• HOME
• ABOUT US
  • BOARD MEMBERS
  • KEY STAFF
• JOB VACANCIES
  • INTERNSHIPS
• CONTACT
• LINKS

In depth research and new policy development sits at the heart of NLGN as it seeks to promote devolution and innovative service transformation at the local level. With expertise across a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, the research team conducts analysis into the full spectrum of local public policy areas, democracy and governance and management and performance.

Grounded in input from its networks, local authorities, Whitehall, all major political parties and public and third sector partners, NLGN research seeks to understand challenges facing local policy makers and develop solutions through innovative research techniques.

NLGN has a successful history of working with partners on a wide range of research projects, including local authorities, and private and third sector organisations.

Our research is designed and carried out so as to make a direct contribution to enhancing local public services and to encourage thriving, accountable and influential local democratic institutions. In recent years, NLGN has led thinking and influenced a range of emerging policy proposals including public service reform, sub-regional working, community well-being and financing arrangements.

CORE THEMES 2010/2011

Tweet This Digg This Save to delicious Stumble it

Kindly supported by PA Consulting

In the era of the Big Society, how can local government develop social networks, social capital and trust to strengthen communities? What new engagement techniques, intelligence and feedback can drive citizen-led services and open debate on the future offer of the local state?

The development of health and wellbeing boards (HWBs) gives councils a greater say in health provision than they have had in a generation. Shadow boards are being created at great speed in the midst of a bewildering local government agenda that mixes deep cuts with major structural reform of almost every area of local public service.

If HWBs succeed, they could deliver very significant benefits to local communities.
By bringing together public health, the NHS and social care, they can provide a platform for redesigning services from vaccination to domiciliary care in ways that promote prevention and join up services around the needs of citizens. To do so HWBs not only need to be effective within but also able to engage the rest of local government in achieving their aims.

The fact that 132 shadow boards are already being set up demonstrates the enthusiasm with which councils are grasping this agenda. But senior figures in the sector are asking important questions about how councils and their health partners will develop new ways of working to maximise the potential of public health.

While the boards will have formal powers, their success will depend far more on the quality of partnership working and the ability of board members to work collaboratively to influence the local health economy.

The project’s goal will be to support the development of effective shadow boards as they prepare to go live in 2013. We will work with officials and politicians involved in the set-up process to set out a broad vision for effective health and wellbeing boards, and then identify the key barriers and enablers to achieving that vision. In doing this, the report will identify and share early learning and good practices, analyse the key goals that HWBs are seeking to achieve and make policy and practice recommendations for ensuring the boards reach their full potential.

The research will be assisted by an expert taskforce of key professionals in social care, public health and the NHS to help drive the agenda forward and ensure the relevancy, rigour and practical applicability of the recommendations.

The task facing local economies in the coming years and beyond is significant. Achieving strong and sustainable growth will not be easy. The economic outlook for the Eurozone and the UK economy is still testing, and budget cuts are putting a strain on councils’ resources and capacity.

Local areas are expected to play a critical role in stimulating growth going forward. With Government plans to devolve fund-raising powers, such as the retention of business rate growth, councils are expected to have the financial incentives to do so. On top of that, newly created local enterprise partnerships – including councils, business representatives and other partners – have been tasked with oversight of economic development across local authority boundaries. Ultimately, it is on the front-line that economic leadership must be provided – drawing on businesses and councils’ local knowledge, responsiveness and democratic mandate. This represents a radical shift in the way that local authorities have traditionally conceived local economic growth.

The research encompasses a review and assessment of the policy landscape and general changes introduced so far to devolve power to local areas relevant to the growth agenda, including financial powers. It will then be split into two main strands, exploring the governance arrangements under two policy areas critical to support growth in business investment –skills and infrastructure delivery, respectively. The research will be assisted by an expert advisory group of key economic development professionals to help ensure the rigour and practical applicability of the recommendations.

Listed below are the advisory group members:

Chris Bull, Chief Executive, Herefordshire County Council
Dr. Paul Blantern, Chief Executive, Northamptonshire County Council
Rajmund Brent, County Council
Bridget Taylor, Director of Strategy and Engagement, BT Global Services
Baron Frankal, Director of Research and Strategy, New Economy Manchester
Dr. Adam Marshall, Director of Policy and External Affairs, British Chambers of Commerce
Andrew Lewis , Director of Policy, Strategy & Communications, Newcastle City Council
Damian Walne, Department for Communities & Local Government
Nick Bell, Chief Executive, Staffordshire County Council
Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive, Cambridgeshire County Council
Suzanne Bond , Cornwall Development Company
Kim Ryley, Chief Executive, Shropshire Council

Supported by BT and Kent County Council

Local capital investment faces a challenging future: centrally provided capital funding is set to be reduced by nearly 30%, major investment programmes in schools and hospitals are disappearing and there are likely to be increasing pressures to shift resources to urgent revenue requirements.

On top of this, the increase in the rate of borrowing from the Public Works Loans Board announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review has forced local authorities to think more innovatively about where and how they access capital funding. Following on from our recent publication Capital Futures, which examines a whole host of innovative capital finance models and mechanisms, this research will focus in on the potential offered by the retail bond market.

The development of the Order book for Retail Bonds (ORB) by the London Stock Exchange has given private investors in the UK unprecedented access to the bond market and provides borrowers with a new source of finance. The research will examine how retail bond issuance could become an important component of a new more innovative approach to local capital finance; drawing from interviews with local authority finance professionals as well as insights from the finance sector.

The research will examine the advantages of this form of capital finance along with how various barriers to local authority engagement might be removed. The research will also look at how this capital finance mechanism may develop in the context of a variety of shifting dynamics and contemporary policy priorities in the sector and the wider economy from pooled borrowing to the big society, localism, and the future of personal finance.