Truth about Local Government

.Sarah Longlands is the Chief Executive of Centre for Local Economic Strategies. Sarah is an expert in regional and local economic development and argues for economic and social justice and the creation of places which enable people to live good lives. Her knowledge and passion for the sector is inspiring and she talked me through the need to re defining the narrative around local government and the need for economic strategies to focus on creating inclusive economies rather than just growth.

Great to sit down with Mark Smith, Chief Executive of Chippenham Town Council. At the core of our conversation was advice to local government leaders on the steps to provide stability as a leader and the positive outcomes that flow from this.

James Hewings is a father, a property professional working for Surrey County Council and is studying for job related qualifications. He is a busy man and being a good father and good employee are two top priorities.

Today we discussed what employees and employers can do to help support parents and get the best out of them.

Culture and heritage can sometimes be an after thought for local authorities; but, it is imperative that you get a strategy in place. Today we sat down with Dr Tim Jenkins, a culture & heritage advisor who supports local authorities define and then realise their culture and heritage ambitions.

We discussed:

1. The Future of Local Authority Museums

(Legislation, Funding, Societal Cohesion, Place-shaping & Identity, Interpretation of Collection)

2. Managing & Conserving Public Heritage

(Managing Historic Assets, Ownership, Planning Policy, Physical and Intellectual Access, Relationships with National Bodies)

3. Importance of a Cohesive Strategy

(Making the tough decisions - Asset or Liability, Disposals in best interest of Historic Asset, Place Shaping and Heritage-led Regeneration)

Today we hosted the Director of Engagement from Socitm, David Ogden. We discussed the Public sector digital trends 2024, its implications and the position that Socitm is taking in the sector.

With so many local authorities needing to restructure to achieve cost savings, I spoke with Sarah Hayward a highly experienced Director of Change and Improvement about advice she would give to authorities going through this transition.

The conversation covers, how to identify low hanging fruit, the importance of honesty and integrity, having evidence based outcomes in your financial decision making and the importance of using and collecting data to support a clearly articulate objective and mission statement.

Great to sit down with Richard Twelvetrees, Experience & Value Enablement Director, from de Novo Solutions. We explored how local authorities can use brainstorming collaboration to maximise their digital investment and get continued value from their digital transformation journey.

Such an important topic.

Today I sat down with Rich Hanrahan, Co Founder of RPNA, who helps leaders develop high performing teams, lead more effectively and create unstoppable momentum.

We discussed the problem, around the war for talent - how to attract and retain the best people.

One of the key levers that councils can utilise is flexible working arrangements. Rich talked through how we can make flexibility work for employer and employee.

Our conversations answers the following questions:

• What do we mean by flexibility in employment?
• What’s happening right now in terms of attitudes to flexible working?
• How does flexibility sit in today’s world of work?
• So where are we today?
• And what is the benefit to employees
• How does this impact the employee / employer relationship?
• And are there benefits to employee / employer relationship of introducing greater flexibility?
• So what should we be thinking about when it comes to flexibility?
• What gets in the way of introducing flexibility?
• SO how should we consider and approach introducing more flexibility?

If you want to reach out to Rich - his email is: [email protected]

SaveTheHighStreet.org launched in August 2016 with the the release of a Manifesto that outlined a new vision for the high street and how we achieve it together.

Today, SaveTheHighStreet.org is led by a passionate dedicated team, an Advisory Board of 200+ high street businesses and industry experts, a fast-growing community of Local Champions and dozens of other partners across both public and private sectors. Together they have supported over 25,000 local businesses in the U.K. and we’re just getting started.They focused their conversations on the need to work with the next generation of retailers, in light of diminishing occupational demand from the national multiple retail chains.

Great to sit down with Alex Schlagman, Co Founder of Savethehighstreet.org and Andrew McDonald, retail property expert, where we discussed:

How to fix our high streets in light of fewer larger-brand retail requirements ;and how the public and private sector can work in partnership to address the vacancy challenges in our town centres?

Also, great to launch our partnership with Rich Hanrahan and RPNA. RPNA work with you to design, build and deliver leadership, wellbeing and transformation programmes that are people centred, digitally enabled and developed for the future of public service provision. They are a fantastic partner with public sector organisations across the UK.

Join us in this episode of Truth about local government, as we delve into the intricacies of the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) with Damien Dacey - Interim Director of Devolution. As one of the UK's pivotal regions, the East Midlands is undergoing transformative changes, and understanding the role and impact of the EMCCA is essential.

In this episode, we uncover the following:

• What is the East Midlands Combined County Authority?
• Where are you now on bringing devolution to the East Midlands?
• What can devolution offer local government trying to deliver growth/create jobs alongside all the on-demand statutory services?
• You've worked on devolution in other parts of the country. What is distinct/different about the EM experience so far?
• What's your sense about the potential for the people/communities/business that live the area? How do you see the agenda developing and over what timeframe?
• You've just spent 10 years working on national policy in Whitehall, latterly running the team that worked on delivering the LU White Paper and negotiating new devolution deals including the one you're working on now in the EM. What has been your experience in making the move out of Whitehall into local government?