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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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Wrench public service inspection away from Whitehall and hand it over to local communities
What is the point of public service inspectorates like Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission? The standard line is that they are there to make sure public sector bodies...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
9th July, 2019
Community Power • Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation
Commissioning power belongs in the hands of the community not the institution
In February of this year NLGN set out a compelling new vision for public services in The Community Paradigm The report argued that for a preventative approach to public...
By Trinley Walker, Senior Policy Researcher, NLGN
8th July, 2019
Commissioning and Procurement • Community Power • Public Services
History’s lesson on the toxic power of fear
Article originally published in HSG.co.uk The Chernobyl TV series is a powerful reminder of what happens when competition, persecution and dread rule. Donna Hall celebrates an organisation with a...
By Donna Hall CBE, Chair New Local Government Network
5th July, 2019
Inclusive Growth in Practice
Inclusive growth has gained a firm foothold within the policy lexicon over recent years. Yet, despite much valuable discussion on what it is and why it is important, there...
By Charlotte Morgan and Trinley Walker, Senior Policy Researchers, NLGN
24th June, 2019
Integrating Health and Social Care: Making it work for staff
The challenges of working with partners, complex structures, imperfect systems etc are everywhere in local government. In this blog we talk about an example we’ve been working on in...
By Felicity Algate, Director, BIT:North
10th June, 2019
Wigan’s Fire Within
Two weeks ago, after months of hard work, we opened the doors to a brand-new cultural hub in the centre of Wigan. The hub is situated in one of...
By Alison McKenzie-Folan, Chief Executive, Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council
30th May, 2019
On local election day, let’s remember that all politics is local
Happy local election day! In the unique way of our quirky local democratic traditions, a complicated collection of nearly all English metropolitan boroughs, most district councils and some unitaries...
By Jessica Studdert, Deputy Director, NLGN
2nd May, 2019
Recommendations not rhetoric: time for change in Children’s Services
The plight of children’s services is a well-documented one, and it is in some ways a relief to see that organisations such as the Local Government Association are now...
By Olly Swann, Director, IMPOWER
1st May, 2019
The Future of Children’s Services 1
“All adults should always do what is best for you.” – Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, child-friendly version (1989) On the thirtieth...
By Sarah Lawson, Researcher
28th April, 2019
The Taxpayers Alliance approach will lead to higher taxes
There are many good criticisms of the Taxpayers Alliance (TPA) but they are often not related to the fundamental raison d’etre of the organisation. It is possible, for example,...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
17th April, 2019
The opportunity to design out loneliness
“I just found it really difficult to get out and meet people” Mary Evans says. “I was in my first month at university, in a new city surrounded by...
By David Symons, Future Ready Global Leader, Director, WSP
29th March, 2019
Our public services need communitisation – not privatisation or nationalisation
Nationalise or privatise? That has been a classic dividing line for politicians ever since Margaret Thatcher made the latter a core part of her platform in the 1980s. And...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN - @adamjlent
27th March, 2019
Community Power • Democracy • Political Systems • Public Services
Mindset Over Matter: Creating a new Community Paradigm
Created in 2012 following riots in our inner cities, the Government’s Troubled Families Programme has received praise and criticism in equal measure over the last seven years. Created by...
By Donna Hall CBE, Chair, NLGN (former CEO, Wigan Council)
19th March, 2019
Silver Sunday: Community catalyst and collaboration inspiration
“Thanks for this short bright moment in a very gloomy world” – Silver Sunday guest Last week when I opened the NLGN Annual Conference, I cited “Silver Sunday” as...
By John Barradell, Chief Executive, City of London Corporation and Chairman of the Sir Simon Milton Foundation; Georgina Creighton, Silver Sunday Lead, The Sir Simon Milton Foundation
15th March, 2019
Community Power • Participation and co-production • Public Services
Courage calls to courage everywhere
EY is delighted to have sponsored the NLGN’s International Women’s Day speed-mentoring event. 16 inspiring senior women from Local Government and beyond speed mentored over 200 future female leaders...
By Josie Cluer, Director - Local Public Services, EY
13th March, 2019
Political Innovation and Community Resilience: Lessons from Latin America
As millions of citizens across Latin America are seeing their countries become subject to authoritarian rule, the continent appears an unlikely source of inspiration for political innovation. From Nicolás...
By Jake Shepherd, Researcher, NLGN
12th March, 2019
Inclusive Growth: What it means, why it matters, and how to deliver it in practice
Jacobs was delighted to partner with NLGN on its Inclusive Growth Innovation Exchange. Participants from local authorities across the county came together to discuss what inclusive growth means, why...
