Tag: Public Services

How we can 'shock proof' our systems for a more prepared and better future?

17th August, 2020

Build Back Better • Community Power • Employment • Public Services • Resilience

A new Government White Paper envisages radical reform for planning. But, while it hints at a community-led approach, it also sets rules and targets to be imposed by national government. John Myers of the YIMBY Alliance sets out how...

6th August, 2020

Community Power • Housing • Place building • Planning • Public Services

The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as producing huge hardship and challenges, was also a time that saw incredible innovation, resilience and compassion. NLGN's new report 'Shifting the Balance', aims to capture the best examples of this

26th July, 2020

Build Back Better • Community Power • Public Services

Kicking off a new conversation about Resilient Britain, chief executive of Local Trust, Matt Leach, and director of NLGN, Adam Lent, set out their plan to bring together a network of people and organisations to design and deliver plans...

24th July, 2020

Build Back Better • Covid-19 • Employment • Public Services • Resilience

Alex Fox, CEO of Shared Lives Plus, argues that we need to see a rapid shift from the ‘command and control’ leadership style which arguably saved the NHS a few weeks ago, to a much more devolved and collaborative...

22nd June, 2020

Build Back Better • Covid-19 • Public Services • Social Care

A growing number of councils are adopting new approaches to children's services which tap into the capacity and experiences of local people.

18th June, 2020

Childrens' Services • Community Power • Public Services

This report summarises findings from an event held with the New Local Government Network (NLGN) on the changing relationship between communities and public services during and beyond COVID-19.

9th June, 2020

Build Back Better • Community Power • Covid-19 • Public Services

In a new report, we explore how COVID is changing the relationship between public services and communities.

9th June, 2020

Build Back Better • Community Power • Covid-19 • Public Services

‘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

Partnerships • Place building • Public Services

04/5/20 – 08/5/20 Local authorities are indispensable in our current crisis and are therefore under enormous pressure. They manage the public services that people are increasingly reliant on, support the most vulnerable people in our communities, and hold information...

7th May, 2020

Community Power • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Public Services

27/4/20 – 01/5/20 Local authorities are indispensable in our current crisis and are therefore under enormous pressure. They manage the public services that people are increasingly reliant on, support the most vulnerable people in our communities, and hold information...

1st May, 2020

Community Power • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Public Services

If you live in the UK today and have a disability, you are twice as likely to be unemployed than someone who is not disabled – a fact so well-known that it has been named the ‘disability employment gap’...

24th April, 2020

Covid-19 • Employment • Public Services

20/4/20 – 24/4/20 Local authorities are indispensable in our current crisis and are therefore under enormous pressure. They manage the public services that people are increasingly reliant on, support the most vulnerable people in our communities, and hold information...

24th April, 2020

Community Power • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Public Services

Today, there are more councils than ever who realise that they can’t do it alone. That their best work, and most robust decisions, come from working hand-in-hand with the communities they serve. This has been brought into the fore...

21st April, 2020

Community Power • Mobilisation • Public Services

Who was Elinor Ostrom? What were her key arguments? How are they relevant to localism, public services, and politics in the UK? This presentation serves as an introduction to our online symposium on Elinor Ostrom. It provides an overview...

20th April, 2020

Community Power • Ostrom • Politics • Public Services • Video

Local authorities are indispensable in our current crisis and are therefore under enormous pressure. They manage the public services that people are increasingly reliant on, support the most vulnerable people in our communities, and hold information that keeps local...

17th April, 2020

Community Power • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Public Services

9th April, 2020

Community Power • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Public Services

We draw out some of the most important ideas from Ostrom's long career and distil a set of new principles for the UK today.

7th April, 2020

Community Power • Ostrom • Public Services

3rd April, 2020

Community Power • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Public Services

27th March, 2020

Community Power • Councils Respond • Covid-19 • Public Services

Simon Kaye explores the legacy of Elinor Ostrom, the first female Noble-prize-winning economist, who proved that communities can successfully take charge of the assets around them. It’s work that should provide intellectual inspiration and practical principles for people taking...

8th March, 2020

Community Power • Economy and business • Ostrom • Public Services

To mark International Women’s Day 2020, we speak to Julia Unwin DBE, whose remarkable career has seen her lead the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and lead an inquiry into the future of civil society. She talks about the social passions...

6th March, 2020

Interview • Public Sector Voices • Public Services

As part of their partnership with our Stronger Things event, Tim Pitts from digital technology provider Agilisys explores the potential of technology, data and creative thinking for local government. Local authorities, as everyone knows, are struggling to both balance...

27th February, 2020

Community Power • Public Services • Technology

In July 2010, during his honeymoon period as Prime Minister, David Cameron unveiled what he called his “great passion” – the Big Society agenda. Built around principles of localism, volunteerism, transparency and devolution, the Big Society was supposed to...

