Witnesses told us that the transformative changes needed by government will require both large scale projects and day-to-day incremental improvements involving front-line staff.16 We asked how departments will remove the barriers to innovation by creating a working environment that encourages challenge of current thinking. The ODP described the importance of seeing failure as an opportunity to learn rather than share blame, and creating a sense of empowerment and creativity. We were told about how ideas generated from right across DWP were key to it dealing with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.17