Working with the Home Office to measure innovation readiness and inform strategy

In line with the UK government’s focus to create a Modern Civil Service which is skilled, innovative and ambitious, Sopra Steria was commissioned to carry out an assessment into the Home Office readiness to innovate. The assessment highlights the biggest challenges and opportunities to drive systemic innovation maturity.​

“Innovation is at the heart of how we improve policy, process and service delivery, and ensure we’re the most productive and efficient organisation we can be.” UK Government strategy published as part of One Big Thing – A Modern Civil Service.

Background

The Home Office plays a crucial role in ensuring the security and economic stability of the United Kingdom, and recognises that in a period of continuous societal, technological and economic change, it must establish the capability to innovate; rapidly adapting to new challenges and opportunities.

Sopra Steria has successfully delivered innovation advisory services throughout Europe. Leveraging this expertise, we were approached by the Home Office to conduct an insight driven assessment of their innovation readiness within a short timeframe.

The challenging landscape and our approach

While many staff are pursuing innovation initiatives, it is recognised that there are several barriers preventing a repeatable, mission-oriented approach to innovation. The Home Office are looking to reduce these barriers and make it easier for people to innovate.

Systemic innovation management can significantly enhance the Home Office's ability to achieve its missions, providing a structured approach to fostering and implementing innovative solutions.

For example:

1. Enhanced problem-solving: systemic innovation management encourages the exploration of new ideas and approaches, which can lead to more effective solutions for complex issues like counter-terrorism and crime reduction.
2. Improved efficiency: by systematically managing innovation, the Home Office can streamline processes and reduce inefficiencies in areas such as immigration and public safety.
3. Proactive adaptation: enables the Home Office to proactively adapt to changing environments and emerging threats, ensuring that policies and practices remain relevant and effective.
4. Collaborative efforts: systemic innovation management fosters collaboration across different departments and agencies, enhancing the collective ability to manage civil emergencies and other critical tasks.
5. Sustainable solutions: by embedding innovation into the core of its operations, the Home Office can develop sustainable solutions that improve long-term outcomes for public welfare. 

Based on the ISO 56000 standards for innovation management, and Sopra Steria’s experience of delivering innovation services across Europe, our assessment ensures a lightweight, insight-driven and action-oriented measure of innovation readiness. It considers six core elements ( context, culture, leadership, exploration, exploitation and support) through the assessment of over 30 different characteristics.

Learn more about each of these elements through our blog series which is introduced here: the first of our blog series on innovation management.

The solution

To assess the Home Office’s innovation readiness, we applied a structured, multi-phase approach to gather insights and provide actionable recommendations.

1. We conducted structured surveys to derive innovation perspectives and measure Systemic Innovation Readiness, considering over 30 innovation characteristics.
2. We conducted workshops and reviewed existing collateral to further explore the challenges and opportunities identified, providing more detailed context.
3. We developed tactical and strategic recommendations to improve systemic innovation readiness, providing the foundations for the Home Office to drive repeatable, value-oriented innovation.

By using structured surveys and in-person workshops, leveraging the Sopra Steria Next Systemic Innovation Readiness Assessment, we were able to combine quantitative and qualitative insights, forming a solid foundation for actionable recommendations.

Outcomes

Providing clear, informed, strategic and tactical recommendations, our assessment both aligned with, and supported the, Home Office Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Strategy, and the development of the associated Actions and Implementation Plan.

These included:

• Looking at how colleagues can be empowered to embrace innovation, through how they work, every day, recognising that innovation isn’t a single action or initiative; it’s a collective mindset and shift in behaviour.
• Creating alignment to support the delivery of challenge-led, capability-driven innovation, recognising that without alignment, innovation is rudderless; adversely affecting the identification, qualification and prioritisation of innovation initiatives.
• Helping to define the processes for innovation in pursuit of better outcomes, recognising that a robust, repeatable process is required, spanning from opportunities intent to the realisation of value from innovation.

Working with Sopra Steria Next the Home Office has been able to:

• Determine a benchmark of innovation readiness, providing a mechanism to measure improvements in systemic innovation maturity over time.
• Identify the biggest challenges to innovation, along with informed strategic and tactical recommendations to address them.
• Reinforce the RDI Strategy, supporting the development of the associated Actions and Implementation Plan that will enable its realisation.

“Through our work with Sopra Steria we have been able to benchmark our innovation readiness. The maturity assessment tool they have built us will be incredibly useful in supporting how we can strive to be an innovative organisation and support our Research, Development and Innovation Strategy.” Mick Kelly, Head of Science and Evidence Ecosystem Development, Home Office

 

If you would like to more details on Sopra Steria Next’s approach to innovation, please contact Tom Staley, Technology Advisory and Innovation Lead, Sopra Steria Next UK.

To hear more on Sopra Steria Next’s views on innovation read our latest Open Innovation Report 2025, which highlights key aspects and reveals how open Innovation turns potential into competitive advantage.