Category: Member

8th March, 2023

7th March, 2023

22nd February, 2023

In this instalment of our ‘How We Did It’ event series, Ben Hughes from Essex County Council shares his experience of setting up the Essex Recovery Foundation which is not only person-led, but community-powered, with former service-users integral to...

8th February, 2023

Community engagement

Places need new types of leaders, ones who increasingly collaborate with staff and communities to tackle today’s biggest challenges. This type of leadership is about starting to shift power to put others in the driving seat.

16th January, 2023

Strategy and leadership

How can you properly measure something when you are working in a system that frequently asks the wrong questions, focuses on the wrong measure, and can obsess over costs and ignore true value?

16th January, 2023

Impact

Making integration happen is by no means easy. Ambitions are often weighed down by complex restructuring, governance arrangements, and technical challenges around issues such as sharing data.

17th November, 2022

Partnerships

We live in unprecedented times, where we are facing increasing emergencies in our communities. From Covid-19 to the cost-of-living crisis; the answer to solving these issues sits with our residents.

14th November, 2022

Community engagement

Practice needs to shift in the council itself, in the local system and in working with communities to develop a community-focused approach to addressing health inequalities.

18th October, 2022

Health and social care

Risk – and aversion to it – is often thought to be the reason why a given innovation will fail to emerge in the public sector. Councils are strongly incentivised to take risks seriously and to avoid them when possible,...

3rd October, 2022

Local government finance

Local economic change looms for many communities. High streets are transforming as consumer habits shift, working patterns are altering in the wake of the pandemic, and new kinds of local economic collaboration are emerging.

3rd October, 2022

Community Power • Economy and business • Finance

Ideas and reflections on the challenges of: Developing a simple narrative that is owned by partners and communities, not just the council, and reflects the diversity of voices and experiences in the place; Making the narrative meaningful in practice and...

19th May, 2022

Community engagement • Community Power • Community Voices • Narrative building • Place building • Strategy and leadership

Ideas and reflections on embedding a more autonomous and permissive working culture; building greater resilience within the workforce; and creating a culture of co-production with local partners and communities.

2nd March, 2022

Commissioning and Procurement • Community Power • Culture • Participation and co-production • Partnerships

Ideas and reflections centred around three main challenges: Engaging the whole community on climate change. Telling an external story connecting local and global environmental issues. Ensuring climate change is a priority across the council.

8th November, 2021

Climate change • Community engagement • Community Power • Members • Mobilisation • Strategy and leadership

Ideas and reflections centred around three main challenges: building trust with communities; creating an organisational culture that values and enables community deliberation; and ensuring that councils are engaging with and hearing from all their communities.

1st September, 2021

Community engagement • Community Power • Culture • Democracy

Councils share their lessons learned from partnerships with Europe, Miami-Dade County in Florida, and with a charity in Sierra Leone.

22nd July, 2021

Partnerships • Strategy and leadership

Six key factors to consider when setting up a commission that will help you maximise impact.

22nd June, 2021

Commissioning and Procurement • Democracy • Devolution and reorganisation • Political Economy • Strategy and leadership

Balancing short-term and long-term political and financial pressures with the imperative to respond meaningfully to the climate emergency.

25th May, 2021

Budgeting • Climate change • Community engagement • Community Power • Culture • Finance • Members • Mobilisation • Strategy and leadership

Pivoting from the short-term emergency response to Covid-19 towards long-term organic community development.

24th February, 2021

Community Power • Culture • Democracy • Members • Strategy and leadership

How to build relationships with Whitehall and present persuasive evidence to civil servants.

22nd February, 2021

Central government • Community Power • Local government • Members • Partnerships

Avoiding a drift back to old norms and ways of working, addressing exclusion and preserving accountability.

15th February, 2021

Community Power • Culture • Local government • Local government reform • Members • Strategy and leadership

New Local partnered with Social Finance for an innovation exchange on establishing a new working relationship with partners.

20th January, 2021

Community engagement • Community Power • Culture • Members • Partnerships

Creating partnerships to maximise impact on jobs, and how to match skills to opportunities.

8th December, 2020

Community Power • Economy and business • Education and skills • Employment • Members • Partnerships • Skills

How to create a sense of shared purpose and navigate each partner's different objectives and cultures.

