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Blog posted by: Simon Baugh, Chief Executive, Government Communication Service, 14 February 2025.

As this year’s One Big Thing Innovation campaign ends, I’m struck by the immense energy and creativity shown across the UK Civil Service over the past five months. As the Cabinet Office Sponsor for One Big Thing, I’ve seen first-hand how the initiative has sparked new ideas and insightful conversations.

Thousands of civil servants have taken part in team conversations, experimented with new tools and ideas, and shared their innovation-themed experiences. What’s particularly encouraging is how these aren’t just isolated moments of creativity – they’re building blocks for lasting change in how we work. Many teams have used the One Big Thing initiative to experiment with small changes whether that’s the Met Office’s daily 30-minute ‘Creative Headspace’ sessions, the Civil Service Strategy Unit’s new ‘Flexpool’, designed to match internal colleagues’ skills and interests to incoming tasks, or the Cabinet Secretary’s office automating the cross-government weekend duty system through Google workspace tools (resulting in an impressive 80% time saving, equivalent to eliminating 14 working days per year compared to the previous manual process). 

Within the communications context of the Civil Service, high-impact, applied innovation has long been the cornerstone of the Government Communication Service’s (GCS) ambition and delivery. The fast pace of technological innovation is still profoundly changing our world, and rapidly evolving how the public engages with news and information. This calls on us to adopt a culture of continuous improvement and embrace inquisitiveness and experimentation to ensure we deliver world-leading public communications.

Back in 2023, I wrote about seven ways to make the Civil Service more innovative. Two of these remain especially relevant today: creating safe spaces for experimentation and ensuring proper training on new tools and techniques. Through One Big Thing, we’ve seen these principles come to life. Teams across government have created environments where trying new approaches isn’t just permitted – it’s a necessity, which is actively encouraged. 

For example, in GCS, we’ve continued to develop our pioneering AI tool Assist, created especially for government communicators. The tool has been a gamechanger in how we work; saving valuable time, up to 7 hours per week for some users, strengthening critical AI skills and supporting colleagues to brainstorm rapidly – a must for overcoming blank page anxiety. We also recently piloted new online Forums for government communicators to work together even more effectively. We’re looking forward to scaling this next financial year, so that the entire profession can benefit from this new, collaborative space. 

In our GCS Innovating with Impact Strategy published last year, we said people shouldn’t and won’t be penalised for trying something new that doesn’t work – taking managed risks, embracing failure as part of a natural learning process is a crucial part of innovation. It enables us to be more dynamic, effective and responsive.

Looking ahead, I encourage government communicators to engage with the wealth of innovation resources available on the GCS website (available to GCS Connect members). These tools and guides aren’t just reference materials – they’re practical aids to help communicators innovate in their roles daily.

Innovation isn’t a one-off event or a big, dramatic change. Often, it’s about small improvements or mindset changes that add up to significant impact, such as creating the conditions for innovation or seeing innovation as everyone’s job. I’m personally looking forward to seeing the knowledge and skills developed through One Big Thing continuing to inform our work everyday.