By Dr Jennifer Anderson, Director of Economics and Social Value, Jacobs
6th March, 2019
Economy and business • Inclusive Growth • Strategy and leadership
Why Elinor Ostrom is the future of public services
@adamjlent In our report The Community Paradigm, published last week, Jessica Studdert and I explored a new model of public services emerging on the frontline of delivery. We argued...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
4th March, 2019
The future of public services can be summed up in one phrase: power to the people!
‘@adamjlent Two things make Big Picture schools fundamentally different from conventional schools. One is the extent to which students are able to shape their own curriculum and learning journey....
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
27th February, 2019
Six reasons our public services need a paradigm shift towards the community
A new approach to public services is gradually emerging on the front-line. Many innovations coming from local government, the health sector, education and social enterprises are flourishing independently of...
By Jessica Studdert
25th February, 2019
Forget Blitz Spirit, let’s invoke the can-do radicalism of the War and transform the state
This article first appeared in the LGC on 05 February 2019. Never in the field of political conflict were so many wartime references uttered by so few to be...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
6th February, 2019
How is Brexit affecting community cohesion?
While the Westminster Bubble obsesses over the daily drama of haggling and brinksmanship over the shape of EU withdrawal, the NLGN Leadership Index reveals new insight into what is...
By Jessica Studdert, Deputy Director, NLGN
29th January, 2019
What is the best approach for integration of health and social care provision?
Financial constraints combined with escalating demand for services continues to be one of the biggest challenges that public bodies face. In order for the public sector to face the...
By Simon Goacher, Partner and Head of Local Government, Weightmans
17th January, 2019
The public sector will pay the price for a botched Brexit
This article was first published in the LGC on the 15th of January. The current Westminster conniptions are so often presented as a debate about the long-term future of...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
16th January, 2019
Local Government excluded from post-Brexit domestic policy Cabinet Committee
One of the quieter Brexit-related announcements made by the Government this week concerned a ‘reshuffle’ of its Cabinet Committees. The European Union Exit and Trade (Domestic Preparedness, Legislation and...
By Charlotte Morgan, Policy Researcher, NLGN
11th January, 2019
Local government: Bins, taxes and fly-tipping – right?
When I popped to my local pub on New Year’s Eve, little did I know I would end up starting 2019 defining and defending local government to a group...
By Molly Jarritt, External Affairs Officer, NLGN
9th January, 2019
Local government finance • Public Services • Strategy and leadership
The NHS Plan has a massive community-shaped hole at its core
This article first appeared on the Local Government Chronicle website on 7th January 2019. It is generally accepted that doctors should avoid diagnosing their own illnesses and prescribing their...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
8th January, 2019
Never mind dry January, there’s a drought ahead for public health
The NHS 10-year plan has been heralded by the Prime Minister as a “historic step to secure its future”. While elements of the plan are welcome – including greater...
By Sarah Lawson, Policy Researcher, NLGN
8th January, 2019
A New Year’s resolution for partnerships between the public and private sectors
This article first appeared on Room 151. As 2018 draws to a close, it has ended in much the same way as it started for partnerships between the public...
By Sarah Lawson, Policy Researcher, NLGN
18th December, 2018
How does the North of Tyne Devo Deal help local people?
This month, three councils in the North East came together to create a Combined Authority and start the next phase of our devolution journey. Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland...
By Norma Redfearn, interim mayor of the North of Tyne Combined Authority and elected mayor of North Tyneside
7th December, 2018
Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation • Political Systems
Raising the HRA borrowing cap is long overdue – but is it enough?
The announcement in the recent budget that the Government will be lifting the borrowing cap on Local Authorities’ Housing Revenue Accounts has been much welcomed and is long overdue....
By Joe Wills, Research Intern
26th November, 2018
In-house versus Outsourcing: What is the future of partnerships between the public and private sectors?
Billed as a juicy political debate pitting the Labour Party’s preference for in-housing against the Conservative Party’s continued commitment to the role of the private sector on outsourcing, the...
By Trinley Walker, Senior Policy Researcher
22nd November, 2018
North of Tyne: Deal, not much Devolution
Blink and you might have missed it. Amid the fireworks of last week’s Budget, we had some positive devolution news. On Friday 2nd November, the North of Tyne devolution...
