2025: some of MV's highlights of the year

2025 has been quite a year at Mutual Ventures. Viki Taylor-Kidson shares some of our 'best bits', which reflect our work and the hot topics in public services this year.

To mark International Women's Day, we celebrated the fantastic work of women in our network and team. True to form, we also hoped to spark an important conversation: what is it really like to be a female leader in public services? Following a survey and webinar, we launched our most-read report of the year: Women in Public Service Leadership: Insights & Experiences.

Radical Place Leadership remained a mainstay of our work and thinking in 2025. In this long-read article from back in April, Andrew Laird and Prof. Donna Hall proposed a new way of considering public money across a “place” with examples of the cashable savings that could be made from a new Radical Place Leadership approach.

Earlier in the year, we welcomed a ministerial update on the proposed plans for Local Government Reorganisation. We penned a report using our experience to identify what this could mean for children's services, highlighting key considerations.

We know that nothing matters more in our work than the perspective of those with lived experience. Through our work with the DfE on reducing delays in the family justice system, we launched a podcast mini-series to share the stories of mothers with experience of family court and care proceedings. Huge thanks to Claire, Vanessa and Hannah for bravely sharing their knowledge.

We welcomed so many inspiring and courageous leaders on the Radical Reformers podcast. Our 99th episode was a treat for our fellow public service reform nerds and welcomed Relational Practice experts, Rob Wilson, Kathy Evans, Emma Lord, Ron Charlton, Toby Lowe, and Wendy Lansdown.

In the final part of the year, we ran a series on delivery in public service reform. Catch up with our video, soundbites from the team and watch our webinars on-demand, where we were joined by expert guests to discuss the power of relationships, driving outcomes and creating a learning environment.

We've barely scratched the surface here so do follow us on LinkedIn, where we will be revisiting even more of this year's best bits in the last week of the year.

Best wishes, happy holidays and see you in 2026!