You’ve been charged with implementing that big idea – what do you do first? From measuring impact to inclusive conversations, we’ll put an officer that’s ‘been there and done that’ in the hotseat. There’ll be no high-level conceptual stuff...

28th November, 2023


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


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


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

22nd July, 2021


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

22nd February, 2021


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

20th January, 2021


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

8th December, 2020


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

9th November, 2020


‘Place transformation’ has become a well-used term, as the principles underpinning the positive transformation of place are becoming better understood and established. But does this mean we know what it is or how to deliver it? Place transformation needs...

11th May, 2020


Central Government is inevitably a major factor in a council’s success. Whitehall is home to funds and powers that can either help unlock transformation and impact or stymie ambitious plans for change. Ministers and MPs also play the chief...

1st April, 2020


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

20th September, 2019



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

20th January, 2019


This article first appeared on Room 151. As 2018 draws to a close, it has ended in much the same way as it started for partnerships between the public and private sectors. The year began with Carillion’s collapse and...

18th December, 2018


Billed as a juicy political debate pitting the Labour Party’s preference for in-housing against the Conservative Party’s continued commitment to the role of the private sector on outsourcing, the discussions at NLGN’s event to launch our report – From...

22nd November, 2018


The role of the private sector in the delivery of public services has been under intense scrutiny of late. It has been a year overshadowed by high-profile failings, perhaps most notably the collapse of Carillion. But while this could...

9th October, 2018


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

29th July, 2018


Last week saw another report released in the wake of Carillion’s collapse. “After Carillion: Public sector outsourcing and contracting”, a new report from the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, offers valuable insights to guide the future of public...

17th July, 2018


Dave Sheridan, Divisional CEO of ENGIE UK, explains why trust is fundamental to being successful custodians of public services. The recent demise of Carillion, and the public debate thereafter, once again raised the question as to whether local government...

7th June, 2018


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 Brexit, have injected further urgency into the debate around...

30th May, 2018


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


Most councils indulge in partnerships, but how many actually achieve what they were set up to do? As a county council, our oldest partnership is with our unitary city and our 8 districts and boroughs, both separately and collectively....

16th March, 2017


This report focuses on what local areas can do themselves to transform, and how central government can support this. What we really need is radical change of relationships at a local level, and to support areas to catalyse this...

6th May, 2014


A new report from NLGN and CBI reveals that conversations between councils and independent providers of public services are stuck in low gear. This creates a risk that councils will not be able to access the innovative new partnerships...

10th December, 2012