When Cat Little and I were asked to co-champion the Innovator Award this year, I jumped at the chance. Innovation is about using smart tools and fresh thinking to solve real problems for the people we serve. Sometimes that means a bold breakthrough, and sometimes it’s a small tweak that unlocks something bigger.
But some of the most powerful innovations come not from adding, but from taking away.
There’s an example using Lego that I often return to when thinking about innovation. In a study, participants were given a Lego structure with just one brick supporting the roof and were asked to make it more stable. Most participants instinctively reached for several more bricks to add to the structure. But an elegant – and equally valid – solution was to remove a brick. People often didn’t think of this even when told that they had to pay for each brick used. It’s a simple but powerful reminder that not all problems require more; sometimes, the smartest fix is by thoughtful subtraction.
I’ve seen teams achieve real breakthroughs by stripping away unnecessary bureaucracy, simplifying outdated processes, or removing barriers that no one had thought to question. These aren’t just efficiency gains – they’re transformative shifts. Innovation through simplification is often better for users, too. For example, we simplified the delivery of the National Tutoring Programme by providing funding directly to schools, removing the need for them to partner with private tutoring companies to deliver additional support for pupils.
I’ve seen how cross-government collaboration can amplify innovation – both through addition and thoughtful subtraction – to streamline processes and deliver meaningful impact for the people we serve.
Take the children’s services team, who developed an intuitive dashboard that helps social workers track cases more effectively – dramatically reducing paperwork and freeing up time for frontline work.
Or the skills team, who created an intelligent online matching system that connects jobseekers with local apprenticeship opportunities – opening new pathways that didn’t exist before.
And the Oak National Academy, whose AI lesson assistant, AILA, is saving teachers an average of three hours a week on lesson planning – improving curriculum delivery, reducing workload, and supporting better outcomes for pupils.
These are not just clever tools – they represent a mindset that balances ambition with responsibility. They show how we can embrace the extraordinary potential of new technology and processes while also removing unnecessary burdens, simplifying systems, and carefully weighing risk and reward.
As we review this year’s nominations, we’re looking for those moments when teams or individuals solved a real problem in a way that made their colleagues say, “Why didn’t we think of that before?”. We’re interested in the small ideas that made a big difference, the creative solutions that put users first, and the bold innovations that changed how things are done – all in service of delivering better outcomes for the people we serve.
Susan Acland-Hood is permanent secretary at the Department for Education and co-champion of the Innovator Award (alongside Cabinet Office perm sec Cat Little) at this year's 20th anniversary special edition of the Civil Service Awards