Case studies

In 2012 Chiltern District Council and South Bucks District Council made a commitment to make progress together and put in place a shared senior management team to create savings, improve resilience and provide better services to the public. 

The project was established to create an internal commercial thinking training programme to demonstrate how commercial skills might be utilised to review and develop a range of council services.

In 2015-17, the Healthy London Partnership teamed up with Uscreates to work with three London boroughs (Haringey, Hackney and Tower Hamlets) to research and develop social interventions to address the growing levels of childhood obesity.

When the Essex Partners Group commissioned research into the challenges facing the county, it became clear no organisation could tackle them alone. But before working out the solutions, the group had to find a story to unite everyone with a role to play.

With Hackney experiencing unprecedented change over the past decade, the council had to make sure that its corporate narrative reflected the realities of its communities.

With an ambitious transformation plan, a refreshed set of corporate values and a desire to move away from messages about financial cuts, Oxfordshire County Council needed to evolve its corporate narrative to reflect its new direction.

When the Essex Partner's Group began developing their vision for the Future of Essex the council knew its corporate story needed to reflect the wider ambitions for the place.

Essex County Council processed the vast majority of Blue Badge renewals in paper, causing significant additional cost compared to online renewals. By using behavioural insights and making small changes to the renewal letter, the number of paper renewals was reduced by almost one-fifth.

How can local authorities work together better to improve children’s outcomes and create a more innovative, responsive, and sustainable system for delivery?

A partnership of councils are jointly funding a responsive, independent, not-for-profit consultancy, Smarter Digital Services, to help them to achieve their digital ambitions.