Public Services and Communities

The public sector is going through a period of unprecedented change, and technology is enabling people and communities to share ideas, projects and learnings like never before. 

But the opportunity to seize these benefits may be missed – through ‘clone town’ strategies, unconnected national and local policy, incorrectly assumed ‘trickle down’ knowledge in public sector hierarchy, and a lack of boldness in shifting the status quo. 

We believe the key to addressing these challenges is through greater connectivity, socially, economically and politically. 

Our research focuses on three key objectives:

• Shifting power to people – so that individuals, families and communities are better able to meet their needs and aspirations;
• Shifting power to places – devolving decision making to the most local level possible; and,
• Coproduced public services – so, at the level of place, they are responsive to local needs and priorities, and, at the level of the individual, they work with service users to design and deliver better outcomes.