Stuart GouldenA new challenge has been posted on City of York Council and Science City York’s community forum – GeniUS! – asking for fresh ideas to aid older and vulnerable people in their own homes.
The Council have already committed to spending £1 million across the next four years to using technology to assist an ever-increasing ageing population and want to ensure every penny is spent wisely. We will all inevitably have to deal with the issues that accompany old age, such as social isolation, and the quality of life and care, and as such it’s important that we use this opportunity to help shape the future services and support offered by the Council.
Launching only last week, the forum attracted 26 thoughts and opinions on the first open challenge – how best to bring new life into underused Council equipment, property, buildings and land, for the benefit of businesses, the community and the Council themselves. There has been particular interest around the grade II listed Clementhorpe Maltings building, which was used in the production of beer, whisky and foodstuffs until the late 1950s.
Kersten England, chief executive of City of York Council is delighted with the response so far, saying: “What a great start! Tell everyone you know about GeniUS! so we can all work together to make our city a better place to live, visit and work. We want to explore the potential for this process and to share our learning with other local authorities.”
The forum is the first step in the Council’s bid to transform the way it thinks and acts by deploying open innovation, backed by £30,000 NESTA funding. If City of York Council’s idea is successfully chosen as one of the final five (across 17 Councils in England) in March, the Council will receive an additional £150,000 to £250,000 and further non-financial support to see their idea become fully implemented over the next two years.
The overall objective of the Creative Councils initiative is to introduce transformational new approaches to meeting some of the biggest long-term challenges facing communities and local services, whilst delivering better value for money services. The five final projects will also be deemed to have the greatest potential for rollout and benefits for local government right across the country.
Speaking to us prior to the launch of GeniUS!, Heather Niven, Business Manager for Science City York, told us:
“This is a really exciting opportunity to create an ‘innovation ecosystem’ to support the medium to long term challenges in the city of York. The project will bring the businesses, residents and council departments together to tackle issues such as smart assisted living, procurement and sustainability in a way which encourages the co-development of cutting edge solutions using the latest technologies. The underpinning ‘open innovation process’ provides a framework to get the most out of the ideas generated and an online web platform will be launched in January to communicate the challenges and capture those ideas.”
So if you have an opinion or moment of inspiration on the how to aid older and vulnerable people in their own homes, share away at the GeniUS! website today.
