“Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together”: 2023 in review

Adam Lent takes a look back at the ups and downs of 2023, shares his hopes for the year to come (and channels Marilyn Monroe).

So farewell 2023, a year that those working in public services would prefer to forget. The last twelve months have been punctuated by council bankruptcies and meltdowns in NHS emergency services. Both signs that after thirteen years of cuts, the long-forecast systemic failure of the public sector has begun. 

2023 has seen community power become a guiding force

But as Marilyn Monroe said: “sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together”. The crisis is making the deep transformation of public services a necessity. 2023 has seen community power become a guiding force for a growing number of councils, NHS bodies and others. The case for the shift has become unarguable as public sector leaders realise that when you have deeply inadequate organisational resources, you have to marshal the wider assets and energy present in your community to meet burgeoning challenges. The alternative is to manage inevitable decline.

For New Local, this has meant a striking growth in engagement with our work over the last year. Stronger Things – our annual celebration of community power – was the biggest yet, attracting 850 attendees in person and another 700 online. Requests for practical support for public sector organisations have soared, meaning that the New Local team is now very experienced in navigating the adventure that is the UK’s rail network. Our regular peer-learning events have attracted record attendance while our efforts to highlight great practice on our website are getting rapidly growing views and engagement. Our profile of the Community Appointment Day initiative in Sussex, for example, generated huge interest culminating in a webinar that drew in 260 participants.

There needs to be leadership from the top of the public sector and government to make community power mainstream rather than something that feels counter-cultural.

I have no doubt that 2024 will see community power continue to be taken up as the most logical response to these challenging times. But it must also be a year that systemic shift begins. There needs to be leadership from the top of the public sector and government to make community power mainstream rather than something that feels counter-cultural. This is why, in what is likely to be an election year, New Local will redouble its efforts to influence thinking in Westminster. We will also be working much more closely with senior officers across local government to develop and promote new models of leadership for a time shaped by unprecedented pressures and radical change.

With that exciting prospect in mind, I do hope everyone in New Local’s network and beyond is able to have a relaxing break. You have certainly earned it!

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