The Service Centre concept wins the Mayor’s innovation competition

Once again, the level was very high in the Mayor’s innovation competition. The first prize in the Innovations category was awarded to the Service Centre concept and the Iso Omena Service Centre, which was one of the concept's end results. Second place was taken by KYKY activities, the creative co-creation between schools or early childhood education and companies developed by the Education and Cultural Services.

Second place was taken by the development efforts of schools and early childhood education in cooperation with businesses (i.e. the KYKY activities).

The aim of the Service Centre concept is to drive services in an increasingly customer-oriented direction and facilitate the day-to-day life of municipal residents. During its operations, which have been ongoing for a little over a year, the Iso Omena Service Centre has succeeded in demonstrating its usefulness as a cost-efficient generator of added value, synergies and communality. The public and commercial services under the same roof complement each other, and customers have been satisfied with the excellent accessibility of the Service Centre. In the development of the concept, the quality of customer service has been a particular emphasis from the start. The concept and the Iso Omena Service Centre are one end result of the city-level service development efforts and the Service Network 2020 approach in Espoo. The competition’s panel of judges found that the concept had a wide range of application as combinations of various services, operators and spaces.

The competition was very close, with the KYKY activities of the Education and Cultural Services coming in as a close second. It involves schools and early childhood education in Espoo developing new products and services to promote learning, growth and well-being together with companies and communities. Through common operating methods and agreement templates, the school community, businesses, associations, research and development institutions and city residents can safely engage in systematic and efficient joint development efforts. More and more students and teachers are leveraging new technologies in learning through the KYKY activities. In addition to this, the activities promote education export: they increase the pedagogic impact of the products of the companies involved and the Espoo reference is considered an excellent merit abroad. According to the panel, a similarly systematic and effective form of joint development has not been previously implemented in Finland or on an international level.

Varavirtaa vanhemmuuteen – pois pompottelusta (Energising parenting – eliminating uncertainty) received an honourable mention. The multidisciplinary initial assessment team of family social work serves families in a more agile way than before, and customers can access all services they need through one location. A personal social worker consolidates and fits together all the services each individual family may need. This social worker cooperates with a consulting team comprising experts from a maternity and child health clinic, adult social work, immigrant services and disability services. The team supports the professional or provides a partner quickly if necessary, so that the affairs of each family can be processed expediently. The operating model can be duplicated throughout Espoo and it is directly suitable for the operating environment following the social welfare and health care reform. The panel made particular note of the fact that the model actively involves customers in the process of resolving their situation and encourages them to assume responsibility.

The second honourable mention went to the Finance and Administration unit of Social and Health Services for its innovation of making management support more service production-oriented. Financial and administrative experts from Sector Management systematically updated their approach to be more customer-oriented. The development efforts were conducted in close cooperation with customers, i.e. sector management. In two years, the management’s satisfaction with Sector Management support has increased along with employee satisfaction with their work tasks, work community and management. Sick days have also decreased and efficiency has increased.

Jalkaklubi Espoo wins the category for potential innovations

The winning idea Jalkaklubi Espoo (Leg Club Espoo) submitted by wound care ward 1 of Espoo Hospital is a comprehensive treatment model for patients suffering from leg wounds and swelling. Establishing the club in cooperation with special health care services and the third sector would, in addition to creating financial benefit, increase the comprehensive well-being of city residents. It would help customers take care of their own well-being, reduce their social seclusion and promote wound care and prevention. Advanced wound care would result in cost efficiency by reducing the number of hospital days and health centre visits.

Second place in the category was taken by the Kulttuurikaupunki (City of Culture) mobile application developed by the Event and Cultural Services. The application, which is still under development, is a virtual centre of culture that makes cultural experiences available to all city residents on their mobile devices. The platform can be used for film screenings, music performances, workshops or direct broadcasts of concerts, for example. Initially, the application will be available to the cultural unit only, but can be expanded to cover other city services.

All applications to enter Laatukeskus Excellence Finland’s annual Quality Innovation Award competition

34 applications were submitted to the Mayor’s innovation competition. The finalists were invited to a pitching event, where they were asked to present their innovations to the competition panel and management forum in three minutes.

The competition was being held for the sixth time in cooperation with Laatukeskus Excellence Finland. Espoo’s submissions will also take part in the Finnish Quality Association’s national Quality Innovation Award competition. The winners of its various categories will be announced at the Slush event on 30 November 2017. The national winners will proceed to the international Quality Innovation Award, the winners of which will be announced in Bilbao, Spain, on 7 February 2018.