The Preconditions for Place-based Systems Change

Following on in our series on Collaboration Readiness, we have launched a new report, Behaving Like a System?, on the preconditions for place-based systems change.

To download this report click here

Funded by the Lankelly Chase Foundation, this piece of work set out to explore the preconditions for systems change in a place. It unpicks the critical behaviours and vision that makes system change more likely, more deliverable and more sustainable. In doing so it addresses a critical gap in the thinking and practice of system change — the need to systematically build readiness to work towards outcomes in more collaborative ways.

Our research is grounded in Coventry but the preconditions have much wider resonance: both geographically and for different services. This is why we have developed both a short, action focused report as well as a full report which has more detail on each of the preconditions together with three case studies from Coventry.

Read our report to find out more about:

  • Nine preconditions for systems change (focusing on vision and behaviours)
  • What these preconditions look like to people when they do (and don’t) exist
  • Ways in which places might use these preconditions to support place-based system change

We have found that these preconditions, now identified, are starting to act as a convening narrative; enabling people and organisations in a place to have an honest conversation about what really needs to be done together to enable individuals to flourish within a system of services. Developing this approach across service areas and into the granular challenges of delivery could not be more critical at a time of acute spending cuts and sustained social demand.

The preconditions for place-based systems change

Click here to read the summary report.

Click here to read the full report.

For further information about this research, please contact Anna Randle.