How can organisations gain the capacity to understand the potential for applying new technologies to their business? What happens when you bring together people responsible for designing and overseeing major changes to raise their awareness of emerging digital services?

Collaborative leadership is a major driver for public services in Wales and it brings an opportunity for new solutions to be generated across organisational boundaries.

Last month Y Lab launched its first open call, for a Digital Innovators’ Network, a three-month programme for public service leaders, providing support and insight to match their ambition. Drawn from across public services in Wales, members of this network will:

• join a programme of events and visits with cutting edge digital organisations
• champion digital reform ideas within their own organisation and receive mentoring and support from Y Lab and partner organisations
• develop and strengthen digital collaborations across public service organisations
• play an active role in Nesta’s current work on developing models for digital government, influencing this work and ensuring Welsh public services are well placed to take advantage of it.

Over the next few months the members of the network will have the opportunity to pitch projects that would benefit from acceleration funding in order to become exemplars of leading digital service initiatives.

We’re excited about the opportunities this programme will create for public services in Wales and are looking forward to sharing our work. Our first event is set to take place in Cardiff at the end of January with several more to follow over the next three months. In the meantime, you can forward our progress via our blog posts and on Y Lab’s twitter account: @YLabWales

Notes: The network is part of a larger programme of work associated with the Digital Innovation Fund for Wales, a fund which was announced by the Minister for Public Services and formally launched on 3 November 2015. Y Lab, Cardiff University and Nesta’s public service innovation lab for Wales, has been asked by the Welsh Government to develop, run and evaluate this fund.