I’m delighted that this year we have such a strong line up of brilliant women coming along to inspire everyone at our NLGN International Women’s Day 2019! Slowly but surely we are seeing more women applying for and securing the top jobs in local government. This is so brilliant for women and for our sector. […]

Jacobs was delighted to partner with NLGN on its Inclusive Growth Innovation Exchange. Participants from local authorities across the county came together to discuss what inclusive growth means, why it matters, and also to share experiences on how to deliver this agenda in practice. Opening discussion centred on what inclusive growth means. It is s […]

With NLGN’s International Women’s Day event just around the corner, I’m taking the opportunity to weave together three of my favourite things: local gov, football and inspirational women. At first glance the links might seem tangential, but there’s perhaps more in common than first meets the eye. While women continue to rise through the ranks […]

@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 is the transfer of power and resource from public sector institutions into the hands of communities […]

@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 part of an ‘advisory group’ made up of fellow students that support each other. Students also […]

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: handing power over to communities. With that power flows responsibility and ownership for developing solutions, based […]

The tectonic plates are starting to shift at Westminster. But whether the result is a landscape reshaping volcano or merely a short-lived tremor will be decided as much by policy as politics. At the moment, we have two main parties that have struggled to develop overarching visions that feel fresh and responsive to a changing […]

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 telling us how the Germans don’t like it up them or his colleague Daniel Kawczynski revealing […]