If we want better public services, we need to share power

In this guest blog, Ian Adams, Chair of Public Voice CIC, argues that public services need to move beyond consultation towards co-production, treating residents as partners in designing services, shaping priorities and evaluating success.

The question is no longer whether communities should have a voice in public services; it is whether institutions are prepared to share enough power for that voice to matter. 

At a time of strained public finances, declining trust in institutions and growing complexity across public services, sharing power is no longer simply a democratic ideal; it is a practical necessity. As Chair of Public Voice CIC, I see this challenge every day in work with organisations seeking to address health inequalities, community safety, housing, social isolation and public service reform. Again and again, the same lesson emerges: sustainable change happens with communities, not to them. 

Yet despite this, public policy often continues to be designed around institutions rather than people. Solutions are frequently developed at a distance from the communities they are intended to serve, while public engagement remains, in too many cases, something that happens after decisions have already been made. 

Community power is not a peripheral concern but a foundation for better public services and stronger places. New Local’s Community Power: The Evidence report gives weight to something many community organisations have understood for years: communities have knowledge, skills and assets which, if understood and nurtured by practitioners and policymakers, can strengthen resilience, support prevention-focused public services and build the relationships on which successful communities depend. 

The untapped asset sitting in plain sight

Much of the public debate about national renewal focuses on what government should do next. We debate spending levels, structural reforms, service models and legislative change. These conversations matter. 

But there is a tendency to overlook one of the country’s greatest assets: the knowledge, energy and capacity that already exists within communities. 

Across the country, residents are helping vulnerable neighbours, supporting local charities, running community organisations, creating social enterprises and working together to improve the places they call home. These activities rarely attract national attention, but they represent an extraordinary reservoir of social capital. 

The evidence suggests that community power should be viewed as a strategic asset rather than a peripheral concern. I believe this is one of the most important conclusions. Strong communities contribute not only to social cohesion but also to economic resilience, public health and democratic participation. 

The challenge is that many public institutions continue to treat community participation as a stage in decision-making rather than a means of sharing decision-making itself. As a result, some of the knowledge, experience and energy that exists within communities remains underused precisely when it is needed most. 

From consultation to genuine participation

One of the most persistent misconceptions in public service reform is that communities are difficult to engage or unwilling to participate. 

Our experience at Public Voice suggests the opposite. People care deeply about the services they use and the places where they live. They want safer neighbourhoods, better health outcomes, stronger local economies and opportunities for future generations. They are often willing to contribute ideas, experience and practical solutions. 

The problem is usually not a lack of community interest. It is a lack of meaningful opportunities for that interest to influence decision-making. Too often, engagement becomes a transactional exercise rather than a genuine partnership. Communities are asked for feedback on proposals that have already been developed rather than being involved in shaping those proposals from the outset. 

Real community power requires something more ambitious. It requires organisations to move beyond consultation towards co-production, where residents are treated as partners in designing services, shaping priorities and evaluating success. It requires a shift in mindset. It involves sharing power, not simply collecting opinions. 

Why relationships matter more than projects

One of the strongest themes emerging from community power practice is that relationships, local networks and community assets are not soft additions to public service reform; they are the infrastructure that enables people to come together and act collectively. 

When community initiatives succeed, it is rarely because of a single project, funding stream or intervention. More often, success grows from relationships built over time between residents, community leaders, voluntary organisations, councils and public services. Trust develops, shared ambitions emerge and local capacity grows. 

The most effective community development is therefore less about delivering programmes and more about creating the conditions in which people can work together. Relationships take time to develop. Trust cannot be commissioned on an annual cycle. Community confidence cannot be built through short-term initiatives alone. 

If we are serious about strengthening communities, we need funding models and accountability frameworks that reflect the realities of how lasting change actually happens. 

What we’ve learned at Public Voice

At Public Voice, we have seen first-hand how services improve when people are given a meaningful voice in decisions that affect them. 

One of the most consistent lessons from our work is that communities rarely begin by asking for entirely new services. More often, they ask for services to be designed around the realities of people’s lives. That distinction matters because it shifts the challenge from delivering more to listening better. 

