Category: Articles
Attention is increasingly focussing on how public services are delivered and what roles the public and private sectors should have. Budgetary pressures, an ageing society and the looming fallout from […]
30th May, 2018
Is the state still essentially a convenor of service provision – whether in house or indirectly delivered? Or does the future demand a different model altogether, which involves a more […]
29th May, 2018
Whitehall and Local Government often seem fixated on numbers, metrics and targets, as a trigger for focus and action, show to residents, and to satisfy inspectorates as to just exactly […]
25th May, 2018
Whilst recent events have placed emphasis on generational differences– particularly between millennials and older baby-boomers – intergenerational Homeshare schemes are addressing a problem that cuts across the perceived generational divide, […]
23rd May, 2018
Prevention has become a bit of a buzzword. As public services struggle to meet demand alongside widespread funding cuts, increasingly people are recognising the need to focus on the factors […]
22nd May, 2018
This week Seattle’s City Council voted unanimously to levy a new tax on large businesses to help address the city’s homelessness problems. Through negotiation and consensus-building, a democratically-elected local assembly […]
18th May, 2018
Eighteen is known as an exciting age. It is an age synonymous with unprecedented freedom, when the phrases ‘the world is your oyster’ and ‘what’s next is up to you’ […]
17th May, 2018
This article first appeared on the Local Government Chronicle on 11th May 2018 Dear James, welcome to the strangest job in Whitehall. You are now leading a sector that is […]
14th May, 2018
Recent data on the Government’s Right to Buy (RtB) housing policy has cast further doubt on the initiative’s feasibility. With councils having been unable to channel the resources provided from […]
10th May, 2018
This was first published in the Local Government Chronicle on 8th May 2018 After the celebration of victory comes an eye-opening and somewhat shocking week for new councillors elected last […]
9th May, 2018
NLGN is today launching our latest Innovation Briefing, exclusively for our members. This focusses on how local authorities are using co-production to transform their services and make sure they meet […]
8th May, 2018
We know our staff are our biggest asset and at a time of limited resources we need to ensure we are utilising their full potential. We deploy operational staff in […]
30th April, 2018
The UK Government has consistently maintained that there is ongoing dialogue with local government on Brexit. However, there are growing question marks over the extent to which this ‘dialogue’ is […]
26th April, 2018
This article first appeared in the LGC on 17 April 2018 The news that the British National Party no longer has any representation in local government following the resignation of […]
18th April, 2018
Homelessness is a growing issue for local authorities – both rough sleeping and helping those in precarious housing situations. Since 2010, rough sleeping in England has increased by 168 per […]
9th April, 2018
How should we regard the NHS as it celebrates its 70th year? A much-loved elderly aunt who offers nothing but care and support to an increasingly demanding family despite being […]
29th March, 2018
Yesterday (28 March), the Government released Council Tax statistics for 2018/19. It won’t surprise you to know that the majority of local authorities have taken advantage of the additional percentage […]
29th March, 2018
Just in case he was thinking of launching a new wave of council reorganisation, it might be a good idea for Sajid Javid to examine the Finnish education system. Regularly […]
9th March, 2018
It is 217 years to gender parity according to the World Economic Forum – 47 more than last year. To have a chance of closing the gap more quickly, we […]
8th March, 2018
Local government is undergoing a cultural renaissance. In many councils the culture is shifting away from a top down style of management to one of openness, collaboration, and self-determination. This […]
8th March, 2018
I know what you’re thinking. Where to start, right? The sector is full of glamour. There’s the high-flying chief executive, at the pinnacle of a local government career – a […]
2nd March, 2018
Social value in commissioning and procurement is important because it considers the role of spending on services to improve economic, social, and environmental wellbeing in an area. These often have […]
28th February, 2018
Community participation in local government initiatives has become an imperative globally, including the UK, since it lies at the core of democratic values. Nonetheless, it continues to be a challenge, […]
3rd February, 2018
The Public Services (Social Value) Act was designed to encourage those commissioning public services to think beyond short-term financial costs, to how they could use their contracts to drive more […]
29th January, 2018
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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’ […]
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 […]
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 […]
14th July, 2017