26th February, 2020

Community Power • Conservatives • Public Services

Head of Communications Katy Oglethorpe responds to the Centre for Local Economic Strategies’ critique of the Community Paradigm , by arguing that communities – working in partnership with government – are our best hope for sustainable public services and...

24th February, 2020

Community Power • Powerful Communities • Public Services

With the new government committed to building ‘places we want to live in’ by giving communities more say on development, and the upcoming NLGN conference in March looking at how to unleash community power, it is a good time...

18th February, 2020

Behavioural Insights • Behavourial economics • Community Power • Public Services

On 14 February, Camden Council is celebrating Valentine’s Day in a rather disruptive way. 130 people from across the country and from a range of organisations are coming together in our borough to talk about love in public services....

14th February, 2020

Community Power • Place building • Public Services

Millions of people in communities across the country find it difficult, or even impossible, to work because of the impact of a disability or long-term health condition. These disabilities and health conditions are often part of a complex picture...

7th February, 2020

Community Power • Disabilities • Employment • Public Services

Adam Lent argues that our intensifying climate crisis requires a political, economic and cultural revolution rooted in the empowerment of communities. @adamjlent We enter this new decade in the grip of a triple crisis: of climate, of economic inequality...

20th January, 2020

Climate change • Community Power • Environment • Public Services

The PM may have given minimum wage earners a cash boost but Adam Lent argues only bringing the low paid into the heart of power will make a long-term difference. My most terrifying duty as Head of Economics at...

31st December, 2019

Democracy • Economy and business • Employment • Public Services

In theory, a Conservative government with a very strong mandate should prove a tasty prospect for the local government sector. The party’s manifesto commits the government to a devolution white paper, major new funding for infrastructure, money for towns...

13th December, 2019

Community Power • Conservatives • Democracy • Public Services

Local authorities experience considerable difficulties as they budget to keep vital services going whilst facing uncertainty about their future finances, and this is exacerbated when they are unsure when a longer-term settlement can be achieved.

4th December, 2019

Budgeting • Commissioning and Procurement • Public Services • Strategy and leadership

In response to the debate about a Community Power Act, Adam Lent argues that culture change is vital but alone it is not enough to transform a highly centralised, resistant system.

26th November, 2019

Community Power • Democracy • Public Services

The number of people spending the night on the streets is increasing all over the world, as nations struggle with their own housing crises or have difficulties funding the multi-agency support services needed for individuals to overcome the complex...

25th November, 2019

Homelessness • Housing • planning and homelessness • Public Services

Given the increasingly stretched resources in councils, prototyping provides a sensible and low-cost approach to test new ideas and obtain buy-in along the way.

22nd November, 2019

Public Services

In this briefing, we’re exploring the benefits and opportunities that arise when we create the time and space to bring prototyping practices into our work.

22nd November, 2019

Public Services

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 from the EU. Our latest NLGN Leadership Index finds...

29th October, 2019

Brexit • Economy and business • Leadership Index • Public Services

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 of the problem to individuals, families and the wider...

10th October, 2019

Health • Public Health • Public Sector Voices • Public Services

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 to rise to £3.1bn. In 2017-18, nine out of...

11th September, 2019

Children • Childrens' Services • Community Power • Podcast • Public Services

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 of an additional £542 million in 2018-19, councils continue...

9th September, 2019

Children • Childrens' Services • Community Power • Public Services

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 most important state function of them all. Failing to...

9th September, 2019

Children • Childrens' Services • Community Power • Public Services

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 reflected in the New Local Government Network’s latest Leadership...

21st August, 2019

Crime and justice • Public Services

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. Our new report published today is called Community Commissioning:...

9th July, 2019

Community Power • Public Services

This report makes a convincing case for why the process needs to be led by citizens and service users not public sector professionals. Importantly, it also explains in detail how this shift is happening in practice.

8th July, 2019

Commissioning and Procurement • Community Power • Powerful Communities • Public Services

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 delivery to be achieved, significant power and resource must...

8th July, 2019

Commissioning and Procurement • Community Power • Public Services

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 and social care. Integrating health and social care –...

10th June, 2019

Health • Health and social care • Public Health • Public Services

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 it as the number one challenge facing local authorities....

1st May, 2019

Children • Childrens' Services • Community Power • Public Services

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 imagine a low tax campaign that isn’t opaque about...

17th April, 2019

Conservatives • Economy and business • Public Services

“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 freshers and everyone else looked like they were having...

29th March, 2019

Health • Health and social care • Mental health • Public Services

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 though the big privatisations of state-owned assets are long...

27th March, 2019

Community Power • Democracy • Political Systems • Public Services