Style Guide
From Future of Local Services to the Public
Contents |
General tips on writing an article
Entries should be:
- about issues that may shape the provision of public services in a local context in the future (typically 10-15 years from today, but possibly further)
- credible (i.e. based on evidence as far as possible, or sound reasoning at the least)
- written in good style i.e. simple, jargon-free and enjoyable to read
Structure of an article
An ideal article should flow in the following way
- Summary: (compulsory field). Define the issue, trend or development in a few paragraphs (e.g. the impact of charging for meals-on-wheels). If you can, briefly describe its history (e.g. initial provision of social care services by local authorities, and the role of the private and voluntary sector) and the current state, using statistics and other reports.
- Impacts: describe, in a series of clear bullet points, how this might impact on the future of public services in England and Wales over the next 10-15 years. (e.g. the increasingly elderly population and the requirement for individuals to pay for services, reflections on reciepients consequent attitudes towards choice, cost and their changing relationship with the public sector)
- Relevance: who, either in the local government sector, or its wider stakeholders, this might be particularly important for (e.g. social workers, healthcare workers, Directos of Social Care, Chief Executives of PCTs)
- Innovations: what if anything, has been/is being done which could inspire new social care strategies in response to this topic. Examples of state-of-the-art achievement, pilot schemes or innovations from the UK and around the world.
- References: Reference and hyperlink (where possible) to your sources using the standard "Harvard" system.
- Related links: other interesting material that discusses this trend
See articles that have been tagged as exemplary on the site to see how a complete article should look.
You can write different kinds of articles (see below) but they should all follow the same broad structure above
But bear in mind that you don't have to always write a complete submission. You can leave fields blank and tag it as a stub in order to invite further contributions. Sometimes it might just be a case of writing a couple of sentences and pointing people to an interesting report, link or piece of evidence to start the trail.
Types of articles and how to tag them
- Scenario = A hypothetical or what if? narrative. An outlook, rich picture or narrative describing a potential future outcome or situation based on the author's perspective and/or published formal scenario planning work. Scenario articles should have the word Scenario in the title to signal this to the reader. E.g. "Scenario: Proportional Representation introduced across local government"
- Key issue = (aka. key driver) highly evidence based, mainstream and widely reported. Cited in key Government reports, think tanks and expert reviews. Everyone should have this on their agenda.
- Disruption = (aka. wildcard) anomalous, trend/assumption-disrupting. Unlikely but credible high impact events/developments. Can be good (e.g. empowered communities take greater involvement in policy-making) or bad (e.g. impact of flooding) or a mixed effect (e.g. increased migration creates challenges for community cohesion but boosts local economy)
- Emerging issue = (aka. weak signal) - v few data points but is starting to catch on and is increasingly showing signs of importance - e.g. the possibility of the introduction of local mayors in urban authorities
- Blip = anecdotes, stories or single observations of phenomena that a) have the potential to grow/mutate/evolve and b) could have major impacts on the provision of local public services if they did. E.g. local community provides social care and support for elederly members; a new youth strategy emerging from somewhere in California; a new street craze emerging in Glasgow;
- Case study = an example of an experiment or trial undertaken to change the nature of the provision of local public services - with stories of what worked or what didn't
Editorial improvement tags
- Stub: a short, incomplete article or submission that needs development
- Complex - too wordy and hard to follow
- Weak - lacks evidence, is poorly argued and/or is based largely on unfounded speculation (NB higher tolerance for the latter for Blips and Scenarios, less for Key issues)
What Not To Do
- Don't add irrelevant entries that do not describe the future.
- Don't add unjustified random speculative predictions.
- Don't add things that are just your opinion.
- Don't add things that are banal or boring.
- If you don't know what you are writing about, it may be a good idea to enlist another editor's help before attempting to continue, or leave it up to them instead
