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Our lastest blogs, long-reads, videos and podcasts about all-things community power, local government, public services, and more.
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Overcoming challenges to community power
FutureGov's Craig Morbey reflects on the most common challenges that councils face when trying to implement community power approaches and how to overcome them.
By Craig Morbey, FutureGov
12th April, 2021
Right to regenerate: defining success
Luca Tiratelli on why the way we define 'community' and 'underused land' will determine the success of the government's new Right to Regenerate.
8th April, 2021
Do what you can to make change happen
PPL's Claire Kennedy on why 'now' is always the best time for change, and how to get started.
By Claire Kennedy, PPL
7th April, 2021
Community spaces: central to our national renewal
The Community Ownership Fund announced in the budget is designed to help communities buy local assets. Power to Change’s Nick Plumb looks at the difference that community ownership can...
By Nick Plumb, Power to Change
23rd March, 2021
Community Power • Devolution and reorganisation • Economy and business • public spaces
Community – the strongest thing of all
We reflect on New Local's recent Stronger Things online event - a range of inspiring conversations about communities and local government making a difference.
19th March, 2021
Smart devolution is the key to Whitehall reform
Giving local government more power isn’t a zero-sum game for central government. It can help the civil service improve as well. How devolution could be the missing ingredient of...
By Dr Simon Kaye and Adam Hawksbee
17th March, 2021
Why the Treasury needs a Wellbeing Approach to Budgeting
Rishi Sunak's budget announcement raised familiar debates about how to best secure growth. But what if we were measuring the wrong kind of growth? Luca Tiratelli puts forward the...
8th March, 2021
Budgeting • Central government • Community Power • Economy and business • Wellbeing
Levelling Up? Not when the NHS gets 1%, while the City’s 1% prosper
Last week's budget has caused controversy with its low payrise for nurses. But what gained less attention was loosened rules around stock market trading - intending to bring more...
8th March, 2021
Central government • Economy and business • Finance • Financial Regulation • Levelling Up
Animation: What is Community Power?
To mark the two-year anniversary of The Community Paradigm, we’ve released a new animation explaining the big idea behind community power. And why it’s needed right now. We’ve also...
4th March, 2021
Podcast: Revisiting the Community Paradigm
In this podcast, Adam and Jess introduce a brand new preface for the Community Paradigm - reflecting on new context created by the Covid pandemic, and the increased urgency...
4th March, 2021
The Community Paradigm – Introducing a New Preface
To mark two years since the report's first publication - and to reflect the dramatic change in our national circumstances and outlook - Adam Lent and Jessica Studdert have...
4th March, 2021
Budget 2021 explained: the fund-amentals for communities
Our Budget 2021 explainer for local community funding - from the difference between the Community Renewal Fund and the Community Ownership Fund.
3rd March, 2021
Economy and business • political economy • Strategy and leadership
Sparking the ‘alchemy’ of community power
Places are where the power of different communties can come together and come to life, write PPL's Claire Kenedy ahead of our Stronger Things 2021 event.
By Claire Kennedy, PPL
3rd March, 2021
Community Power • Devolution and reorganisation • Third sector and civil society
Why I’m Building a Youth-Powered School
Jaiden, 19, is a trustee at Rekindle School - the South Manchester-based supplementary school where everything - from the curriculum, to safeguarding, to funding, will be youth-led. Before speaking...
1st March, 2021
Community Power • Education and skills • Schools • Stronger Things • Video • Young people
“I want to dial down our nation’s toxicity” – An Interview with Ruth Ibegbuna
Ruth Ibegbuna has devoted her career to amplifying the voices and broadening the life choices of young people – particularly those from working-class, BAME and Northern backgrounds. Her current...
By Katy Oglethorpe interviews Ruth Ibegbuna
1st March, 2021
BAME Communiites • Community Power • Education and skills • Interview • Schools • Stronger Things • Young people
Proof in the power: Six benefits of putting communities in charge
Here are six ways we found community power is having a positive impact for people, communities and public services, and some of the brilliant examples that show this in...
23rd February, 2021
Community Power • Community Power The Evidence • Monitoring and Evaluation
Escaping the Community Power Evidence Paradox
Community power produces far-ranging benefits. But an ‘evidence paradox’, hard-wired into our policy-making system, is holding back its potential. As we launch our latest report, Community Power: The Evidence,...
23rd February, 2021
Community Power • Community Power The Evidence • Monitoring and Evaluation
“Covid might break the pattern of growing inequality” – An Interview with Danny Dorling
Danny Dorling is a social geographer speaking at Stronger Things 2021.
