This collection of essays published by the think tank Localis’s concern to counter political breakdown. It seems the need for creative thinking, fresh ideas, and new ways of working. Its theme is the need for creative thinking, fresh ideas, new ways of working a new fuel for discussions about the future of localism. Access it here.
Locality’s Commission on the Future of Localism, chaired by a former head of the UK Home Civil Service, states as its principal finding a need for “radical action to strengthen our local institutions; devolve tangible power resources and control to community; ensure equality and community participation; and deliver change in local government behaviour and practice to enable local initiatives to thrive.” Access the report here.
This report was prepared by the Royal Society for the Arts working in collaboration with the Wiltshire Council. It is both an overview of the approach which was taken to giving practical shape to the council’s view of localism as intrinsic to its aims and values: “public services should be run for the community in the community with the community” and a reflection on its wider implications. Access the report here.
The basic premise of this report from the Royal Society for the Arts is “Citizens in resilient communities are able and willing to share resources, including help and support. Public services should be designed to encourage these exchanges, and this can be done most successfully at a local level. Realistic resourcing, planning for equity, and willingness to allow for genuine power shift through co-production will all be essential; but where these conditions are met, greater public service volunteering could become the foundation of a localism that values and reinforces our mutual connectedness.” Among other things it’s an argument for the advantages to local government from supporting co-governance. Access it here.
This paper from the UK innovation NGO’s Health Lab reports on Mobilising Communities, a short, experimental programme aimed at exploring the practical applications of the idea of ‘social movements in health’, in three different communities around England. This summary is an overview of the work that took place in the first half of 2016, which was funded by the government’s Social Action Team and delivered by Nesta’s Health Lab and the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT).
The objective of the Mobilising Communities programme was to work with three sites to explore the opportunities to support effective ways of combining people power and community resources, together with publicly funded health services, for better health outcomes across local communities.