Reading strategies from local authorities and other public bodies across the North East of England to pull out their aims and performance indicators. Loads of inspiring things in them about how to make places better for the people living in them.
Working out of the city so I told everyone I work with that I was not available for calls this week. It’s been a refreshing week to work slowly and not worry about finding quiet places to speak to people.
Thinking about how to build an Airtable of organisations across a region that is simple and practical.
Working with a colleague to build a GoogleSheet that we can use to extract data from local strategies, building on learning from previous projects.
Learning more about barriers to using public transport in some parts of the North East of England. Some areas have bus services based on an economy served by mining.
Comparing the way in which the Thriving Places Index is linked to the West Midlands’ Combined Authority’s Inclusive Growth plan. Lots of overlap, especially as the WMCA is based on the Doughnut Economics model.
Thinking about this, and the event from CLES last week, both demonstrate many of the great ideas and emerging practice that is happening in public authorities in the UK, despite the background of reduced funding, high demand etc.
Editing transcripts from workshops where people were really enthusiastic (great chat, exhausting task to make sense of it).
Event organising, and all the joys that come with it.
Presenting the Theory of Change for a campaign on inequalities. It was an idea of what it could look like, but most of the handover was “here’s all the things you need to do to coproduce this with partners and communities…” let’s see what comes out of it.
Planning a big event on transport devolution - what could transport look like in 5 and 50 years? How can it work better for local people. More to come on that… 🚴🏿 🚄 🚍
Interviews with community champions just starting out at a county level, on their hopes for what the project will achieve.
Reflection 💭 session with colleagues at NEF and a partner about what worked well and less well in a really challenging project. Nice to get to a point of a strong, trusted partnership. It would be great to work together again (and implement what we learned!)
Attending an event on CLES’s new publication on how Integrated Care Systems can be used to drive more inclusive local economies.
More work on the project on campaigning around inequalities. Expanding ideas of a theory of change into a more substantive workplan, with lots of space for a partnership to iterate and refine. Really out of my comfort zone but hoping its going to be a useful foundation for their work going forward. Also, had to spend a lot of time thinking about how to be less focused on the written word, more on visual/ focused communication. Built all the work into a Trello board to try and make it less overwhelming. Let’s see…
Sharing the report I was involved with for IPPR on intermediary organisations that support the apprenticeship system. Particularly with the folks I interviewed in Australia.
Tiny final amends for a few reports (professional supervision for educational leaders & community-led health advocacy) - everyone is happy with the findings and I look forward to hearing how they are used.
Starting a new project about community champions - how local residents can be trained to support their neighbours understand and navigate the health system.
This long read about the around the world Clipper sailing race (and some bad management decisions)
A Thorough Examination on BBC Sounds about ultra processed food. Mildly terrifying in terms of the % of calories that people in the UK derive from this type of food.
Slowly reading this article (ΕΛ) on the changing city of Athens
28 April 2023
Things I have been working on
Updating new team members who are part of a network of community organisations in Gloucestershire around how CTP are acting as a learning partner, our plans and how we can work with them individually and collectively to build a story around their impact.
Updating the report on campaigning around inequalities after a first round of feedback from the team.
Participating in a partnership meeting linked to a new research funding proposal. Lots of known ideas but conceptualised in a different way. Was interesting and lots of food for thought.
Thinking about the work of combined authorities, Integrated Care Partnerships and other actors with strategic power and resources.
Things I have been reading/ listening to
The Proximity of Care design guide - how to create spaces for children and families to thrive.
This illustrated story of why it’s so hard to find clothes that fit.
Catching up with admin, finances, filing emails. All the things that fall behind with big deadlines and intense work periods.
Getting my head into combined authorities, conversations that have already happened and ideas and insights a plenty. Starting to better understand this multi-partner, multi-workstream, multi-year project. Now need to figure out with my colleagues where I can best support the work.
Drafting the final report for a partnership project which undertook some research and then campaign planning around inequalities. The client wants a short report that sets out the main points. It’s a delicate balancing act to include enough information to show the complexity of the work, whilst keeping it brief. To be continued next week…
Things I have been reading/ listening to
Centre for Thriving Places’ new paper on ‘The Shared Ingredients for a Wellbeing Economy’ which looks at what is common across some major theories/ frameworks for understanding wellbeing economics (including Doughnut Economics, the SEED model, the UN SDGs). In short, there’s tons of overlap and it helps in advocating for using something, and getting started with the ideas rather than endless debates about which model etc.
The Ezra Klein podcast on social isolation and loneliness and a new book that is a manifesto for ‘hanging out’. It is great that it starts with acknowledging that atomisation is by design, including declining amounts of free time and the reduction of public space. There’s so much in this episode about expectations, emotions, spaces and places to meet.
Finishing the report on community-led health advocacy. We amended the framing of some of the analysis - not the analysis of what interviewees said, just how it was contextualised. Hopefully it works in terms of being true to the data but part of a longer term narrative for the project.
Finishing the big analysis, made a huge internal report for a team who can use it to plan internal sessions (loads of quotes) and a bullet point summary of it all. They have a workshop to look at the findings next week so hopefully it will give them what they need. I got sick immediately after sending it as I think it needed a lot of intellectual and emotional energy.
Writing a Theory of Change for a campaign about inequalities. Hard to balance the huge issues with practical ideas without it being trite. Let’s see…
Getting my head into a new long-term project with combined authorities. Place, plus time plus community. Lots of good things could come out of it.
