Relationships matter more than ever
This article was first published in the LGC on 9 June 2026 and previews themes from Sir David Robinson’s keynote address at Stronger Things 2026.
As local government grapples with rising demand and shrinking capacity, the answer lies not in ever more services but in rebuilding the relationships that make communities work, writes the co-lead at the Relationships Project.
There are no seats free when we arrive at A&E. A young woman, heavily pregnant, stands beside us, restraining a restless toddler. “It’s often busier than this,” she says with the authority of a regular.
A couple at the desk stare back when the receptionist asks for the name of their GP. “Your doctor”, she repeats wearily. They shake their heads.
Someone is shouting at the wall. Other voices are raised intermittently. Once a guard intervenes but mostly bursts of anger dissolve quickly into sullen resignation. “It’s not their fault,” says the security man to and about no one in particular.
“Racism will not be tolerated,” declares the sign on the window, but racism is everywhere in muttered asides.
Almost exactly 12 hours after we arrive my brother is diagnosed, treated and despatched. Our business here is satisfactorily completed. We are grateful for good people doing vital work in difficult circumstances but the sense of a service clinging on, 24/7, stretched beyond itself, is inescapable.
What we experienced that night isn’t a hospital problem, nor even a system problem – it’s a whole community problem and it will never be resolved without a whole community of answers.
Bedrock of everything that matters
Overcrowded A&E departments are not a one-dimensional issue. Nor is poor mental health, persistent homelessness, social isolation, family breakdown or multiple disadvantage. A fragmented civic landscape in which public services, civil society and local communities too often pull in different directions, and a siloed public realm devoted to the narrow pursuit of part-system efficiencies rather than whole-system effectiveness is ill set to meet the needs of today, let alone the challenges of the next generation.
Strong connections are not a luxury; they are a fundamental determinant of human wellbeing and social outcomes.
In my 50 plus years as a community worker I have worked on many issues. Repeatedly unpeeling the onion and trying to understand causation and consequence has led me to the belief that relationships are the bedrock of everything that matters. Relationships in the home, relationships across and within the communities in which we live, and relationships with and between the agencies and service providers on whom we depend.
When they work well everything works better. When they don’t, everything is more difficult, perhaps impossible. Stable childhoods, safe and thriving communities, effective health care, successful education, just policing – the list goes on. The evidence base is overwhelming: strong connections are not a luxury; they are a fundamental determinant of human wellbeing and social outcomes.
Putting relationships first is not one more objective vying for scarce capacity and resources. It is how we do our best work, how we prevent problems rather than pick up the pieces, how we achieve the reduced waiting lists, the cost savings and the improved outcomes.
Progress on these goals is achievable, even in a time of severely limited resources, because we are currently spending time and money on doing things which are at best, sub optimal.
Reflecting on his career in government, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs permanent secretary Paul Kissack has said: “So many of the public services we were working on were clearly trying to patch up tears in the social fabric. We were building services where relationships should be.”
Building the relational state
At the Relationships Project we recognise that any serious attempt to centre relationships in how we organise our lives and communities must seek both to harness the power of the state and to reform it in fundamental ways. We identify three key facets of the relational state that we must now build if our people and places are to flourish.
First, relational services, enabling and cultivating effective relationships between service providers and recipients. This is the dimension of relational practice that is best understood, although not widely applied. “Trusting relationships are the mechanism by which change is achieved,” says Russ Bellenie, principal social worker at Barking & Dagenham LBC. “They don’t just enable other interventions. They are the intervention.”
Second, relationship-centred policy, supporting relationships between citizens and within communities and operationalising the concept of social capital. The Homes for Ukraine programme is a recent example, matching Ukrainian refugees with UK residents. Programme director Paul Morrison says, “a relational approach to public policy recognises that change happens through networks of people and organisations, not through issuing directives”.
Third, relational governance, enabling collaborative decision-making between public servants and citizens or partners and meaningfully drawing on experiences and voices that would otherwise be missed. This produces better decisions and a stronger sense of shared ownership – deepening commitment, improving outcomes and generating efficiencies. Genuine relational governance arrangements in the UK are thin on the ground but the work emerging through the Pride in Place and Test Learn and Grow programmes, for example, offers real potential.
Do all this, at scale, and we can begin to build a place where people and communities flourish because strong relational practice is embedded in how we live, work, care, learn, govern, organise and lead. A place where services work well because no single agency works alone or is required to provide the answer to everything. Where a whole community engages and supports us all – messier perhaps but vastly more capable of affecting sustainable change.
Image Credit: Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash.
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