One year ago, on 30th July 2019, Telescope was officially born. Ruth, Sarah and I had joined Year Here, the London-based social innovation programme, from different countries, with different backgrounds and for different reasons. We wanted to find ways for people serving in government to work more closely with those serving on the frontline. And so we founded Telescope.

Last month we hosted a participatory workshop called ‘Voices for Change’ as part of the online Learning Festival created by States of Change, a collective supporting public innovation learning. Workshop participants shared insights and explored innovative opportunities for improving services in the context of Covid and beyond.

Now more than ever, frontline workers and local & central government need to work together to share information and find smart ways to provide vital support and services to the most vulnerable in our communities. With our new online peer-learning programme, we help to complete this loop.

The future of policymaking is participatory. Alongside deliberative democracy processes like citizens assemblies and the adoption of service design in government, initiatives like Telescope are an important step to make sure we move up the ladder of participation from tokenism towards citizen power. The only way to achieve this is to collaborate across sectors - from generating ideas to delivering change.