When residents help shape services, organisations gain insights they would otherwise miss about barriers to access, cultural factors, local priorities and lived experience. Services become more responsive, more inclusive and often more effective.  In one recent engagement programme, residents helped reframe a service proposal by identifying practical barriers that professionals had initially seen as secondary. What looked on paper like a communications issue was, for local people, a question of access, trust and everyday confidence. Their input changed not only the language of the proposal but the priorities behind it.

The lesson was simple: when people are involved early enough, they do not just respond to services; they help define what good looks like. 

That is visible in the way the Haringey Community Collaborative has strengthened local voluntary and community organisations. Delivered by Public Voice in partnership with Mind in Haringey, and supported by Haringey Council and the local NHS, the Collaborative provides practical capacity-building support on governance, fundraising, organisational development, volunteering and networking. In 2024/25, it supported 761 voluntary and community sector organisations, helped secure more than £6.3 million in grant funding and awarded £79,230 directly to grassroots organisations. This is community power in practice: not simply asking communities what they need, but investing in their ability to organise, lead and deliver change themselves.

The same principle can be seen in Public Voice’s work around social housing regeneration. Through our Independent Tenant and Leaseholder Advice service, 1,399 social housing residents were involved in shaping local regeneration plans across London. Residents were supported to understand complex proposals, raise concerns and influence decisions about the future of their homes and neighbourhoods. In this context, community power meant making sure people were not passive recipients of change, but active participants in decisions with long-term consequences for their lives.

A further example comes from Haringey’s Joint Partnership Board, managed by Public Voice, where residents, council officers and NHS staff work together in shared decision-making. Through the Physical Disability Reference Group, residents helped highlight the impact of blue badge theft, fraud and Low Traffic Neighbourhood restrictions on disabled people. That work contributed to the creation of a Transport Inclusion Group, the removal of 550 fraudulent blue badges from circulation, the introduction of virtual blue badges in Haringey and more than 4,000 blue badge holders taking up exemptions to LTN restrictions. It shows how lived experience can move beyond consultation and directly shape fairer, more accessible local systems.

Equally importantly, participation helps build trust. 

At a time when confidence in institutions is fragile, people want to know that their experiences matter and that their voices can influence outcomes. Genuine engagement helps create that connection. It strengthens legitimacy and encourages a culture of shared responsibility between organisations and communities. Better decisions are often made when they are informed by those most affected by them. 

Community power and preventative public services

For those working across health, local government and the wider public sector, the community power agenda should not be viewed as a separate policy conversation. In many respects, it sits at the heart of prevention. 

Strong communities support better health, reduce isolation, create opportunities for mutual support, strengthen resilience during periods of economic or social challenge and encourage civic participation. We increasingly recognise that outcomes are shaped not only by formal services but also by the wider social environments in which people live. Neighbourhood relationships, local networks and community organisations play a critical role in those environments. 

If we are serious about prevention, we must be equally serious about investing in community capacity. 

A different model of leadership

Community power challenges conventional assumptions about leadership and power. Rather than seeing communities as passive recipients of policy, it invites us to view them as active partners in creating change. 

That requires a different style of leadership. 

It means being willing to listen before acting. It means recognising expertise beyond professional and institutional settings. It means creating space for citizens to influence decisions and trusting local communities to contribute to solutions. Most importantly, it means accepting that long-term change is often built from the ground up rather than imposed from the top down. 

From hope to action

What is most encouraging about the growing body of evidence on community power is that it does not present it as an abstract theory. Instead, it highlights the practical value of trusting, supporting and empowering communities to shape the places and services that affect their lives. 

The challenge now is whether we are prepared to learn from those examples. 

If we want to rebuild trust, strengthen public services and create more resilient communities, we must move beyond seeing engagement as an optional extra. Community participation should be recognised as an essential component of effective public policy and public service reform. 

The future will not be built solely through legislation, institutional redesign or national strategies. Those things matter, but lasting change ultimately depends on the strength of the relationships that connect us to one another and to the places where we live. 

Treating community power seriously means changing how decisions are made, how resources are allocated and how success is measured. If we want public services that are trusted, preventative and sustainable, communities cannot remain at the margins of decision-making. They must be at its centre. 

Community power is not a slogan. It is the practical work of building trust, sharing decisions and recognising that lasting change begins with the people closest to the challenges.

Photo by Age Cymru on Unsplash.

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