New partnership approaches are needed to tackle the challenges at the heart of local government, say Chief Executive of Wigan Borough Alison McKenzie-Folan and Collaborate’s Chief Executive Rebecca Murphy.

This article was originally published in The MJ on 3 April 2025.

In 2023, Wigan Borough and Collaborate CIC worked together to understand what change was needed in a ‘new era’ after the Wigan Deal. Recently we hosted an event with 130 participants from across the country to launch a report about the journey to ‘Progress with Unity’ – a collaborative strategy for change across Wigan borough.

The event was an opportunity to share our insights and invite others to learn alongside us in the face of unprecedented challenges in local government and beyond.

Wigan borough is no stranger to working collaboratively. One year into the delivery of Progress with Unity, we’re beginning to see what’s possible when we go one step further by removing organisational barriers and together focus on our true purpose – the priorities and needs of our residents.

We are transforming mainstream partnerships to focus on shared missions, including through a civic university agreement and sporting partnerships, along with deeper collaboration with the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE), police and NHS.

This includes a commitment from the council and health partners to work together alongside communities in new and radical ways to tackle deep health inequalities. By working together, we can change traditional thinking and enable more preventative community-based solutions.

At the event, Mary Fleming, chief executive of the local hospital trust, spoke about the value of having a collective locality perspective about what change needs to happen and the outcomes it will deliver. This has been instrumental in enabling us to sign a tripartite agreement with the Integrated Care Board for an exciting borough-wide transformation programme.

We must also forge a new and more enabling relationship with residents, recognising the council does not have all the answers, and is not always best placed to solve all problems. We need to put people at the centre of the work.

Cllr Keith Cunliffe, deputy leader of Wigan MBC, outlined at the event how the council intends to invest in communities and local solutions so residents have the infrastructure, assets and the strength to be able to lead some of the solutions for themselves.

Working differently requires an ongoing focus on developing a collaborative culture and rebalancing power. Wigan borough has developed a set of co-designed core principles, or ‘magic ingredients’ for how the council, partners and communities will work together:

● See the person

● Listen deeply

● Know this place

● Connect to neighbourhoods

● Show our love and pride

● Do the right thing.

For Collaborate, the key takeaway from Progress with Unity for wider public service reform efforts is the importance of bringing together collective place-based strategy with a focus on culture and shared ways of working – a focus on both the ‘what’ and the ‘how’.

As we enter a new phase of public service reform, we need to accept that structural and technical change alone is not going to solve the challenges we face nor enable us to seize the opportunities. We can’t continue to move the deck chairs around again and again.

This is where learning and influencing together across local places is so important.

At the launch event, we also heard how Sheffield and Camden councils are focusing on relational and partnership approaches that redefine the role of council as enabler and place shaper. We explored what it takes – a focus on human narratives, humble and curious leadership, and the need to normalise putting love, kindness and trust at the centre of public services.

Some local authorities are making these choices based on a belief, and the increasing evidence, that genuine listening, working in partnership, and enabling communities, results in better outcomes and makes better use of resources. You could say it is common sense. But we are making these choices despite the context we operate in. The focus on narrow targets, punitive performance regimes and organisation-centric strategies only serves to distract and pull us away from what we know works for our place.

Movements like Do With, We’re Right Here and Human Learning Systems are gaining traction. It’s time for local government and wider public services to step up, and national government to create an enabling environment.

Nick Kimber, director of public service reform at the Cabinet Office, described at last week’s event how change needs to come from the neighbourhood and locality level. The role of national reform is to unleash the depth and breadth of this work. He called for a shared movement of change agents working collaboratively across different tiers of government.

People, purpose and rebalancing power need to be at the heart of the conversation. This is what will lead us to new models of delivery that will help us truly improve outcomes and tackle inequality together.

Watch a recording of the launch event for A New Era for Wigan Borough

Read the full report: A New Era for Wigan Borough