Category: Articles
Ask public service workers to identify their biggest challenge and the answer is close to unanimous: demand. The crush in A&E, the backlog of elderly patients desperate to escape their hospital bed and get back home, the children’s social...
17th January, 2018
It’s interesting finding out what others think of your workplace. I searched for “Croydon” to try to get a sense of an outsider’s perspective. Recently, it was about how hard it is to get to Croydon – while it...
11th January, 2018
The “NHS at breaking point” media furore has become a fixture on our winter calendar as regular as Christmas and New Year. Hospitals at full capacity, patients experiencing substandard care, the elderly and vulnerable hit the hardest. The basic...
3rd January, 2018
Earlier this year, NLGN and ENGIE launched the Tomorrow’s Places report focusing on how councils can practically use technology-led infrastructure, data analytics, and networks for better outcomes. The research highlighted the potential for technology to help local government transform...
12th December, 2017
It’s hard to find a part of local government that doesn’t affect our health in some way. From support for children and parents, to the maintenance of local parks and leisure centres, and the development of new housing –...
4th December, 2017
Last week’s Budget confirmed more grim economic news. Downgraded forecasts predict sluggish growth into the 2020s and productivity remains stagnant, and with it living standards which have now plateaued for a decade. So there is a twin challenge to...
29th November, 2017
Reading the Industrial Strategy: Building a Britain fit for the future, published this morning, was no mean feat. From tackling the ageing population to transforming cities, its breadth is admirable. Yet, despite its length, it seems to leave no...
27th November, 2017
This was first published in the MJ This was the moment a British government finally got serious about the most pressing social problem facing the UK: our dysfunctional housing market. It is an issue on which a long line...
22nd November, 2017
This article was first published in Civil Service World. The Budget was a mixed bag for local government. Councils face financial uncertainty after 2020, with grant funding still reducing, the definition of “fair funding” still pending and the prospect...
22nd November, 2017
In 2012, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said that Wigan Council was the third worst affected council by austerity in the UK. We realised that we couldn’t continue to operate as we were. We also knew that by simply...
13th November, 2017
The prospect of “taking back control” motivated many who voted to Leave in the EU Referendum. Whether it was the institutions of Brussels, the policies of the EU or the wider impact of globalisation, a balance of people in...
11th November, 2017
Brexit • Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation • Politics
Data is a powerful tool. Technology and digitalisation are playing a growing role in the delivery of improved service efficiency by linking data from a variety of sources. For councils, harnessing meaningful data and turning it into actionable outcomes...
10th November, 2017
This blog is the first in a new series which will attempt to highlight key trends that may help identify the causes behind the continued rise in the demand for children’s services. In this first blog, we will explore...
13th October, 2017
Financial constraints and demographic pressures mean councils are increasingly shifting their role from service deliverers to service enablers. Councils and communities are beginning to work more closely together and will need to become more collaborative, creative and self-determined. As...
5th October, 2017
Elysium is a big star sci-fi action movie from 2013, which even its director admitted was pretty mediocre. But in among the one-dimensional characters and gore-filled explosions there is one short scene that stands out. Sent to see his...
13th September, 2017
The pressure on the chancellor to ease austerity is intensifying by the day, with increasingly noisy calls for a more doveish approach from within his own party. This nervousness seems to reflect a growing popular anxiety about the impact...
6th September, 2017
An evidence review by Public Health England (PHE) hit the headlines last week, after the government agency found that a large chunk of middle aged adults are doing little to no exercise on a regular basis. According to PHE,...
6th September, 2017
In 2013, Eric Pickles accused local government of ‘hypocrisy’ for ‘pleading poverty when they have trebled their cash reserves over the last decade’.1 But last week, DCLG released data on local authority spending and financing in England which reveals...
31st August, 2017
French government is stereotypically synonymous with strong centralisation and hierarchical structure. This means a comparatively weaker role for local authorities, with France ranked as the 13th least decentralised in the OECD with regards to public spending, and even a...
18th August, 2017
Claire Mansfield, head of research at the New Local Government Network (NLGN), Lucy Terry, senior researcher at the organisation, Barry Pirie, a former PPMA president, and current PPMA president Caroline Nugent, discuss the findings of the recent ‘Outside the...
14th August, 2017
Do you remember the heady days of 2009? Back to one year PA (pre-Austerity), when Total Place pilots were busy mapping total spend across their areas, part of a Treasury mandated national efficiency programme led by Lord Bichard? Happy...
11th August, 2017
OECD’s recent ‘Government at a Glance’, published last month, presented an insightful array of data on and challenges for governments across the world. Most notably, the report declared a record low for citizen trust in central government. British citizens’...
9th August, 2017
In the UK, we’ve been talking for some time now about place-based ‘systems of care’. These are born out of collaboration with other NHS organisations and services to address challenges and improve the health of the populations we serve....
28th July, 2017
Every now and then a zeitgeist-y term comes along that everyone in local government tasked with planning for the future either knows about, or knows they should know about. ‘Commercialisation’ is one of those buzzwords du jour. In the...
26th July, 2017
“How can we continue to secure the dignity, wellbeing and happiness of people after nearly a decade of cuts?” pondered the Chief Executive of one London council at a dialogue session for our latest research. Cuts demand councils deliver...
