From Future of Local Services to the Public

Summary

The London Collaborative is a programme funded by Capital Ambition, aimed to increase the capacity of London’s local government and public sector to collaborate, innovate and meet future challenges facing the city as a whole. The programme is delivered through a partnership led by the Young Foundation, together with Common Purpose and the Office for Public Management.

As part of the analysis stage of the programme, six scenarios were developed, drawing on some 50 studies and discussions with experts. The scenarios are not intended to predict the future, nor are they ends in themselves; rather they are tools to surface key strategic challenges, choices and tensions.

The six scenarios cover the following dimensions:

demographic change;
economy and skills;
housing and infrastructure;
climate change and the environment;
technological innovation;
lifestyles and behaviours;
social cohesion, and
health and wellbeing.

For published versions of the scenarios, please visit the links below. The scenarios work confirmed that the future is unpredictable (just as nobody predicted London’s growth and success 20 years ago) and that the best preparation is for London’s public sector to improve its resilience and adaptability.

The scenarios and other research including surveys of public sector leaders shaped the content of the rest of the programme. There are two main strands of work which aim to bring together current and emerging leaders from London’s local authorities, the GLA, police, health and other public services:

A leadership development programme for a network of 300 public sector leaders from across the capital to build adaptive capacity, resilience and collaboration to cope with uncertain futures
Collaborative work on four challenges: changing public behaviours, understanding and influencing population flows, tackling worklessness in social housing, and carbon reduction with a focus on retrofitting the housing stock.

Impacts

The development of a shared understanding of the medium to long-term strategic challenges faced by London
Practical collaboration on key challenges through shared intelligence and problem-solving
Finding ways to develop resilience and adaptive capacity across London’s public sector through the London Leadership Network
Leading the way towards a more ‘future proof’ London