Evaluating Northern Ireland's Innovation Lab

iLab aims to improve public services and policy by creating a safe space to co-create ideas, test prototypes, and refine concepts with citizens, civil servants, and stakeholders. Established in 2014 by the then Minister for Finance within the Public Sector Reform Division of the Department of Finance, iLab has led 18 projects in its first two years focused on a wide range of service and policy challenges. The challenges ranged from improving the use of data analytics within the government and reviewing business rates to encouraging people to pay court fines and optimising how patients manage their medication. It is testimony to the Lab’s success that it has been able to embark on such a diverse and ambitious portfolio of projects and gained endorsement from a range of departments. After two years of activity it was time for a review of the Lab’s performance and PDR, the International Design and Research Centre, was commissioned to perform an evaluation.

“The rise of Policy Labs using design methods is an innovation in public governance but perhaps due to the experimental nature of projects Labs tend to operate behind closed doors."

The evaluation examined both the Lab activities as well as its governance including leadership, operating model, methods, and capacity. This was carried out based on 30 interviews with Lab staff, the wider Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS), and external stakeholders. As a result, four impact case studies have been developed. For example, although there are multiple factors at work, an investment of £60,000 in the Lab’s Medicines Optimisation project could result in cost savings of over £20 million per annum. Consequently, a series of recommendations have been made to capitalise on the Lab’s expertise, achieve further impact, and secure additional support from stakeholders.

In a very tangible way, Northern Ireland's Lab is already contributing to two significant NICS agendas – the Programme for Government (PfG) and engaging citizens and stakeholders in quality public consultation.

“One of the problems we have in policy development is direct citizen engagement. Involving citizens in the policy process is standard practice but we do not necessarily achieve quality citizen engagement. Our desired representative user groups find it difficult to participate in the formalised consultation meetings we usually hold."

The Northern Ireland Public Sector Innovation Lab is uniquely positioned to drive more transparent and inclusive public decision-making. The Lab has considerable added-value both in monetary terms, evident from the return on investment figures cited in the case studies, and also for transforming the interface between the NICS and the public.