Monmouthshire County Council is one of just six UK councils to be recognised by national innovation foundation, NESTA, for their pioneering work in developing and trialling new ways to deliver public services.

The council has been trialling a programme that promotes a new way of working based on giving council officers the permission, skills and techniques to listen and respond more creatively to the needs of Monmouthshire communities.

Over one-third of all local authorities in England and Wales, amounting to 137 councils, applied to take part in the Creative Council's programme, which was launched in April 2011 to test, develop and scale transformational approaches to addressing some of the big challenges facing communities and local services.

Seventeen councils were chosen to take part in the first round of the programme and have been working with NESTA and the Local Government Association since August 2011.

As one of the six councils now selected by a panel of experts to continue working with NESTA, Monmouthshire will now build on its new ways of working and develop the ideas that have the potential to spread to other councils. A package of financial and non-financial support will be made available by NESTA to support this process and Monmouthshire stands to further benefit from access to a network of national and global thought leaders.

Kellie Beirne, Chief Officer for Regeneration and Culture, who has been working on the project, explained the vision:

"In a world in which customer demands are continually changing and expectation for accessible and customised 24-7 services is increasing, ingraining a culture of innovation helps enable communities to access and shape the services that best meet their needs."

Paul Matthews, chief executive of Monmouthshire County Council, said "I am elated that the work Monmouthshire has been progressing over the last eighteen months has been recognised by such a highly respected organisation as NESTA.

We have a real opportunity to re-imagine the future of public services in the UK and our experience shows that when we give people the space, permission and techniques to be creative, they generate new ideas which deliver amazing outcomes with and for our communities. Our new economic climate presents many new challenges for Councils and we believe the only real way to improve our effectiveness is to work with communities to do the work that matters most".

Council leader Peter Fox said: "I am proud to be Leader of such a forward thinking and progressive council which is genuinely motivated by doing better things - not just same old things better. Innovation for us isn't about a trendy tag, or being creative for the sake of it, it's about our ability to be truly strategic. Our new partnership administration is really excited about the prospect of working with councils across the UK and wider to develop and share our ideas and to learn from others how we can do more to embed a culture of innovation".

The other five councils recognised by NESTA are: Cornwall, Derbyshire, Stoke, Rotherham and Wigan and programmes include energy self-sufficiency, rethinking support for care leavers and social enterprise development that engages schools in enterprise-based curricula.