In 2016-17, Collaborate worked with Sutton Council and partners to develop the Sutton Plan which set out a shared vision and priorities for the borough. This provided the foundation for partners to work together in a joined-up way to achieve the best outcomes for residents.
A decade on, with Sutton Council part of an ambitious cross-sector partnership to develop the London Cancer Hub, we spoke with CEO Helen Bailey to understand how the Council is sustaining and evolving its collaborative ethos.
Why is collaboration important, and what role does it have in Sutton?
Collaboration is in our DNA in Sutton. I remember being interviewed for the job, and they said, “we’re really good at partnership,” and I thought, “yes, everyone says that.” Then I got here and they really are. It’s everything.
The relationship with the voluntary and community sector is really strong. As we’re seeing through some current neighbourhood prevention pilots, often a voluntary sector partner can provide more tailored support. Recently, we set up a new dementia-friendly day centre, and one of our local voluntary sector partners, which had the expertise, stepped forward and ran with it brilliantly.
We’ve also got a lot of shared services with neighbouring councils, which is another embodiment of collaboration. We’ve got shared IT, HR, finance, transport and highway services. Sutton has always been a pragmatic, partnership-focused council. If there’s a really good way to have more access to the things we need in order to serve our residents without needing to spend more money, we tend to do that.
Dating back to the Sutton Plan, we have a strong relationship with our health provider colleagues in the Sutton Health and Care Alliance, which is at the core of that plan. We’ve also been working on the London Cancer Hub, a collaboration between ourselves, initially with the Institute of Cancer Research and the NHS, and more recently with our developer partner, Aviva. It’s a partnership rather than a transaction. Together, we’re creating a cancer district around a site that already hosts some of the world’s leading oncology expertise.
Another development that has become increasingly important in recent years has been the South London Partnership. It has become a useful vehicle for addressing issues that affect us across the sub-region, whether that’s working with partners such as the NHS or tackling major challenges like transport and connectivity.
The deep, sustained collaboration you’re describing doesn’t happen by accident. It’s really intentional. What are the ingredients that enable collaboration to be embedded in your DNA?
Some of it is about political leadership. Both the willingness to collaborate and the confidence not to be overly concerned with sovereignty matter, as do the personal relationships that support that approach. We’ve always had elected members with strong roots in community, faith, and charitable organisations.
We’re also a place with many long-standing employees and colleagues, including people who have moved between the Council and the voluntary sector. When we hold Sutton Plan events, the expectation is that all key stakeholders are involved. Everybody feels they have some influence.
For me as Chief Executive, the important thing is not to get in the way and to recognise that some relationships are best held by others across the organisation. Even when we’re under financial pressure, I encourage colleagues to look out and up, to identify who else can do stuff rather than only looking down and in. Sometimes we should stop doing things, particularly if there are people who could do them better, cheaper, or differently. We’re by no means the only repository of expertise about that community or about people’s needs.
We’ve also put effort into reinforcing the atmosphere of the place. If you walk into our reception, it’s generally calm, friendly, and relaxed because staff act that way and show respect for customers, many of whom are under stress or in distress. If your primary purpose is to serve residents, it becomes much easier to work with others trying to do the same. We have our PRIDE values – if you get those right for your workforce, you have a fighting chance of getting them right for the people that workforce serves.
It’s clear that the council plays a crucial role as a place convenor. How do you balance leading and enabling?
It’s not something I would say we always get right. One of the hardest things about senior leadership is knowing when to stay strategic and when to become more practical and operational.
Because relationships with other sectors are strong, particularly the community, faith and charitable sector, it’s often easier to stand back and let people get on with things. There isn’t a sense that they are trying to edge the Council out.
At the same time, we have to be the convening body because our elected members have a mandate to advocate for local residents. Our job is usually to make sense of what comes out of central government and ask what it means for Sutton. If we’re recommending that members adopt something, it has to be the best possible option for our community under the circumstances.
What are your aspirations for place-based budgeting in Sutton? How can it help unlock deeper collaboration?
I’m a real fan of the total place concept—that you work together, think about the whole place, and don’t just focus on your own organisation.
The point of looking at budgets across a place was to show that billions are spent locally when you add together the NHS, DWP, local authorities, schools and higher education institutions. Yet every organisation feels as though it has only a tiny budget to work with. How do we release that collective potential?
The Sutton Plan is the beginning of that. What are the shared goals? What are the issues we all agree need tackling? What shared infrastructure do we have?
The budgeting element should be an aspiration. The commitments about how you spend money are less important than that you spend it towards the same aim and that you’re not creating competing services.
For us in Sutton, we want the ability to commit long-term resources to solving shared problems. For example, our START team is jointly funded and provides care in people’s homes after they leave hospital, with a focus on reablement rather than creating a pathway into long-term domiciliary care.
The role of public services should be to enable people to live the lives they want, as independently as possible, rather than creating dependence. Place-based budgeting is about spending money in ways that allow people to remain in control of their own lives whenever possible.
What are your top tips for other councils who want to work in a more collaborative way in their places?
Be clear about your goals and priorities. Look for other people who are clear about theirs. Look for people who are brave enough to collaborate. Take opportunities when they arise. One thing we’ve done in Sutton is use small amounts of money to strengthen relationships and stimulate activity.
This work is hard. People often assume collaboration between public sector organisations is easy. The crucial cultural element is helping people understand that collaboration is not about dilution but about enhancement.
What would you like to learn from other councils or places?
We’re all looking for examples of places that have got the relationship with health right, particularly at a time of so much change. There is a huge amount of resources tied up in major health institutions. How do we direct more of that into communities and keep people out of institutions for as long as possible?
The other thing I’d like to learn is how you help communities feel confident enough to knock on your door and demand services are delivered differently. Not just to complain, but to say, “Let us do that. We don’t want the state to do that, local or national.”