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Our latest blogs, long-reads, videos and podcasts about all-things community power, local government, public services, and more.

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Health in Haughton Matters

A vibrant community set around an ancient village on the edge of Darlington, Haughton and Springfield has its challenges. But a wealth of local pride and a strong voluntary...


By Cllr Chris McEwan and Sean O’Connell, Move More Officer, Darlington Borough Council

6th December, 2023

How We Did It: Transforming public services into people power with Good Help

Helen Chicot from Rochdale Council introduces a three-year project which has used Good Help principles to tackle the council’s most pressing challenges, transforming the way the way it works...

24th November, 2023

A better way forward: How community power can save money and reduce demand on public services

Mila Lukic from Bridges Outcomes Partnerships spells out the problem with centralisation and why we need to think about service design and delivery in a very different way.


By Mila Lukic, CEO and Co-Founder, Bridges Outcomes Partnerships

16th November, 2023

How collaboration and community engagement can help create a stronger NHS

How can we tackle the growing crisis in the NHS? TPXimpact’s Iain O’Neil says shifting towards community-led approaches can protect the NHS’s future and improve health for all.


By Iain O’Neil, Managing Partner - Health, TPXimpact

15th November, 2023

Where We’re At: Fife Edition

Fife Council's Mike Enston tells us about the challenge of growing inequalities, the council’s ambitions to redistribute power to the community and why you can’t visit Fife without enjoying...


By Mike Enston, Executive Director, Communities Directorate, Fife Council

9th November, 2023

Community power was on Labour’s fringe but didn’t feel niche

Radical devolution was a key talking point at Labour party conference, but Keir Starmer's speech didn't deliver on the detail, writes Katy Oglethorpe.

23rd October, 2023

How We Did It: Starting a Local Property Partnership

Lorinda Freint from Richmond and Wandsworth Councils and Bex Trevalyan from Platform Places introduce a new process to unlock town centre buildings and explain how they got started in...

17th October, 2023

Keeping the community power conversation going

TPXimpact's Charlotte Obijiaku shares highlights from our recent workshop showcasing six stories of community power, and makes the case for deeper collaboration.


By Charlotte Obijiaku, Deliberative Democracy Officer, TPXimpact

6th October, 2023

Labour’s way forward in office? Community power

Our public finances are in crisis. The next government will need to focus on making better use of existing money if it is to ensure better outcomes for local...

26th September, 2023

“It felt like a levelling out”: How people in poverty are changing the system in Trafford

Built on the power of relationships, this project brought together local residents with lived experience of poverty and key decision makers in the public, private and third sectors to...

13th September, 2023

Councils must work harder to secure support for green schemes

Local government must look beyond conventional consultation approaches to drive forward the environmental agenda that Westminster is so easily abandoning, writes Adam Lent.

13th September, 2023

“This is the best opportunity we’ve had for community power”: Claire Hazelgrove

There are signs that community power could be becoming a political reality. We speak to TPXimpact’s Claire Hazelgrove on the imperative of seizing the moment.


By Claire Hazelgrove, Community & Political Engagement Director, TPXimpact

11th September, 2023

How We Did It: Participatory Action Research

In this instalment of our ‘How We Did It’ series, Xia Lin from Toynbee Hall introduces a research method designed to embed resident participation in local change-making.

6th September, 2023

Joint venture: how an NHS physio waiting list was shrunk in just two days

Is it possible to significantly reduce health and social care waiting lists overnight? It may seem like a policymaker’s – or patient’s – pipedream. But a new innovation from...

30th August, 2023

What councils need to unlock place-based prevention

Government action is needed to ensure councils' ambitious and expansive vision for preventative work can be realised, writes Grace Pollard.

7th August, 2023

As Westminster fiddles while the world burns, local politicians must show climate leadership

Adam Lent argues that mayors and councillors need to urgently step into the void left by Westminster climate complacency and start having real, difficult conversations.

25th July, 2023

Nandy: We need politics for people with skin in the game

What is Labour’s vision for community power? Is the party serious about handing over control to local areas, and their people, if they win the next election? How do...

20th July, 2023

Putting communities at the heart of climate action decision making

Climate change and its impacts are already being seen and felt around the world, meaning we need to take action now to mitigate and adapt to its effects. Kelly...


By Kelly McBride, Deliberative Democracy Lead, TPXimpact,

20th July, 2023

Oflog’s approach is delusional

Devoid of a transformational vision, Oflog will fail to improve performance, writes Adam Lent.

13th July, 2023

Bringing community power to life at Stronger Things

Tom Chigbo, Community Engagement & Participation Manager at TPXimpact, shares his experience of and insights from Stronger Things 2023.


By Tom Chigbo, Community Engagement & Participation Manager, TPXimpact

12th July, 2023

In Practice: Communities Tackling Health Inequalities

What can health professionals, councils, charities and communities do when they come together to work on reducing health inequalities? At Stronger Things, changemakers behind some of the most innovative...

5th July, 2023

NHS at 75: why the workforce plan should start with communities

Building a community-powered NHS is urgently needed to overcome the current and future challenges facing the system. On the 75th anniversary of our much-loved health service, Laura Charlesworth delves...

5th July, 2023

Bola Owolabi: A mission to close the health gap

What does it take to bridge health inequalities that have been widening across the UK? We speak to the woman tasked with this formidable task, Prof Bola Owolabi.

