Category: Articles
This month’s NLGN Leadership Index report reveals that councils are even less hopeful about the impact of Brexit on their local economy than they were two years ago.
31st October, 2019
Participative approaches are popular - but they often fail to be truly inclusive Alex Fox OBE, who leads the revolutionary Shared Lives community carer scheme, shares his two lessons for making sure people with disabilities and other excluded groups...
30th October, 2019
Democracy • Participation and co-production • Political Systems
Uncertainty is bad for the economy. Yet the events of recent days and weeks have revealed even greater lack of clarity for local government when it comes to Britain’s departure […]
29th October, 2019
Brexit • Economy and business • Leadership Index • Public Services
So, Her Majesty told us yesterday that her counsellors will be launching another round of devolution. It won’t happen of course unless Boris Johnson marches back into Downing Street with […]
16th October, 2019
Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation • Political Systems
No one can doubt the sincerity of Dame Sally Davies’s parting shot as Chief Medical Officer. Her report on child obesity crackles with frustration and fear at the horrendous cost […]
10th October, 2019
Health and social care • Public Health • Public Sector Voices • Public Services
There is no need for another blog to articulate the complete chaos that the British politics system finds itself in at the present time. As of today, the government teeters […]
26th September, 2019
The number of children in care has never been so high, rising by 4% over the last year alone and by 2025, the funding gap for children’s services is expected […]
11th September, 2019
The number of looked after children has reached a thirty-year high, with spending in this area accounting for over half of spending on children’s services in 2018-19. Despite the injection […]
9th September, 2019
Last week’s Spending Review announcement provided something of a proverbial crutch for children’s services, but offered few reassurances for the medium to long-term sustainability of what many see as the […]
9th September, 2019
Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings have got MPs exactly where they want them: defending Parliament. They may cast this right now as a battle between an executive that wants to […]
28th August, 2019
Levels of violent youth crime on our streets have never been so high. Over the last four years, the number of these offences has increased by 34%. This is also […]
21st August, 2019
With violent youth crime firmly in the public eye, our latest NLGN Leadership Index focusses on how the issue is affecting local government and how the sector is responding to […]
20th August, 2019
Support the community commissioning agenda and transform the way local authorities interact with communities For almost a decade, local authorities have struggled to manage increasing demand for public services whilst […]
13th August, 2019
In May’s local elections, 10 areas took part in a trial requiring people to show some form of identification before casting their vote. The downside of this, we now know, […]
6th August, 2019
A week ago, the UK reached its hottest recorded temperature. Over the weekend half a month’s rain fell in one hour. On Tuesday, major flooding hit Yorkshire. And yesterday, the […]
1st August, 2019
Climate change • Democracy • Environment • Participation and co-production
Since publishing The Community Paradigm in February, a question I get asked more than any other is what community-led services look like in practice. Clearly, there is a hunger out […]
10th July, 2019
A new vision for public services in which communities are placed at the heart of delivery was set out in NLGN’s report The Community Paradigm, published in February this year. […]
9th July, 2019
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 offer […]
9th July, 2019
Community Power • Devolution • Devolution and reorganisation
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 service […]
8th July, 2019
Commissioning and Procurement • Community Power • Public Services
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 more […]
5th July, 2019
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 remains […]
24th June, 2019
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 health […]
10th June, 2019
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 our […]
30th May, 2019
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 are […]
2nd May, 2019
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 listing […]
1st May, 2019
“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 anniversary […]
28th April, 2019
“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 anniversary […]
26th April, 2019
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, to […]
17th April, 2019
The UK is facing a homelessness crisis; 1 in 200 people in Britain don’t have a place to call home. This shocking statistic is lived out through the stark rise […]
3rd April, 2019
Last week gave us a brand new entry to the Local Growth Lexicon: the word ‘Envoy’. As part of plans to support “sustainable, inclusive” growth in the Thames Estuary area, […]
2nd April, 2019
“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 other […]
29th March, 2019
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 even […]
27th March, 2019
Community Power • Democracy • Political Systems • Public Services
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 the […]
19th March, 2019
“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 an […]
15th March, 2019
Community Power • Participation and co-production • Public Services
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 about […]
13th March, 2019
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 Maduro’s […]
12th March, 2019
I’m delighted that this year we have such a strong line up of brilliant women coming along to inspire everyone at our NLGN International Women’s Day 2019! Slowly but surely […]
8th March, 2019
Today we are holding our second speed mentoring event to celebrate International Women’s Day. In this blog, External Affairs Officer Vanessa Schneider reflects on the role models she experienced growing […]
8th March, 2019
Money and an office of one’s own: why do young women still struggle to get a foot on the professional ladder? I recently read Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s […]
8th March, 2019
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 it […]
6th March, 2019
Economy and business • Inclusive Growth • Strategy and leadership
With NLGN’s International Women’s Day event just around the corner, I’m taking the opportunity to weave together three of my favourite things: local gov, football and inspirational women. At first […]
5th March, 2019
@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 that […]
4th March, 2019
‘@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. The […]
27th February, 2019
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 each […]
25th February, 2019
The tectonic plates are starting to shift at Westminster. But whether the result is a landscape reshaping volcano or merely a short-lived tremor will be decided as much by policy […]
21st February, 2019
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 endured […]
6th February, 2019
Our latest NLGN Leadership Index focusses this year on two big topical themes for local government: Brexit and prevention. With Brexit dominating the news agenda we asked local government chief […]
29th January, 2019
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 actually […]
29th January, 2019
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 challenges […]
17th January, 2019
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 the […]
16th January, 2019