UK Open Innovation Team: engagement services guide
Government uses consultation to shape decisions, and it helps to see what good practice looks like. On GOV.UK, the Open Innovation Team describes itself as a government unit that works with experts to generate analysis and ideas for policy. If you teach citizenship, politics or geography-or you run a student council-this explainer shows how their engagement model works and how you can mirror it in your own setting.
Everything starts with planning. The team co‑designs a tailored engagement strategy and delivery plan that can last weeks, months or a full year, aligned to clear objectives and stakeholder needs while working inside real‑world constraints. In classroom terms, imagine writing a scheme of work for a consultation: define the question, name who needs to be in the room, set ground rules, and agree what success will look like.
Delivery is the doing. According to GOV.UK, the Open Innovation Team can lead or collaborate to run meetings, seminars, workshops and conferences. They handle logistics and coordination and provide regular reporting against key performance indicators so everyone can track progress. For students, think of this like checking participation, inclusion and outcomes each week rather than waiting until the end.
Reporting turns conversations into decisions. After engagement finishes, the team produces clear, usable insights from each event-capturing feedback, spotting themes and making recommendations for next steps. Translated for learners: this is your write‑up with evidence and actions, not just a pile of notes. The point is to show what changed because people took part.
Methods matter. GOV.UK highlights a blend of rigour and creativity: co‑design with people affected by the policy, targeted campaigns to reach specific groups, and AI‑assisted insight mapping to organise large volumes of comments into patterns. If you teach research methods, this is a live example of qualitative coding supported by digital tools that help you see what the crowd is actually saying.
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) offers a practical case. Working with the Department for Education, the team has run workshops and peer‑to‑peer learning with Local Authority teams delivering SEND support in schools. The learning for classrooms is simple: involve practitioners and families early, create space for peer learning, and ensure accessibility so contributions are meaningful, not token.
Land use shows how engagement connects to big policy choices. In partnership with the Geospatial Commission, the Land Use Dialogues Programme explored how land‑use decisions affect key government policies through workshops and videos. If you teach geography or environmental science, try mapping stakeholders and trade‑offs: show who benefits, who pays a cost, and how evidence helps balance competing needs.
Engagement can also happen in high‑profile settings. The team has supported nationwide ministerial visits and other stakeholder events that collect input to inform long‑term strategies, including a national ten‑year action plan. The takeaway for students and educators is that visibility should come with substance: design questions that invite evidence and stories, and feed that material directly into a plan people can track.
If you want to practise the model, pick a live issue in your school or college-study spaces, transport, digital access or inclusion. Set a clear objective, invite the people most affected, run one well‑structured conversation, then write three specific recommendations with owners and timelines. You’ll be using the same plan–deliver–report cycle that public bodies rely on.
For more detail, GOV.UK hosts a short slide pack-OIT Engagement services overview (PDF, 548 KB, 9 pages)-with examples and testimonials, and the team can be reached at enquiries@openinnovation.gov.uk. If you teach public policy or citizenship, this is a ready‑made case study of how institutions listen well and turn feedback into action.