By Katy Oglethorpe interviews Danny Dorling
19th February, 2021
Community Power • Economy and business • Strategy and leadership
Young leaders want local solutions for a better welfare state
When Children England asked young people to lead their own inquiry into how to create a welfare state that’s fair for children, they focused on local community-led solutions. Chloe...
By Chloë Darlington, Children England
17th February, 2021
Crisis or not, the evidence shows that community power works
The pandemic has shown the powerful ways communities, civil society and the public sector can come together in response to local challenges. But this kind of cooperative local problem...
16th February, 2021
Community Power • Health and social care • Research Reports • Third sector and civil society
Changing the system not the person: how an asset-based approach can change lives
How do you try to solve a problem like homelessness? By working with Bridges Outcomes Partnerships, Kirklees Council focused on asking people what they wanted to achieve. How a...
By Sarah Cooke, Managing Director, Kirklees Better Outcomes Partnership
15th February, 2021
Four ways to boost local vaccine take-up
As the vaccine rollout widens, how can local services reach eligible people who remain hesitant to make an appointment? In this how-to guide, the experts from the Behavioural Insights...
By Cathy Coleman and Eva Kolker, Behavioural Insights Team
10th February, 2021
Behavioural Insights • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Health and social care • Local government
New research: Creating cultural communities for young Londoners
Covid-19 has had a severe impact on the social, economic and mental wellbeing of young people. Through a new Listening Project, we'll explore how to build 'cultural communities' for,...
2nd February, 2021
Childrens' Services • Community Power • Covid-19 • Events • Inequality and fairness • London • Young people
The response to the Covid-19 pandemic: lessons in governance and leadership
The Covid-19 pandemic has shone a light on how the UK functions: how decisions are made and by whom; the interlocking - or isolated - roles of health care,...
By Prof Sir Chris Ham
1st February, 2021
Central government • Covid-19 • Governance • Health care • Long read • NHS • Strategy and leadership
How councils and communities ‘shifted the balance’ during Covid
Together, councils and communities did extraordinary things during Covid-19. Our Shifting the Balance research explores how practices, cultures and attitudes changed - and how to keep hold of some...
27th January, 2021
Community Power • Covid-19 • Leadership • Local government • Shifting the Balance
“I’ve never felt as close to my community” – Pembrokeshire, the pandemic & me
Neil Prior, Head of Transformation at Pembrokeshire County Council reflects on the transformation that the Covid-19 pandemic fuelled in his council - particularly in forging a closer relationship between...
27th January, 2021
Community Power • Local government • New Local Voices • Shifting the Balance • Video
The lockdown strikes back, but local lessons give hope
Covid-19 has brought unimaginable hardship to local communites, but it has also sparked a shift in mindset, culture and practice that helped many get through the pandemic and will...
13th January, 2021
Build Back Better • Community Power • Covid-19 • Local government • Shifting the Balance • Strategy and leadership
How our new network will build hopeful, hostility-free towns
From the start of 2021, HOPE not hate Charitable Trust are starting to build a Towns Leadership Network, to improve community cohesion. The initiative is a central part of...
By Chris Clarke, Policy Researcher, HOPE not hate.
11th January, 2021
Community Cohesion • Community Power • Diversity • Immigration • Leadership • Resilience • Towns
Overheard during Covid: What the pandemic has taught us
Over six months, Pippa Coutts and her colleagues at Carnegie Trust talked to communities across the UK to gather their experience of the Covid pandemic. The resulting ‘Listening Project’...
By Pippa Coutts
9th December, 2020
Community Power and Me: Katie Kelly, East Ayrshire
A vlog from Katie Kelly, Depute Chief Executive - Safer Communities, at East Ayshire Council in Scotland. In 2013, Katie helped set up the council's Vibrant Communities Service -...
7th December, 2020
Build Back Better • Community Power • Community Power and Me • Covid-19 • Interview • Mobilisation • New Local Network • Scotland • Strategy and leadership
Why only community-led devolution will give us the skills we need
Even before the Covid pandemic, UK skills were falling behind other countries in terms of participation and spending. With huge employment and economic challenges on the horizon, Charlotte Morgan...
26th November, 2020
Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation • Education and skills • Employment • Skills
Local Actions for Global Problems: Climate change, communities and changing mindsets
Most of us recognise that climate change will soon overshadow every crisis that came before. But our approaches to tackling it are too often marred by denial, evasion and...
19th November, 2020
Health is made at home, hospitals are for repairs
Health care is so much more about what happens in hospitals, writes the former Chief Executive of the English NHS. Instead, it can thrive with the help of 'health...
