This project undertaken by the ISOS Partnership and commissioned by the Local Government Association (LGA), has sought to answer two central questions:

1. What are the key enablers of (and barriers to) improvement in local children’s services?

2. How can the system as a whole facilitate and support improvement in local children’s services?

The final report sets out detailed evidence and case studies about how local areas have brought about and sustained improvement, as well as recommendations about how the national system can support local children’s services to improve.

There are clear benefits to be gained in terms of building capacity and knowledge about what enables sustained and rapid improvement, and how the system as a whole supports local areas to achieve this.

What enables improvement in children’s services? This is helpful research. Please use it as part of regional planning and improvement activities.

Read the report

Action research into improvement in local children’s services : Full report 

Action research into improvement in local children’s services: Summary

Action research into improvement in local children’s services – summary from regional workshops 

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Creative, courageous and innovative – the council workforce of tomorrow — 21st Century Public Servant

In partnership with the LGA, and supported by GatenbySanderson and PPMA, ‘Outside the Box: The Council Workforce of Tomorrow’ looks at the potential of workforce strategies to meet the strategic and operational challenges facing local government.

Local government needs a workforce that is collaborative, commercially savvy, able to cross boundaries and be flexible, creative, and empowered to make change. How can councils attract staff with these skills and competencies and what can they offer them in return?Outside the Box: The Council Workforce of Tomorrow By Lucy Terry, Senior Researcher and Claire Mansfield, Head of Research, NLGN Councils are changing. Prompted by the funding cuts of the last decade, they have had to transform. No longer just seen as service deliverers, they are becoming collaborators, place leaders, commissioning councils, commercial councils and […]

Download: Outside the Box: The Council Workforce of Tomorrow

How to connect innovation with practice in social care and health

Debbie Sorkin explains the steps you can take to help move innovation into practice.

Even if they’re worthwhile, innovations can sometimes be temporary, stopping when the funding runs out. This means that by the time you hear about them, there’s no-one left in-post to ask. Also, if you haven’t been directly involved in a new development – and independent sector social care providers are often last on the list to be included – it can feel difficult to apply something that was constructed to fit different circumstances or geographies.
If you’ve found yourself in this position, there are things you can do to learn about, and apply, what’s happening elsewhere. The starting point is to get away from ‘magical thinking’: stop hoping for the ‘one big thing’ – a website, person or organisation – that is going to wave a magic wand and explain everything to you (and, ideally, apply it for you).
Then – and this is the beauty of this approach – there are lots of small steps that you and people in your organisations can take.

Read the full article: How to connect innovation with practice in social care and health