By Charlotte Morgan, Policy Researcher, NLGN
7th November, 2018
A budget that leaves councils at the mercy of Boris Johnson
The Chancellor was clearly feeling the hand of history on his shoulder. A new chapter and a turning point were declared as Phillip Hammond informed the House that austerity...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
30th October, 2018
The Budget must overturn a catastrophic policy error made eight years ago
In 2008, Alistair Darling’s Autumn Statement as Chancellor of the Exchequer contained two bombshells. The first being that he was spending £200bn to keep the economy afloat following the...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
24th October, 2018
Is the answer to the UK’s productivity puzzle a focus on area type?
As policymakers scratch their heads over how to tackle the UK’s productivity challenge, is a focus on regional disparities too blunt an approach? As this blog argues, an understanding...
By Melissa Macdonald, Research Intern, NLGN
23rd October, 2018
Taking local action on climate change
Last week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released their report into the effects of global warming and confirmed what many have suspected for some time – that...
By Mathew Jellings, Business Development Director, ENGIE
16th October, 2018
Transforming the relationship between councils and citizens
On 18 July 2018, NLGN partnered with FutureGov to host our latest Innovation Exchange at their offices in London. All of our Innovation Exchanges produce a detailed Insights Report...
By Matt Skinner, Managing Director, FutureGov
12th October, 2018
A route map to changemaking partnerships between the public and private sectors
The role of the private sector in the delivery of public services has been under intense scrutiny of late. It has been a year overshadowed by high-profile failings, perhaps...
By Sarah Lawson, policy researcher, NLGN
9th October, 2018
£240m won’t do it. Councils need a share of the £20.5bn promised to the NHS to make social care sustainable
It’s become a familiar scene. Minister makes “major” announcement of new funding for social care in the realm of many millions. Sector responds that what is needed is in...
By Jessica Studdert, Deputy Director, NLGN
2nd October, 2018
What would a Labour Government mean for local government?
As its annual conference closes, and a flurry of new policy announcements add to last year’s manifesto, Labour’s agenda continues to take shape. While Brexit negotiations still dominate these...
By Jessica Studdert, Deputy Director, NLGN
26th September, 2018
Labour’s plans for schools: right direction but needs to go further
It has become so rare to hear national politicians talk about returning power over schools to councils that Angela Rayner’s forthright speech to the Labour conference came as something...
By Adam Lent, Director, NLGN
26th September, 2018
What would No Deal mean for councils?
What would a No Deal Brexit mean for the UK? With only six months remaining until the UK leaves the EU on 29 March 2019, this is the burning...
By Charlotte Morgan, Policy Researcher, NLGN
20th September, 2018
New analysis reveals rising demand and reducing resource means council spend is shifting away from prevention and towards crisis intervention
At the Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales we are often challenging local authorities around commissioning and contracting and how too often it excludes or marginalises small and...
By Duncan Shrubsole Director of Policy, Communications and Research, Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales @duncanshrubsole @LBFEW
14th September, 2018
Councils need to learn to step back, as communities increasingly step up
The relationship between councils and communities is shifting. The traditional role of the council as primarily a “service deliver” has diminishing impact in a context of reduced budgets, rising...
By Pawda Tjoa, Senior Researcher, NLGN
13th September, 2018
A persistently high demand for children’s services
The demand pressures on children’s services have been rising up the policy agenda. There have been repeated calls to the government to allocate more resources to supporting children’s services....
By Pawda Tjoa, Senior Researcher
16th August, 2018
Why are there still so few women in the cabinet?
As Brexit rows continues to dominate the news, feminism may not be high on the agenda of the current Prime Minister, Theresa May. There are many competing interests the...
By Vanessa Schneider, External Affairs Officer, NLGN
27th July, 2018
Preventing violence on our streets needs early intervention and local leadership
The surge in violent crime over the last year has left policy makers scrabbling to respond in a meaningful way. The plethora of initiatives announced over the last year...
By Geethika Jayatilaka, CEO, Chance UK
20th July, 2018
New youth group helps young people cope with stresses of the day
It can be challenging to be a young person today. The issues causing stress amongst our teenagers range from community to community. We’ve learned that young people involved in...
By Councillor Jenny Bullen, Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People’s Services, Wigan Council
19th July, 2018
Building more than public trust in public private partnerships
Last week saw another report released in the wake of Carillion’s collapse. “After Carillion: Public sector outsourcing and contracting”, a new report from the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs...
By Sarah Lawson, Policy Researcher, NLGN
17th July, 2018