Shared Intelligence

On Monday 7th March Shared Intelligence will be saying goodbye to our offices in Fitzroy Square. We will be moving to new premises in Clerkenwell, Islington. Our new address will be 1 Naoroji Street, London, WC1X 0GB.

Although our address may be changing but our phone numbers will remain the same if you need to contact us you can still call 0207 756 7600 and all of its extensions. We look forward to seeing you at Naoroji Street!

We have just finished work on the first phase of the Future Libraries Programmes. These have been fast-paced projects, taking place within an ever-changing financial context, dealing with one of the most talked-about areas of public services in relation to spending cuts.

We have been privileged to work with Greater Manchester, Northumberland and Durham, Herefordshire and Shropshire, Suffolk, and the central London tri-boroughs. Each case has had a different focus, but all have shown that despite immense financial pressure libraries can reduce costs and innovate. In each area we have supported heads of library services to work through the challenges they face; financial, practical, and political – and develop options which will generate the most benefit for the local community within the constraints that exist. For our part we have carried out background analysis (financial, policy, and organisational) to inform decision-making, brokered discussions with leadership teams to pave the way, and convened workshops for heads of service to interrogate the evidence, formulate options, and make choices. Our support for the Future Libraries Programme has also been informed by the public attitudes research we completed last Autumn, with IPSOS MORI, into what the public want from public libraries (from which we also produced a guide for library service practitioners).

One of the strongest messages is that collaboration between library authorities brings new options which can lessen the impact of cuts and modernise the public library offer – this ranges from sharing specific specialist skills and functions, to creating whole new cross boundary services. These new options are essential as library services seek to move beyond short term measures of closures, opening hours and staffing reductions, and suspending new stock purchases – which amount to service reductions rather than service innovation.

We have also seen that when it comes to re-imagining public libraries other public service staff (both statutory and independent) are enthusiastic and valuable partners in helping re-design key elements of the service, and build practical links with their own activities – we have seen this with mobile libraries, online and digital services, reading groups, and community libraries.

Phase 2 of the Future Libraries Programme is now underway, to share the findings and learning from phase 1 and Shared Intelligence will be presenting the work we have done at a number of national events this Spring, alongside those heads of libraries we have worked with.

For more information about our work with public libraries please contact ben.lee@sharedintelligence.net or you can also find more examples of our work here

Here is a recent article from Si Programme Director, Phil Swann on place based budgeting. This article was originally published at http://www.lgcplus.com

The Local Government Association has bravely gone out on a limb in putting the case for place-based budgeting at the heart of its submission to the spending review. In doing so it has made government support for councils taking on pan-public sector budgets a litmus test of the coalition’s commitment to localism.

One clear conclusion from the previous government’s Total Place pilots is that it is undoubtedly possible to achieve improved outcomes at considerably less cost. Better for less is not a public sector holy grail, but it can be achieved only if something like place-based budgets are in place.

Local government’s case would be stronger, however, if it acknowledged the scale of the difficulties councils and their partners will face in pursuing this approach. On the basis of the Total Place experience there are at least three sets of challenges.

First, the need for financial management and governance arrangements that can facilitate, for example, one agency spending a little more to enable other agencies to save considerably more. Place-based budgeting provides a mechanism for this, but it is important not to underestimate the complex interagency dynamics that will inevitably need to be handled.

Second, the importance of high-quality political and managerial leadership. Securing better for less in relation to services for older people, for example, involves making the positive case for significant reconfiguration of hospital provision, including the possible closure of wards and hospitals. This requires real political courage in challenging the inevitable tendency to defend cherished institutions.

Third, the need for considerable organisational and cultural change. In relation to older people, for example, this means:

The LGA will claim that local government is up for this, and assertiveness is important at this stage in the political cycle. But that assertiveness must be underpinned by a degree of self-awareness. It must be complemented by an honest account of the capacity councils need to fill this role and the steps they are taking to develop it.

Source: Local Governement Chronicle, 21 October 2010

If ‘the big society’ is serious about empowering local people to shape local services to meet their needs, then Healthy Croydon’s Health Champions programme is a model that national and local decision-makers need to examine.

