How to extend pilot innovation in public services: A case of children's social care innovation

Abstract There is considerable investment by government policymakers in supporting pilot innovation in public services, following which pilots prove difficult to sustain. Our 4‐year longitudinal study of three pilot innovations in England, which seek to support the transition of care leavers into adulthood, provides insight into how such pilots can be sustained. Conceiving innovation as a journey, our study first identifies the dynamics of innovation around five key ingredients: the role of senior managers in cultivating a receptive context for innovation, distributed leadership, user co‐production, measurement of outcomes, and innovation adaption. Second, our study highlights some ingredients are more important as implementation of innovation is initiated and may fade in importance as the innovation journey proceeds. Third, our study shows innovation ingredients are shaped by organizational contingencies of performance and financial pressures. Finally, we suggest a need for a contextualized implementation science framework to examine innovation in social care.