18th July, 2017
Charities • Community Power • Third sector and civil society
We’re all familiar with the phrase, ‘you only get back what you put in’, and this old adage was most certainly true of the first Innovation Exchange organised for the membership of NLGN. The event brought together leaders from...
14th July, 2017
Last night he was shouting obscenities up at the bedroom window. Now, after a cold night on the doorstep, he’s saying he loves us and is begging for forgiveness through the letterbox. Many in local government will be impressed...
14th July, 2017
Mainly due to budget cuts over the past seven years, councils have become more efficient in how they work. But a new approach is needed in order to boost productivity and maintain the quality of service. Lucy Terry explains...
11th July, 2017
This week, Richard Nelmes joined the NLGN team as Head of Network, following almost a decade at the United Nations Association. The United Nations is a global body of 193 countries that was created with the express purpose of...
20th June, 2017
Having first assumed his role as communities secretary and local government last year as the aftershocks of the Brexit vote reverberated, Sajid Javid’s reappointment last week came at no less a turbulent time at Westminster. Without a working majority...
19th June, 2017
This blog is for Carers Week, an annual campaign to raise awareness of carers, the challenges they face, and the contribution they make to society. There is no doubt social care has risen dramatically up the agenda recently. It’s...
16th June, 2017
With air pollution causing some 40,000* early deaths in the UK each year, poor air quality is the largest environmental risk to UK public health currently. Addressing air pollution from transport emissions, as part of longer-term air quality management...
15th June, 2017
Many of us knew little about the DUP until Friday morning, but now it looks as if they will be instrumental in forming a functioning government. Now is a timely opportunity to examine what the DUP’s manifesto means for...
13th June, 2017
Whatever their party allegiance, I suspect councillors and officers everywhere will be scratching their heads about what this unexpected outcome means for local government. On one hand, this result spells uncertainty for many issues that councils were hoping might...
9th June, 2017
Theresa May is not the only potential casualty of this election. The social care issue has taken a pretty severe political beating as well. After May promised not to “duck the issue”, many in local government had hoped that...
9th June, 2017
Health and social care • Political Systems • Politics • Social Care
What do all the party’s election manifestos say for local government? We’ve picked out all the relevant issues in the posts below: what does Labours manifesto mean for local government?what does Liberal Democrat’s manifesto mean for local government?what does...
7th June, 2017
At this General Election, local government is at crossroads, with the two main parties offering very different directions for the future of councils and the communities they serve. The role that councils play in supporting local people means that...
6th June, 2017
The Prime Minister is right in elevating social care to one of this election’s defining issues – reflecting the very need for radical change that many of us have long been calling for. Some may have been disappointed the...
5th June, 2017
Pye Nyunt writes about his experience of setting up a council insight function. In October 2016, we set up the “Insight Hub” at Barking & Dagenham Town Hall, with the aim to focus on making better use of the...
2nd June, 2017
What’s clear from this report is that there is an appetite in the worlds of both health and social care for greater integration to deliver a more joined-up care experience for users and to make more efficient use of...
31st May, 2017
The local elections earlier this month saw several city regions elect first time Metro Mayors. The turnout in places like Manchester (29%), where Andy Burnham was elected, was pretty good for a plebiscite on a newly devolved role. In...
30th May, 2017
UKIP support has grown out of local opposition to the effects of a globalised economy, channelled through its anti-EU stance. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, following the public vote to Brexit last June, the party have struggled to set out a...
30th May, 2017
Like the Green or Women’s Equality Parties, the Cooperative Party Manifesto was written with an explicit desire for its policies to be adopted by another party. But unlike them, this manifesto represents the priorities of a number of MPs...
24th May, 2017
The likelihood of this manifesto being enacted is probably about the same as aliens invading Britain the same day you’re struck by lightning and win the lottery jackpot. As we’ve seen with intention of the Women’s Equality Party manifesto,...
22nd May, 2017
Finance • Local government finance • Politics • Public Services
After months of worry, devolution’s loved ones finally got some news from Dr May. The patient, it turns out, isn’t terminal, but sadly there will be no return to the old, vibrant ways. Devolution has suffered ‘life-changing injuries’. The...
21st May, 2017
First the good news. We’re having a vibrant debate about social care funding slap bang in the middle of an election campaign. Now the bad news: the policy that has prompted the debate is a stinker. Theresa May and...
19th May, 2017
Manifestos are always launched with a certain amount of excitement, but none more so than the Conservative Manifesto this morning. While the Lib Dem’s manifesto explicitly positioned them as the party of opposition, the Tory manifesto would reveal what...
18th May, 2017
I was planning for this to be a blog about the implications of Labour’s freshly leaked manifesto for local government. As it turns out this is a very difficult thing to do. Labour’s plans – were they enacted –...
17th May, 2017
Reading the Labour manifesto was a bit like watching a magician determined to show you every trick they have ever learned as quickly as possible moving from disappearing an elephant to finding a coin behind your ear and back...
17th May, 2017
The Women’s Equality Party manifesto was published late on Friday, and unlike other party manifestos, has been expressly drafted with the intention for other parties to adopt its policies. While the manifesto focuses on their core aims with no...
16th May, 2017