Sarah is a leader, researcher, writer and innovation expert. Sarah leads Innovation Unit, as well as supporting innovation in local authorities.
Sarah led Innovation Unit’s work as innovation partner to the Department for Education’s Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme, developing different, better, lower cost ways of supporting vulnerable children. Sarah also led and was a core member of a team of Innovation Coaches, who supported six local authorities as part of NESTA’s Creative Councils programme, supporting councils to develop radical new service models and take them to scale.
Sarah was architect of Innovation Unit’s Radical Efficiency framework, which supports and challenges leaders to grow different, better, lower cost public services. Sarah worked in partnership with NESTA to implement this through the Transforming Early Years programme, leading to new service models in six areas across the UK that delivered better outcomes for 25% less. She continues to lead the Radical Efficiency work across a range of sectors.
Prior to joining Innovation Unit, Sarah was Director of Strategy for the New York Public Library (NYPL) system. Sarah has also been a senior researcher at Demos, where she focused on independent living, further education and innovation in public services.
