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We’re helping public sector workers develop skills that can support communities, accelerate decarbonisation and improve the health and well-being of citizens in Wales as part of the Innovative Future Services (Infuse) programme.

The £5.6 million initiative is funded by European Social Fund through 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 Cardiff Capital Region (CCR).

The three-year programme will support public sector professionals in local authorities across the CCR access new skills, methods and tools that improve their capacity and capability to innovate.

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

The Adaption Lab - supporting officers to design and deliver experiments that test potentially scalable solutions to regionwide problems.
The Procurement Lab – supporting officers to learn, develop and test new processes and methods for procuring innovative products and services that produce better outcomes for people who use and deliver services against the two thematic areas.
The Data Lab – supporting officers to better collect, manage, analyse, understand and make more effective use of data in decision making.

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.

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 to the Infuse podcast on Soundcloud.

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