9th November, 2020

Community Power • Culture • Members • Narrative building • Partnerships • Place building

How to build a shared agenda and tackle big decisions with elected members.

22nd September, 2020

Community Power • Digital • Members • Strategy and leadership

Experiences of engaging communities - both successes and initiatives that didn't work as well as hoped.

15th June, 2020

Community engagement • Community Power • Culture • Democracy • Members

How to identify what to measure and get buy-in for assessing impact.

30th April, 2020

Community Power • Culture • Impact • Innovation • Members • Strategy and leadership

Exploring how to manage demand using insights from behavioural science.

13th December, 2019

Behavioural Insights • Community Power • Impact • Innovation Insights • Members • Strategy and leadership

How to overcome common challenges and think strategically when implementing climate change policy.

4th December, 2019

Climate change • Community engagement • Community Power • Innovation Insights • Members • Narrative building • Strategy and leadership

Insights of changing organisational cultures in councils from chief executives.

29th November, 2019

Culture • Innovation • Innovation Insights • Leadership • Members • Strategy and leadership

Exploring the importance of prototyping in developing an innovation.

28th November, 2019

Community Power • Design • Impact • Innovation • Innovation In-depth • Members • Strategy and leadership

How does the design of the places we live, work and play shape our health and sense of belonging?

29th October, 2019

Community Power • Design • Housing • Impact • Innovation In-depth • Members • Place building • Transport

Looking at data, culture, and other challenges to adopting preventative approaches.

20th September, 2019

Community engagement • Community Power • Culture • Data • Members • Partnerships

A summary of the main ideas and lessons that emerged from the day’s discussions

20th September, 2019

Budgeting • Commissioning and Procurement • Community Power • Impact • Local government finance • Members

Exploring how councils are working to tackle loneliness.

14th March, 2019

Community Power • Health and social care • Innovation In-depth • Members • Mental health • Wellbeing

20th January, 2019

Community Power • Health and social care • Local government • Members • Partnerships

Insight into how to upskill the workforce in your area and building effective partnerships with the business community.

20th January, 2019

Community Power • Economy and business • Education and skills • Members • Partnerships • Skills

Exploring the development of partnerships between local authorities and social investors.

18th December, 2018

Community Power • Finance • Local government finance • Members • Social investment • Third sector and civil society

Developing deeper relationships with your residents and moving from a transactional relationship to a collaborative one.

20th October, 2018

Community engagement • Community Power • Community Voices • Democracy • Members • Participation and co-production

Exploring the work of local government around local renewable energy generation.

18th October, 2018

Climate change • Community Power • Environment • Infrastructure • Innovation In-depth • Members

Exploring the pros and cons of joint ventures, wholly-owned housing delivery companies and council-led delivery.

29th July, 2018

Community Power • Housing • Innovation In-depth • Members • Partnerships

Implementing the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and using this opportunity to innovate.

20th July, 2018

Community Power • Homelessness • Housing • Members • Public Services

Starting with problems, not software and focusing on users’ needs to make the most of new digital tools.

20th June, 2018

Community Power • Digital • Local government reform • Members • Strategy and leadership

Exploring how different councils have approached co-production: where users are equally responsible for shaping a service.

29th May, 2018

Community Power • Innovation In-depth • Members • Participation and co-production • Social Care • Young people • Youth

Insight into how to get the right team in place to explore the possibilities of data.

20th March, 2018

Community Power • Data • Members • Strategy and leadership

Exploring how councils are measuring social value and the impact this can have on procurement processes.

29th January, 2018

Budgeting • Commissioning and Procurement • Community Power • Impact • Innovation In-depth • Members • SMEs • Social investment

Exploring how councils are approaching inclusive growth in practice.

29th November, 2017

Community Power • Inclusive Growth • Innovation In-depth • Members • Place building

Exploring how councils can make use of behavioural insights.

20th October, 2017

Behavioural Insights • Childrens' Services • Community Power • Innovation In-depth • Members • Transport

Guide to setting up effective governance of commercialisation projects to reduce risks and enable growth.

20th October, 2017

Community Power • Finance • Local government finance • Members

Exploring different methods to frame and implement your transformation programme.

20th August, 2017

Community Power • Leadership • Local government reform • Members • Strategy and leadership