4th July, 2023

Evidence unpacked: does community power boost wellbeing?

Giving communities more agency has been linked to improved wellbeing. But to what extent is this backed up by evidence? And how do we help harness the benefits of...

22nd June, 2023

Three keys to thriving community businesses

Community businesses can reap huge dividends for local areas. But how do we unlock their potential? And what role can local government play in this? Power to Change's Chief...


By Tim Davies-Pugh

21st June, 2023

We’ve assembled a rebel alliance – but their ideas should be mainstream

Radical change in public services is still an uphill struggle. National and local leaders need to make sure they are enabling not blocking the innovators.

8th June, 2023

“Soft light, not the spotlight”: How to make a community-powered leader

Community power calls for a new mould of leader. But what does this actually look like in practice? We asked some of our Stronger Things audience for their insights,...

1st June, 2023

How can local areas ‘design out’ severe hardship? A new framework

In collaboration with The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, we have developed a framework to support local areas to make progress towards designing out the most severe forms of hardship.

10th May, 2023

Fiscal Devolution: why we need it and how to make it work

How wealth is distributed and how much power local areas have over spending is fundamental to growing the economy. Here's how to make fiscal devolution work.

26th April, 2023

Why you can’t afford to miss Stronger Things 2023

Hear why we think Stronger Things might just be the most valuable eight hours of your year.

21st April, 2023

We need a fundamentally different approach to public sector leadership

Leading under pressure needs to become a discipline in itself, argues Adam Lent.

17th April, 2023

How We Did It: Tackling Rough Sleeping

Shuff Tariq and Sarah Cooke explain how Manchester delivered one of the most successful homelessness projects in the UK.

4th April, 2023

Levelling Up – The labour market and health of the nation

In recent years we’ve seen a continued and increasing link between health and economic outcomes, brought into sharp focus by COVID-19. Imran Hashmi and Laura Charlesworth examine what this...

14th March, 2023

The chancellor needs to prioritise resilience

Ahead of the Spring Budget, Joe Sarling makes the case for a new economic vision with resilience at its heart.

13th March, 2023

Does economic growth lead to higher happiness?

Imran Hashmi unpacks the relationship between economic growth and wellbeing, arguing that local people should be at the heart of decisions about economic policy in their area.

9th March, 2023

How we lost sight of the point of public services: The case for whole system reform moving towards strengths-based and relational services

In the first instalment of our New Thinking series, Alex Fox and Chris Fox examine the state of public services in the UK today, and make the case for...


By Alex Fox and Chris Fox

2nd March, 2023

The Welsh Wellbeing of Future Generations Act has lessons for us all

Polly Lord sets out five lessons for England from the Welsh Wellbeing of Future Generations Act.

28th February, 2023

How We Did It: A Truly Person-led Service

Ben Hughes from Essex County Council shares his experience of setting up the Essex Recovery Foundation and putting the community at the heart of service design.

15th February, 2023

The Westminster bubble must be burst

The centre has lost its ability to govern and radical change is needed, writes Adam Lent.

14th February, 2023

Community engagement and the power of ‘what if?’

New Local’s Polly Lord and Tom Chigbo from TPXimpact share some of the learnings from their research on innovative community engagement, carried out with the LGA.


By Tom Chigbo and Polly Lord

7th February, 2023

How building trust can help tackle health inequalities

Drawing on recent work in Edmonton, North London, Nicola Steuer charts an impactful and cost-effective route for Integrated Care Systems to tackle health inequalities.

17th January, 2023

Labour’s Take Back Control Bill needs to truly empower communities

Labour need to think beyond the boundaries of normal institutional reform and turbocharge the imaginative change already happening on the ground, writes Adam Lent.

17th January, 2023

How could a new Bill enable people to Take Back Control? Moving from slogan to solution

Polly Lord outlines what's needed in any Take Back Control Bill to make it meaningful for communities.

13th January, 2023

Investing in the future of our communities – Polly Lord in conversation with Matt Leach

What is the Community Wealth Fund, and what would it mean for local authorities? Polly Lord talks to Matt Leach, CEO of Local Trust, about the campaign.

16th December, 2022

Good health is about much more than clinical interventions. It starts with us listening to our communities.

Shane Devlin shares the learnings from Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire health and care system in their new community engagement approach.


By Shane Devlin

15th December, 2022

Don’t kill all the bees – what crises teach us about the dangers of a centralised response

Dr Simon Duffy takes a look at the benefits of trusting citizens to support each other as shown by the COVID pandemic.


By Dr Simon Duffy

8th December, 2022

Gordon Brown’s report should warm the heart of every localist

Adam Lent argues the former prime minister has produced the most radical devolutionary programme from either of the two big parties in decades, but far less ambitious plans than...

7th December, 2022

A report on the UK’s Future worthy of the name

Jessica Studdert reacts to Labour’s latest proposals to reform the UK constitution.

6th December, 2022

There’s a new model for town centre regeneration – and it starts with a visionary council

How can councils turn town centre buildings into vibrant community-led hubs that benefit local people and strengthen the local economy?


By Bex Trevalyan

2nd December, 2022

How We Did It – Setting up warm spaces

With a difficult winter looming, councils are searching for innovative ways to support their residents. In our latest ‘How We Did It’, Alison Dunn of Gateshead Council shares her...

22nd November, 2022

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