Shared Intelligence was commissioned to evaluate the programme to examine its impact and recommend how it could develop. Our evaluation found that a massive 89% of participants felt they could influence decisions affecting their local area. This compares to only 33% from across the local authority who believe this. And the Croydon Health Champions are not just talking about what they want. Our evaluation found that 66% of Champions surveyed reported they were now ‘very involved’ in community activity (up from 22%) and 70% said it was ‘very likely’ they would organise future community activity. Furthermore the Champions who responded to our survey were dedicating 31.4 hours per month to volunteering activity (compared to the national average of 15.9). The range of activity was as diverse as the communities involved and local health service stakeholders could recognise and report constructive contributions to improving services.

The evaluation demonstrates that strategic investments in community-based programmes like the Croydon Health Champions can make a real difference to individuals involved, their local services and the community as a whole. The evaluation is an affirmation of the structured support provided, while providing suggestions on how to strengthen the benefits arising from the investment. For a wider audience, our report illustrates that in moves towards a ‘big society’, investing in involvement and empowerment programmes will be essential for turning promises into practice.

The Health Champions Programme supports participants to develop their leadership skills in community development through a structured training. The programme encourages participants, who usually have had only limited experience in community activity, to organise activity that promotes health and wellbeing in their local community. 45 participants have been through the programme since 2008.

Click here to download the report

Shared Intelligence have been commissioned to review of the strategic partnership arrangements in Gloucestershire. The intention is to create more streamlined and cheaper partnership arrangement in line with the new financial reality and requirements of the Coalition Government. Whilst Gloucestershire County Council has the lead role in partnership governance it was felt that the review should be conducted by an independent organisation.

Shared Intelligence will be reviewing the existing strategic partnership arrangements in Gloucestershire, and produce recommendations for what the streamlined arrangements should be, based on a consensus of key partners.

The work will be conducted through a five-stage process:

• A telephone inception meeting and review of the outcome of the first meeting of the reference group;
• A scoping phase to inform and shape the review including a combination of:
  - A brief review of key documentation;
  - One day on site to interview some key players, supplemented by;
  - Telephone interviews;
  
• A design day with the reference group, using an analysis of the issues and ideas emerging from the interviews to inform a redesign of the partnership structure;
• A simulation day - this draws on a technique Phil Swann developed in a review of partnership arrangements in Wiltshire, where the new emerging design would be tested in a day-long simulation taking one or two issues through the new structures. This would both test the emerging design and begin to develop the behaviours necessary to make it work;
• A final phase to confirm the design and recommendations.

We are pleased to announce the action learning methodology used by Shared Intelligence across our shared learning assignments has won accreditation from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). With over 86,000 members CMI are the UK’s only chartered professional body dedicated to promoting management and leadership excellence. Achieving accreditation with them provides a level of independent quality assurance of the action learning activities we lead and will be a real benefit to our clients.

The main practical difference is that from now on anyone who takes part in action learning with us can choose to enrol for a Level 5 (degree level) Award as part of their action learning. To gain the award they will have to submit a 3000 word essay for external marking by CMI – but the rest of the action learning set experience will be the same as the other members of the learning set. The Award will be a 6 point Award which is recognised nationally in its own right, and also counts toward 25% of a Certificate, and 15% of a Diploma qualification.

Managing Future Uncertainties
A two day course in scenario planning and trends analysis
September 9th and 10th

There is still an air of uncertainty throughout the in the UK. The reduction in public spending following the recession has had a significant impact on the current economic and financial uncertainties facing local areas. In response to these uncertainties Shared Intelligence has teamed up with Sweden’s Kairos Futures to offer an enhanced scenario planning service that will help you and your organisation address the future.

This course will enable delegates to develop tools for tracking trends and developing scenarios, which will provide delegates with the skills to confidently make decisions, support decision makers and engage other stakeholders.

