News
“Rallying Together”: collaboratively tackling complex social problems
The Government Outcomes Lab (GoLab) have introduced the first phase of their Future State programme: “Rallying Together: How are local authorities collaborating with their communities to tackle complex social problems?”
This project focuses on how local authority managers are working collaboratively to tackle complex social problems. Such collaborations may involve charities, social service providers, health trusts, government, businesses, grant funders, social investment funders, or other local stakeholders.
GoLab aim to develop and share knowledge about how local authority managers can capture the energy, expertise, and resources of their collaboration partners whilst maintaining accountability for tax payers’ money and delivering services that community residents expect. Through their research questions, they are exploring issues of accountability, power-sharing, and control.
Research questions:
- What is the role of Local Authority managers in the creation and management of the collaboration and/or how has this role evolved over the life of the project?
- What tools do Local Authority managers use to constitute the relationship between organisations, define goals, and measure success?
- How are collaboration projects governed and how do different forms of funding influence this?
Outputs of our research will include:
- Practical resources for local authority managers, including checklists and templates that we develop from our selected case studies.
- Three to five detailed case studies with lessons learned stories documenting how individual local authority managers have engaged or participated in local collaborations.
- Approximately ten short summaries or case profiles of collaboration projects which will share how other local authorities are addressing similar issues around the UK.