Exploring the Potential of Community-Centred Public Services

This thinkpiece by the leading social explorer Cormac Russell focuses on how to realign the relationship between institutions and communities. He sets out how better understanding and working alongside the assets and capabilities that are innate in communities, we can build a more sustainable relationship between citizen and state.

Executive Summary

In today’s era of social fragmentation and strained public resources, the challenge lies not in public services doing more with less but in ensuring optimal alignment between communities and institutions so they can co-create a preferred future.

Just as citizens are more than voters or consumers, public servants are more than mere policy makers or service providers; they are civic professionals working in institutions that serve the common good. Public servants are not solely providers of services to pools of needy consumers; they are essential supporters of community power and co-facilitators of democracy, driven by a strong public service ethic.

The basic argument of this think piece is that we need to seek better alignment between the roles of institutions and the domains of communities. This means recognising that certain things are best done with citizens and their associations in the lead. And when institutions adopt an asset-based, community-first culture and approach, the results can be transformational.

Naturally, there are inevitable challenges for institutions in adopting this approach. Structural factors can influence institutional behaviours, ranging from siloed approaches to top-down mandates that compel them to organise their services in institution-centric ways. Many public services are governed and funded in ways that can mitigate against community-first policies and practices.

A radical yet common-sense shift is required towards community-centred public services built on Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) principles. In the context of social fragmentation and strained public resources, the prevailing model of public service delivery is faltering. Our traditional top-down, institution-centric approach, in which citizens are primarily viewed as consumers of services and public servants as providers, is proving inadequate. This is a chance to reduce professional burnout, increase public trust, create more integrated and sustainable solutions, and revitalise our democracy.

Understanding Community Power

Sustainable, meaningful change requires rebalancing the relationship between institutions and communities, recognising that each possesses unique and indispensable assets.

It’s important to distinguish between institutions that focus on producing goods and services with an emphasis on manageability and scalability, and associations that prioritise care, mutual support, and active member contribution at a localised level. Both are essential, but problems arise when the wrong “operating system” is applied to an issue. 

The goal is to achieve “good enough alignment” – a dynamic and ongoing social contract rooted in trust, where public services act as allies and enablers of community-led action.

Using an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) lens can help clarify communities’ and institutions’ distinct and complementary roles. It shifts the focus from community deficiencies to their inherent resources and capabilities. The core principle is that certain functions are uniquely suited to communities, others to institutions, and a significant area exists for collaborative co-production.

Adopting community-first approaches involves recognising how institutions operate at two levels:

• At the micro level, “alongsiders” are practitioners who work directly within communities, building trust and enabling asset mobilisation at the grassroots.
• At the macro level, as “useful outsiders,” often in more strategic institutional roles, this relates to how institutional assets align with community priorities and advocate for systemic change. 

Shifting from institutionally centric to community-centred policies and practices

Demonstrating the approach by exploring Leeds City Council’s ABCD approach in relation to adult social care, there are three key shifts that can be identified to precipitate a culture shift towards community-centred practices:

• From predominantly issue-based to more place-based responses, whereby the neighbourhood is seen as the primary unit of change.
• From institution-first to community-first. This involves realignment between the public sector and communities, which at the macro level casts public sector institutions as useful outsiders and at the micro level as alongsiders. 
• From only public services having a monopoly on the functions and resources for solving societal problems, to public services being allies in co-producing solutions alongside communities, commercial institutions, and civil society. 

Recommendations

In the spirit of acting as useful conversation starters, the following is a series of recommendations for public services looking to cultivate community-first practices:

1. Offer Solidarity and Advocacy: Stand with communities on inclusive causes to build trust. 
2. Use your Convening Power: Facilitate dialogue on complex community issues. 
3. Share Economic Power: Enhance local economies through equitable funding, partnerships, and pooled place-based budgets. 
4. Share Personnel Skills: Create avenues for staff to share their talents with communities. 
5. Share Space: Provide low-cost/no-cost facilities to local groups. 
6. Relocate Authority to Community Alternatives: Recognise and support community competencies in mutual care, like Shared Lives initiatives. 
7. Host a Community Animator: Employ or fund community animators to unlock local assets and power.
8. Decentralise: Maximise decentralisation of staff and services to increase proximity and trust, especially in economically challenged areas. 
9. Support Self-Managed Neighbourhood Teams: Adopt models like Buurtzorg for more effective, localised care. 
10. Establish Department of Neighbourhoods/Vibrant Communities Teams: Create dedicated structures to champion community-centred approaches. 
11. Facilitate Asset-Based Workforce Development: Provide ongoing professional development, reflective practice, and mentoring for public servants in community animation. 
12. Use Developmental Approaches to Evaluation: Focus on understanding how change happens in complex community environments, learning and insight over auditing, and ensure institutions self-evaluate. 

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