Both demands from society and national government legislation are transforming the way that local public services are designed and delivered. At the centre of these changes local government faces the greatest transformational challenge. To date the response to the organisational and management challenges of individual reforms has been piecemeal. However, as the era of spending increases comes to rise, so councils will have to manage their performance ever more effectively. They will do so in an environment with less certainty. To meet the scale of this challenge local government needs to bring together the patchwork of different management solutions for different initiatives, creating a coherent and comprehensive strategy for managing local government in 21st century. From its research NLGN will construct packages of possible organisation and management reform. Working with our partners across local government we will use action learning approaches to test how reform would find its practical realisation.

For further information, please contact Dick Sorabji.