand and make more effective use of data in decision making.

“We’re delighted to partner this much needed and extremely timely project. There’s a sense of urgency to build on the accelerated learning from COVID-19 to innovate and to transform delivery of future public services for better outcomes.”

— Professor Kevin Morgan, Professor of Governance and Development

Cohort Alpha

In May 2021, a cohort of 20 public servants from seven local authorities across South Wales became the first to embark on the Infuse programme.

Cohort Alpha, as they are known, will receive three months of training and support in new skills, tools and methods. This will be followed by three months of coaching in their own organisations as they go back to put their learning into practice, helping to change the future of public service delivery for years to come – developing innovation, new skills, and increasing capacity by tackling regional public service challenges together.

“The Infuse project comes at a time where we need the very best people representing us and making innovative and considered decisions as we face the challenges ahead.”

— Councillor Peter Fox, Monmouthshire County Council Leader

Infuse: the podcast

Dr Jane Lynch takes a deeper look into the societal challenges faced in Wales by talking to leading experts in local government and the public sector.

Listen, like and subscribe on Soundcloud, Spotify, and Anchor.fm.

Together, we can co-create a better future

This project translates the University's expertise into actionable results, upskilling public sector professionals across the region to drive civic innovation, improved well-being, and accelerated decarbonisation for the people of Wales.