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 who is best placed to provide core public services. New and innovative models of delivery are […]

This article first appeared on the Local Government Chronicle website on 30th May 2018 You don’t need to trawl the archives of The New York Times to know that a 2,500 word special on the Knowsley Council wards of Prescot East and Prescot West is somewhat out of the ordinary. Sadly, the reason for this […]

Is the state still essentially a convenor of service provision – whether in house or indirectly delivered? Or does the future demand a different model altogether, which involves a more open democratic engagement, involving citizens, civil society and businesses who are empowered to collectively design the future for their community? If it’s the former, this […]

Whitehall and Local Government often seem fixated on numbers, metrics and targets, as a trigger for focus and action, show to residents, and to satisfy inspectorates as to just exactly what councils have achieved for their residents and areas through their efforts. The nadir of this fixation across English local government was probably the first […]

Whilst recent events have placed emphasis on generational differences– particularly between millennials and older baby-boomers – intergenerational Homeshare schemes are addressing a problem that cuts across the perceived generational divide, and are gaining increased traction among Local Authorities. The lack of affordable housing (both owner occupied and privately rented) is having a worrying effect on […]

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 place. The NHS is a classic example – current pressures have led to prevention becoming embedded […]

This week Seattle’s City Council voted unanimously to levy a new tax on large businesses to help address the city’s homelessness problems. Through negotiation and consensus-building, a democratically-elected local assembly agreed a new financial levy to address a pressing social need. While this might appear to be the result of a mature deliberative process, such […]

Eighteen is known as an exciting age. It is an age synonymous with unprecedented freedom, when the phrases ‘the world is your oyster’ and ‘what’s next is up to you’ are never far from earshot. While some eighteen-year olds would agree with this as they look forward to going on to further education, into employment […]