Category: Articles

The leader of Manchester City Council takes on our Leadership Lucky Draw, answering questions ranging from dream dinner party guests to how her upbringing shaped her.

22nd February, 2024

Leadership • Leadership Lucky Draw • Local government • Manchester • Strategy and leadership

Social entrepreneurs Brendan Martin and Cormac Russell share their take on Adam Lent’s recent blog about radical public service leadership developed with key figures in our network.

20th February, 2024

Community Power • Leadership • Local government • Public Services • Strategy and leadership

We're living in a permacrisis. How should public service leaders adapt to this landscape? We sat down with some of them to come up with a plan.

7th February, 2024

Leadership • Strategy and leadership

New Local's senior practice lead Catriona Maclay explains how Wealden District Council is charting its path to community power using transparent, collaborative self-evaluation.

6th February, 2024

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Practice work

Eleanor Brown shares three lessons from piloting designing thinking at Enfield Council, and makes the case for problem solving from the outside in.

1st February, 2024

Community engagement • Local government • Public Services

The intent behind Michael Gove's announcement was not to improve productivity – and it won’t, writes Adam Lent.

31st January, 2024

Central government • Local government • Local government finance

The best policy that almost was? Former Secretary of State John Denham & New Local's Jessica Studdert discuss their new paper calling for a come-back for place-based budgeting as we saw in the Total Place pilots of 13 years...

31st January, 2024

Devolution and reorganisation • Local government finance • Place-based budgets • Political reform • Total Place

A tech engineer by training, Omezzine Khelifa left a life in France to work in the Tunisian transition from dictatorship to democracy. Today she is the executive director of the Apolitical Foundation Accelerator programme, helping equip a new type...

23rd January, 2024

Community Power • International Examples • Leadership • Politics

Dr Gillian Orrow is a GP and co-founder of Growing Health Together, an East Surrey initiative which helps Primary Care Networks collaborate with community members and local organisations to improve health and prevent disease. She reflects on three years...

16th January, 2024

Community Power • GPs • Health and social care • Healthcare

Our board member, Samira Ben Omar, has dedicated her career to addressing inequalities in health and other spheres. She talks about why the NHS needs to relate differently to communities, her groundbreaking work with health champions and what brought...

9th January, 2024

Community Power • Health and social care • Strategy and leadership

Adam Lent takes a look back at the ups and downs of 2023, shares his hopes for the year to come (and channels Marilyn Monroe).

19th December, 2023

Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services

Alongside the drive for growth, tapping into the wealth of insight, energy and tangible assets in communities will help us solve our most formidable challenges, writes Adam Lent.

13th December, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Economy and business • Local government • Local government finance

Five brilliant examples of what communities can achieve when money and decision-making power are in their hands.

11th December, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government

We explore the positive health and wellbeing impact of the Big Local programme - a hyperlocal community-led initiative.

11th December, 2023

Community Power • Health and social care • Healthcare

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 network knits people together, say Darlington Borough Council’s Chris McEwan...

6th December, 2023

Community engagement • Health and social care • Local government

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 and its relationships with residents.

24th November, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • 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.

16th November, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services

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.

15th November, 2023

Community Power • Health and social care • Stronger Things • The NHS

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 some award-winning fish and chips.

9th November, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Interview • Local government • Public Services

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

Central government • Community Power • Devolution • Labour • Local government • Politics

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 Wandsworth Town.

17th October, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government

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

6th October, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Stronger Things

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 neighbourhoods. Jessica Studdert introduces A Labour Vision for Community Power...

26th September, 2023

Community Power • Local government • Local government finance • Public Services

Tiernan Mines, CEO and Co-founder of Hello Lamp Post shares five key benefits of using technology in community engagement and explains how it empowers individuals and organisations to create positive change.

20th September, 2023

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 identify solutions to poverty in Trafford.

13th September, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Community Voices • Interview • Local government • Poverty and inequality • Public Services

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

Climate change • Community engagement • Community Power • Local government

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.

11th September, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Interview • Local government • Stronger Things

Xia Lin from Toynbee Hall introduces a research method designed to embed resident participation in local change-making.

6th September, 2023

Community engagement • Community Power • Local government • Participation and co-production

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 physios in Sussex suggests it is.

30th August, 2023

Health and social care • Healthcare • Strengths-based approach • The NHS

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

7th August, 2023

Central government • Community Power • Devolution and reorganisation • Local government • measuring

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

Central government • Climate change • Community Power

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 they marry this with challenges from some sections of the...

20th July, 2023

Central government • Devolution and reorganisation • Labour • Stronger Things

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 McBride, Deliberative Democracy Lead at TPXimpact, outlines the opportunities for...

20th July, 2023

Climate change • Community Power • Engagement • Local government

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

13th July, 2023

Central government • Community Power • Innovation • Local government

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

12th July, 2023

Community Power • Council Voices • Stronger Things

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 practice come together to talk practical responses to one of...

5th July, 2023

Health and social care • Healthcare • Stronger Things • The NHS • Video

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 into an innovative model of healthcare that puts community connection...

5th July, 2023

Commissioning and Procurement • Community Power • Health and social care • Public Health • The NHS

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

Health and social care • Healthcare • Inequality • Integrated Health Systems • The NHS

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 community power – while avoiding the common pitfalls?

22nd June, 2023

Community Power • Research Reports • Wellbeing

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 Executive Tim Davies-Pugh sets out his stall.

21st June, 2023

Community business • Community Power • Economy and business • Local economies

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

Community Power • Culture • Leadership • Stronger Things

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, advice and ice cream flavours.

1st June, 2023

Community Power • Leadership • Stronger Things

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

Central government • Community Power • Local government • Participation and co-production • poverty • Public Services

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

Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation • Explainer • Local government finance • Local government reform

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

21st April, 2023

Central government • Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Public Services • Stronger Things

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

17th April, 2023

Central government • Community Power • Leadership • Local government • Public Services

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 means for the UK labour market and for levelling up.

14th March, 2023

Covid-19 • Disabilities • Economy and business • Employment • Health and social care • Inequality • Mental health • Public Health

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

13th March, 2023

Budgeting • Central government • Economy and business • Finance • Local government finance • Policy • Public Services • Resilience

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

Community Power • Economy and business • Local government • Policy • Wellbeing

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 whole system reform.

2nd March, 2023

Central government • Community Power • Local government reform • Public Services