Tag: 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
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
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
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
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 and social care • 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
“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
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
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 dynamic and straight-talking Dame Louise Casey, it has starkly...
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 exemplar of community collaboration in tackling isolation and loneliness...
15th March, 2019
Community Power • Participation and co-production • Public Services
@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 the key idea at the heart of this model...
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 other is the central role of community. Students are...
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 other, but have at their core one shared feature:...
25th 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 by so many. Whether it is Mark Francois MP...
6th February, 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 of the future head on, efficient collaboration – and...
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 United Kingdom that it is easy to forget that...
16th January, 2019
When I popped to my local pub on New Year’s Eve, little did I know I would end up starting 2019 defining and defending local government to a group of fellow mid-twenty-year olds. I did not anticipate that, when...
9th January, 2019
Local government finance • Public Services • Strategy and leadership
The NHS 10-year plan has been heralded by the Prime Minister as a “historic step to secure its future”. While elements of the plan are welcome – including greater investment in community care and mental health – it falls...
8th 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
On 18 July 2018, NLGN partnered with FutureGov to host our latest Innovation Exchange at their offices in London. All of our Innovation Exchanges produce a detailed Insights Report available exclusively to NLGN members. This is the Foreword to...
12th October, 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
It has become so rare to hear national politicians talk about returning power over schools to councils that Angela Rayner’s forthright speech to the Labour conference came as something of a surprise. In an agenda-setting intervention, the Shadow Secretary...
26th September, 2018
At the Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales we are often challenging local authorities around commissioning and contracting and how too often it excludes or marginalises small and local charities. We will continue to make the case that...
14th September, 2018
The relationship between councils and communities is shifting. The traditional role of the council as primarily a “service deliver” has diminishing impact in a context of reduced budgets, rising demand and shifting public expectations. There is increasing recognition that...
13th September, 2018
The demand pressures on children’s services have been rising up the policy agenda. There have been repeated calls to the government to allocate more resources to supporting children’s services. The LGA, National Children’s Bureau, the Children’s Society and Action...
16th August, 2018
Implementing the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 and using this opportunity to innovate.
20th July, 2018
Community Power • Homelessness • Housing • Members • Public Services
The surge in violent crime over the last year has left policy makers scrabbling to respond in a meaningful way. The plethora of initiatives announced over the last year – The Home Office Violent Crime Strategy, the cross party...
20th July, 2018
It can be challenging to be a young person today. The issues causing stress amongst our teenagers range from community to community. We’ve learned that young people involved in our youth justice system are often witnessing domestic abuse at...
19th 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
This post first appeared in The Local Government Chronicle on 12th June 2018. Welcome to the Quadruple Whammy: the confluence of factors rearing into view that could push local government and the wider public sector over the edge within...
13th June, 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
Prevention has become a bit of a buzzword. As public services struggle to meet demand alongside widespread funding cuts, increasingly people are recognising the need to focus on the factors that lead people to these services in the first...
22nd May, 2018
This was first published in the Local Government Chronicle on 8th May 2018 After the celebration of victory comes an eye-opening and somewhat shocking week for new councillors elected last Thursday. Many of the pressures they will hear about...
9th May, 2018