Case Study Report: The Transformative Promise of Social Innovation Practices in the Netherlands



As part of the European Social Innovation Alliance (ESIA), CAOP conducted an in-depth case study report on three social innovation practices in the Netherlands. The report, “The transformative promise of three social innovation practices and lessons for policy makers in the Netherlands”, explores how social innovation can contribute to sustainable cross-domain solutions and how government policy can better support these processes.

The report builds on previous mapping work on the Dutch social innovation ecosystem, which identified a diverse landscape of citizen initiatives, social enterprises, cooperatives, advocacy groups and public-civil collaborations addressing complex societal challenges such as poverty, inequality, energy transition, housing and democratic renewal.

While social innovation is no longer marginal in the Netherlands, the ecosystem remains fragmented and difficult to navigate. Social innovators often face regulatory complexity, unstable policies, short-term funding cycles and unequal access to resources. Against this background, the report investigates three concrete social innovation practices and asks what can be learned from them for policy, governance and the further development of the Dutch National Competence Centre for Social Innovation.



The three cases are:

Kairos College – social innovation in education

Kairos College is a small-scale, inclusive school in Amsterdam-Noord that challenges standardised approaches to secondary education. It works with mixed-ability classes, delays formal ability selection, avoids standardised testing and homework in the first years, and places strong emphasis on personal attention, community and holistic development.

The case shows that alternative forms of education are possible within the existing system, but also that such initiatives face significant obstacles. These include bureaucratic procedures, funding uncertainty, institutional resistance from existing schools, and tensions between rapid growth requirements and the ambition to maintain a close-knit learning community.

Kansrijke Start Meppel – social innovation in health and early childhood support

Kansrijke Start Meppel is a local partnership that brings together midwives, maternity nurses, paediatricians, childcare providers, libraries, social workers and the municipality to support vulnerable pregnant women and young families during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.

The case demonstrates how social innovation can break down silos between healthcare, social care, education and local government. By creating short lines of communication, regular meetings and shared responsibility, the initiative improves early identification of needs, referrals and integrated support for families. At the same time, it remains vulnerable to limited budgets, high workloads and dependence on committed individuals.

Maak Oosterwold – social innovation in spatial planning

Maak Oosterwold is an experimental urban development project near Almere in which residents are given maximum freedom and responsibility to design and build their own homes, neighbourhoods, roads, green spaces and forms of collective infrastructure. The project reverses the traditional planning logic by placing residents at the centre of area development.

The case highlights the potential of citizen-led spatial planning, community building and sustainable development. However, it also shows the difficulties of translating radical freedom into practice. Residents need support to manage collective responsibilities, while cooperation between multiple public authorities can become complex and slow. The case therefore provides important lessons about role clarity, expectation management and adaptive governance.



Key insights from the case study were:

Social innovation can shift power to communities, open up new forms of collaboration and challenge existing institutional routines. The three cases show how citizens, professionals, municipalities and other actors can create new ways of organising education, care and spatial development.

Successful social innovation depends on trust, relationships and local ownership. In all three cases, personal commitment, strong networks, shared identity and supportive municipal roles were crucial enabling factors.

At the same time, social innovation often faces structural barriers. These include regulatory complexity, fragmented responsibilities, short-term funding, institutional resistance, dependence on key individuals and time constraints that make it difficult to sustain and scale innovative practices.

The report therefore argues that government policy should move from a primarily controlling role towards a more enabling, connecting and learning-oriented role. Governments can support social innovation by reducing unnecessary complexity, creating flexible funding models, enabling experimentation, investing in relationships and using pilot projects as laboratories for institutional learning.

The findings also underline the potential role of a National Competence Centre for Social Innovation. Such a centre could act as a bridge-builder, navigator and capacity builder, helping social innovators to connect with relevant actors, share knowledge, navigate the ecosystem and translate lessons from practice into better policy frameworks.

By analysing Kairos College, Kansrijke Start Meppel and Maak Oosterwold, this report shows how social innovation can contribute to more inclusive, integrated and sustainable solutions. It also demonstrates that promising local ideas can inform broader policy learning when governments are willing to act as partners, facilitators and learners.