Case Study: Local Government Association Place-based Policy

Client: Local Government Association (LGA)

Date: October 2024 - February 2025

Challenges faced by the client:

Local government is facing complex challenges which can only be addressed by breaking down service siloes and establishing more effective relationship between central and local. In the context of a new Government and substantial changes to devolved powers and local government structures, the Local Government Association (LGA) therefore sought to identify views from senior public service leaders and experts on the future of place-based approaches to public services. 

Our support:

Mutual Ventures, in collaboration with the Re:State think tank, supported the LGA by running a series of workshops focused on rethinking place-based policy: 

Workshops

We worked with colleagues at the LGA to agree a list of >100 public services leaders and experts that we thought would be willing to share their views on place-based working. In total, 51 public service experts engaged in the workshops. Attendees came from a wide range of backgrounds, organisations and services. They included senior local authority leaders, NHS leaders, civil servants, and think tank staff. The workshops covered the following key topics:

1. Identifying the conditions for success in place-based working.

2. Making place-based resourcing, governance and accountability work.

3. Aligning mission-led government and place-based priorities.

Alongside our workshops, we held individual conversations with a number of experts to discuss topics in more detail and to allow those who couldn’t attend the conversations to give their views.

Literature review

We supplemented the expert feedback with a literature review conducted by Re:State to understand current thinking on place-based approaches to public service delivery, and examples of recent good practice. This review covered academic research, government policy papers and think tank reports and was undertaken during October and November 2024.

Recommendations and final report

Combined with the result of a literature review, we used the insights from our workshops to produce a series of recommendations for places, central government and the LGA to make place-based, person-centred public service delivery a reality. Our final report additionally included conditions for success, other key themes from the workshops , as well as case studies of place-based practices. We have since run working sessions with LGA colleagues and members to gather their feedback on our recommendations. 

Outcome achieved: 

The workshops and subsequent report provided the LGA with insights and recommendations to enhance place-based working. Our recommendations are actionable, encouraging places to be decisive as they adopt new ways of working and urging central government to support this shift by creating the conditions to make place-based working mainstream. We further suggest actionable steps that the LGA can take to actively support local public services to work differently. With these recommendations, the LGA is now better equipped to advocate for change, support local public services, and foster a collaborative approach to public service delivery. Our report is available here. 

For more information on Mutual Ventures’ approach to place based working and the findings of this report, please contact Mutual Ventures CEO Andrew Laird andrew@mutualventures.co.uk