Publications Archive

People, places and politics: Learning to do things differently (2011)

Following the first phase of ‘whole-area’ working, this publication draws on interviews with over 100 people from different parts of the system to tell the story of those involved in Total Place.

Total Place: A Practitioners Guide to doing things differently (2010)

In this document, we have gathered the wisdom of a number of people who have been involved in the Total Place adventure. Looking to use theories and models of change, embracing practical ideas on processes and things to do, and also touching on the inevitable human dimensions of change these experiences, the Total Place quest is recounted by the pilots’ programme managers and leads. It also includes insights from Leadership Centre advisers who have worked closely with places.

Early Intervention: a citywide approach in Nottingham (2010)

Produced jointly with Nottingham City Council and concluded by Graham Allen MP, Chair of the Independent Review of Early Intervention and Councillor Jon Collins, Leader of Nottingham City Council, this publication shares the city’s experience of delivering a new way of working and shows local government’s capability for doing things differently to provide the most effective support to families with complex needs.

Repairing broken families and rescuing fractured communities: lessons from the front line (2010)

This joint publication with Westminster City Council examines the lessons from their early intervention programme and highlights some of the cost savings that can be achieved.

Building a Civic Community: the ten principles to delivering the Big Society in Westminster (2010) 

The challenge facing local government is to empower communities and individuals with a sense of civic pride. This publication looks at Westmisnter City Council’s vision for the Big Society and how Conservative councils and councillors are shaping this agenda.

Co-operative Communities: creating a shared stake in our society for everyone (2010)

The challenge facing local government is to empower communities and individuals with a sense of civic pride. This publication looks at how Labour councils and councillors are shaping this agenda.

Community Politics in the 21st century: the challenges and opportunities for community politicians (2010)

The challenge facing local government is to empower communities and individuals with a sense of civic pride. This publication looks at how Liberal Democrat councils and councillors are shaping this agenda.

Filling the talent gap: a new approach to councillor recruitment (2010)

As part of the Be a Councillor campaign four London councils were paired with executive search firms working on a pro bono basis to reinvigorate their approach to candidate recruitment. This is the story of Emma Will, a candidate identified through the project, who went on to be successfully elected on May 6 2010.

Local Public Services in Wales (2010)

Lessons from election 2010: local politics and social media (2010)

Looking at the impact of, and lessons from social media on the 2010 general and local elections.

Reaching the hearts of Herefordshire (2010)

Local Government Leadership and Herefordshire Council undertook a joint project to strengthen the fabric of local society and the role of the frontline councillor. This publication tells the story of the Reaching the hearts of Herefordshire project which aimed to: place councillors at the heart of the community; help local public services, the community and voluntary sector to work together and empower and encourage public services and local people to take practical action.

Manifesto for a modern local politics (2010)

Focusing on the 10 key challenges defining the new direction for local government.

The 21st Century guide to member induction (2010)

For the last year we have been running an online tool which gives local authorities and councillors an idea of how their council is ‘rated’ in terms of member induction. We are half way through providing individual breakdowns for each region – but this guide gathers together what we have learnt so far on member induction from across the country.

Pavement to power (2010)

Consolidating strengths in pavement politics and campaigning into sustainable political leadership.

Leadership of place: light touch mapping (2009)

New examples of partnership working and collaboration across the public sector are emerging all the time. The report sets out a map of current leadership of place activity and identifies possible areas for future collaboration.

Thinking Family (2009)

A new approach to tackling social breakdown.

Putting fairness first (2009)

Local Labour’s manifesto for a new term.

The Local Parliament (2009)

A Liberal Democrat approach to devolution.

Neighbourhood Power (2009)

Devolution with a difference. Published as part of LG Leadership’s 21st Century Councillor initiative.

State of the suburbs (2009)

More than 80 per cent of us live in areas that can be classified as suburban and yet ‘suburbs’ have played a secondary role in regeneration and urban policy. This report contends that ‘city-suburbs’ are in fact an organic and correlative part of the vitality of the ‘city-region’ and aims to start the debate that will put suburbs on the map.

Rising to the challenge (2009)

The Conservative local government response to the recession.

Leading the way (2009)

The Labour local government response to the recession.

Smart government for hard times (2009)

The Liberal Democrat local government response to the recession.

The X Factor – what happened next (2009)

Recruiting talent for the 2010 London local elections – what happened next.

Leadership development for the long term (2009)

LG Leadership recommends top practicioners

Counting Cumbria (2009)

Counting Cumbria provides supporting analysis to Calling Cumbria to quantify the public money going into the county and find out as far as possible what happened to it.

Doing things differently (2009)

What Whitehall can learn from Conservative local government.

Pride of London (2008)

London is the world’s most culturally mixed city and yet politically it does not reflect the richness of its 7.4 million inhabitants. Widening participation and encouraging a more diverse range of people to become councillors is essential if local government in London is to truly benefit from the contribution that all its citizens can make.

The X Factor (2008)

A must have talent-spotter’s recruitment manual for the 2010 London elections.

The Dorset Experience (2008)

Dorset is a very good example of an area which, while understanding the need for all the authorities to work together, welcomed an outside resource to make that happen, to pull people together and create a common agenda. Read on to find out how the Leadership Centre helped the seven authorities involved reach a common sense of purpose.

Calling Cumbria (2008)

Calling Cumbria demonstrates the determination of people across that county, from all walks of life, to work better across boundaries by getting at the opportunities which lurk in the spaces between people and between organisations.

People like you are councillors (2008)

Your guide to becoming a councillor in England.

Leadership of place (2007)

The role of overview and scrutiny. Published as part of LG Leadership’s 21st Century Councillor initiative.

Preparing for Power (2007)

Preparing to take power requires detailed research. You need to consider all your policies not as hypothetical ideas that can be used to make political points, but as part of a real-world programme that will be judged according to what it delivers for residents.

Politics of Place (2007)

Politics of Place is an argument about the centrality of place and place shaping as the key role of local government, a guide to a theoretical framework to underpin thinking and work and a practical toolkit with case studies from leading authorities.

Civic Pride (2007)

The Leadership Centre for Local Government designed new Civic Pride initiative to encourage confident, capable and visionary local leadership.

Finding the X factor (2007)

The premier national guide to recruiting local government talent in your area.

Corporate brochure (2007)

The rules are changing in local government, and leading it isn’t the game it used to be. Today’s local leaders are at the heart of their communities – it is up to them to provide the imagination and the inspiration to create a community out of a place.

Civic leadership for the new century (2006)

The conclusions of a series of workshops organised among a range of political, managerial and community leaders in local government by the Leadership Centre which looked at the major issues facing local government over the coming years.

Developing by doing: Swindon’s leadership journey (2005)

How did the Leadership Centre actually work with authorities to develop their leadership capacity? Find out in this case study.

Chief executives and leaders: what you really think (2005)

The results of our MORI survey of chief executives and leaders, to find out what they think about leadership development and to understand their priorities and concerns.

Politics matters: making cabinets more effective (2005)

How LG Leadership’s cabinet development centres can help cabinets work better.

Living leadership (2004)

An eight-point manifesto for leadership which reveals the challenges that face local authorities today.