Over two days in September (9th and 10th) the course will enable attendees to manage risk and find the route to the future position they want to reach. Information on the course contents can be found in the brochure here. If you wish to reserve a place on the course please contact Papa Akuffo on 0207 756 7614 (papa.akuffo@sharedintelligence.net).

Alternatively, if you would like to discuss any aspect of the programme please do not hesitate to contact Patrick McVeigh () or Ben Lee (ben.lee@sharedintelligence.net).

We look forward to seeing you there.

Last month, New Start and Shared Intelligence held a roundtable seminar on Local Enterprise Partnerships, the latest in New Start’s series of RegenFuture events and discussions.

The event brought together local practitioners, analysts and national stakeholders including the Institute of Directors, Work Foundation and Core Cities to identify the key factors and drivers that will make the transition from RDAs to LEPs a success. Following the event, we responded to the House of Commons’ Business, Innovation and Skills Committee call for evidence to inform their inquiry into LEPs. Our submission set out the core questions which we suggest the Inquiry should follow based on the roundtable discussion.

Julian Dobson blogged some immediate thoughts after the event. This post summarises the key messages in our evidence to the Inquiry.

The bare bones of the government’s approach to economic development and regeneration are becoming gradually clear.

In his Bloomberg speech this week, the chancellor underlined the shift in investment to 're-focus public spending in those areas that will make a difference to our long-term economic success'. Instead of programmes which, to their critics, rewarded failure and encouraged dependency, the government will be much more hard-headed about rewarding success and encouraging growth areas to go further and faster.

A few days earlier Eric Pickles reiterated his determination to either abolish or devolve to the local level a whole series of plan-making and delivery powers. In the same interview, he also confessed to having 'great fun abolishing lots of stuff'. Pickles has encouraged LEPs to be bold in their submissions about the powers they want, and there’s talk that some parts of CLG are lobbying for directly elected mayors to head up LEPs.

With so many other parts of the system being dismantled and the government further strengthening its focus on private-sector led growth and enterprise as the means for delivering wider social goals, the role of LEPs is becoming increasingly important.

The lobbying to make elected mayors the chair of LEPs neatly highlights our first point to the BIC Committee: LEPs can’t be a peg for every fleeting ministerial whim. LEPs need to prioritise their functions and investments to ensure there is a clarity of purpose across their activities. These activities need to be guided by the needs of local businesses and enterprises, including social enterprise, and be delivered through flexible partnerships.

Central government must be equally rigorous and consistent about freedoms and flexibilities, and encourage local innovation.The inevitable discussions about structures and roles within LEPs, as the new arrangements settle in, should not distract from fundamental challenge – whether LEPs can attract additional funding and direct it in ways that add value to local activity.

Finally, we argued that there should be a role for tackling deprivation and driving regeneration where that was a local priority. Promoting enterprise growth isn’t just for better off areas.

Join the debate about LEPs and the future of regeneration here: www.regenfuture.org Originally appeared on www.newstartmag.co.uk

Shared Intelligence’s (si) report on merger between third sector infrastructure support organisations, commissioned by Capacitybuilders, was recently published alongside a set of standalone case studies.

Capacitybuilder’s quarterly recession surveys had identified an increasing interest in merger from the infrastructure support sector. Si talked to a number infrastructure support bodies, their staff and trustees, the frontline organisations they served and public sector commissioners to explore the benefits, processes and challenges involved with merger, both from the perspective of successful and attempted mergers.

Si has found that organisations looking to conduct a successful merger need strong vision and leadership and clear but sensitive communication channels (including actively involving stakeholders in the merger process). Detailed planning enables merged organisations to ‘hit the ground running’ whilst a readiness to use external advice and internal resources helps keep the merger process running smoothly and efficiently.

However, Si also found that organisations need to be open-minded and ready to seize opportunities if merger is going to work for them. Merger isn’t a quick fix, and as one post-merger support body told us “the act of merger is actually an act of investment.”

Capacitybuilders is the government agency responsible for improving the advice and support available to the third sector in England. More detail and the full report, ‘Learning from Mergers’ can be found at www.capacitybuilders.org.uk/learningfrommergers.