The ability of the local government sector to find ways of sustaining capital investment, particularly in growth-spurring infrastructure during a period of unprecedented austerity will be a significant part of meeting Government objectives for a revitalised and rebalanced economy.
Tom Symons, Local Government Chronicle

In response to Patrick Butler, Simon Parker makes the case for pressing on with local government reform.
Simon Parker, The Guardian

Government is becoming increasingly interested in the concept of behaviour change and nudge. How can they be actually implemented at the local level?
Nigel Keohane, eGov Monitor

As the dust settles on a fractious local election hustings period, NLGN’s Director looks at what we can expect in the coming months in the relationship between town halls and Whitehall.
Simon Parker, The Local Government Chronicle

Kindly supported by Adults with Learning Disabilities Services Forum, Care Management Group, Care UK, Craegmoor, The Hesley Group, Lighthouse Healthcare, Voyage, Learning Disability Coalition

Social care commissioners face a deeply challenging future. The UK’s aging population is storing up major cost pressures, which will only be exacerbated by cuts to council grants of 28%. Even with the extra £1bn pledged by the chancellor, the stakes are high for social care providers and the people they serve. The key to successfully navigating the challenges ahead for both councils and providers is to develop a clear, shared account of what excellent commissioning practice and service provision will look like over the next five years.

New research from the NLGN will analyse what social care commissioning should look like within this new and more complex order.

Kindly supported by May Gurney.

Many local authorities are now looking for radically new ways to deliver their services. The problem is that there are worryingly few ideas ready to go. Outside of adult social care – where personalised budgets will transform the landscape over the coming years – councils simply do not have enough innovative thinking.

Looking ahead to the next election, Ripping up the Rule Book will develop a series of radical but credible future scenario case studies of public services in 2015 and beyond. These case studies will provide a provocative challenge to councils, encouraging them to think more ambitiously about how to transform their work. Re-thinking models for interaction between the local state, citizens and private providers will be a key component of this work.

Kindly supported by NESTA.

The government is pursuing a policy of ‘creative destruction’. This is a highly innovative but very risky strategy. What are the implications of such radical change? Will we even recognise our local authorities and local public services in five years’ time?

The danger is that some councils will simply cut back to their core services and wait vainly for spending growth to start again, while others may cut blindly in the short term and close down medium term opportunities for innovation. To avoid this, councils need to take the long view, thinking innovatively about the kind of services they want to deliver and the role they want to play in their communities, then developing a clear route map for realising that vision. Usign scenario planning techniques, this project aims to promote this kind of long term thinking among the local government community, with a particular focus on promoting innovation.

In recent years, there’s been plenty of talk of “nudging” – getting children to eat less fatty food, encouraging older people to live healthy lives and promoting green living. But for all the hype, nudging has been slow to reach the frontline.
Simon Parker, The Guardian