By Lord Nigel Crisp, former Chief Executive of the English NHS
13th November, 2020
Community Power • Guest Blog • Health and social care • Health care • Public Health
From Covid to communities – the future of social care
The crises facing care homes meant social care became part of the news during Covid-19. But how can we look beyond it to building a better system for future...
By Kathryn Smith, Chief Executive, Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)
10th November, 2020
Community Power • Guest Blog • Health and social care • Public Services • Social Care
Commmunity Rights and Spending Cuts
The wave of spending cuts about to hit councils is yet another Westminster slap in the face to local communities. Adam Lent argues that we can only stop central...
By Adam Lent, Chief Executive, New Local
2nd November, 2020
For jobseekers facing complex disadvantage, the DWP just isn’t working
Over 2 million people are out of work due to health conditions and disabilities. But each year, only 4% move into employment. Introducing new research This Isn't Working, Tom...
By Tom Pollard, Mental health policy expert
27th October, 2020
Disabilities • DWP • Employment • Mental health • Welfare
Podcast: This Isn’t Working
In this podcast, we discuss why the DWP report is ill-equipped to support people out of long-term unemployment. And we look at at the community approach that could replace...
27th October, 2020
Disabilities • DWP • Employment • Health • Health and social care • Mental health • Podcast
The Greater Manchester decision reveals our communities are poor because they are powerless
The decision to impose Covid restrictions on Greater Manchester is about far more than a political spat, says Adam Lent, it is an extreme example of our rulers' centralist...
By Adam Lent
21st October, 2020
Covid-19 • Devolution and reorganisation • Greater Manchester • Political Systems
Three reasons why Elinor Ostrom is the thinker for right now
Elinor Ostrom was a Nobel Prize-winning thinker and godmother of the community power movement. Here are three vital lessons her work has for the UK today.
By Dr Simon Kaye
21st October, 2020
Communities are being failed. It’s time to enshrine their rights.
The Government’s centralised response and lethal failures on Covid mean it's time to acknowledge that local communities have rights that should be enshrined in law.
By Adam Lent
15th October, 2020
Central government • Community Power • Community Rights • Long read • Politics
We urgently need a fresh approach to devolution
Amid doubts about the government's plans for a devolution white paper, Adam Lent outlines three principles to guide a new approach to reform.
By Adam Lent
9th October, 2020
Central government • Covid-19 • Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation
Missing links? How Covid-19 exposed goverment’s connection problem
The pandemic showed how much central government tightens its grip in a crisis. But it's the connection with local goverrment, not just power that's the problem.
By Jessica Studdert
6th October, 2020
Central government • Covid • Devolution and reorganisation • Strategy and leadership
How community power could save the high street
The decline of the high street was only sped up by Covid-19 – but could commununity ownership help reverse this trend? With inspiring examples from across the UK, Ailbhe...
By Ailbhe McNabola, Head of Research and Policy, Power to Change
1st October, 2020
‘Devolve to Resolve’ the jobs and skills challenge
“We need to be creative, brave and try things that no government has ever done before.” This is how, in a recent tweet, chancellor Rishi Sunak proposed that he...
1st October, 2020
A second wave for mutual aid?
The rise of Mutual Aid groups was a rare positive to come out of the pandemic, seeing thousands of people coming together to help their neighbours through hardship and...
By Luca Tiratelli , Senior Policy Researcher
1st October, 2020
Together, big state and big business ruined our Covid response. Local communities can take it from here.
A ‘marriage from hell’ between big state and big business birthed a litany of failures during Covid-19. Meanwhile, councils and communities have proved themselves far more equipped to cope....
By Jessica Studdert, Deputy Director, New Local Government Network
25th September, 2020
Has councils’ Covid response boosted – or blighted – the case for devolution?
While devolution might be set back by the government’s centralising instincts, which have been laid bare during the pandemic, this is counterbalanced by the support councils have won through...
By Charlotte Morgan, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN, 16 September, 2020
16th September, 2020
Pillars of Strength: How can we build a ‘Resilient Britain’
From the perspective of international comparisons, Britain’s performance during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a chastening experience. Both in terms of economics and in terms of public health, we...
By Luca Tiratelli, Policy Researcher, NLGN
15th September, 2020
‘Nice White Parents’ and the Corruption of Democracy
A new podcast series from the New York Times makes a simple observation – that the single most powerful force in American public schools are concerned white people. Over...
By Luca Tiratelli, Senior Policy Researcher
3rd September, 2020
A (New) Design for Learning: Doing skills devolution differently
When we talk about devolution, as we will do increasingly when the UK Government’s Devolution and Local Recovery White Paper is published this Autumn, we should remember that it...
By Charlotte Morgan, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
1st September, 2020