FutureGov is working with colleagues Stephen Goldsmith and Zach Tumin at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government to research the “now wave” and the “next wave” of service delivery around the world. We’d like your help. In the coming weeks, leaders of these efforts from five nations – Australia, the UK, the United States, New Zealand and Canada will be gathering in roundtable at Harvard to share current best practices and understand the prospects for the next wave of service reform. And we’d like to share your examples and thinking with them…

Today we’re really pleased to announce the launch of the next stage of the Safeguarding 2.0 initiative. Back in August last year we hosted a round table discussion in partnership with the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) to talk about how we might use social web technologies to better safeguard children - and today we can announce that we have received initial funding from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) to carry out the research phase of the project.

Sat watching the case of Baby Peter unfold on the television last year, as with the vast majority of you I’m sure, I was left feeling hugely saddened, frustrated and powerless to help prevent such events from ever happening again. I am not a social worker nor do I work for any one of the numerous agencies involved in the extremely complex and challenging world of child protection. However, it did get me thinking about where I might be able to provide some support, specifically around how we might be able to draw on social technologies to contribute to safeguarding children.

We are in the midst of a significant shift in the way we think about and relate to public services. Led both from inside government by the Prime Minister himself as well as more disruptive social, economic and technological change outside government, traditional delivery models and provider-client relationships are being challenged as never before. Driven in no small part by developments in the web, the speed and scale of change is happening on an unprecedented scale and leading us to question the notion of public services in our new, hyper-networked world.

A bit like back in March this year, it seems event time is upon again here in FutureGov Towers. So here’s just a quick post pulling it all together to let you know where you can find us in case you fancy coming along and joining in the fun yourselves.