Innovation in local government is about improving the lives of the people in our
communities. Browse through our case studies to see the many innovative programmes councils are involved
in.
If you have a case study you'd like to share here, please get in
touch. Please use our case study
template when submitting a case study.
COVID-19 case studies
Councils are doing remarkable work to address the challenges brought by coronavirus. Good
council practice related to the COVID-19 outbreak can be found on our dedicated web hub.
The combined authority believes that devolution has increased its influencing power and that it is more involved in decisions at an earlier stage. As a result, other national bodies, such as the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC), are now in discussions with the combined authority about how to devolve funding to meet its specific skills needs.
The devolution of employment and skills led to the profile of these areas being raised within both the local authority and the LEP and has resulted in the creation of a fully resourced and funded team to manage programmes and strategy.
The City Region argues that devolution has allowed it to move away from policy silos and address interconnected problems in a far more joined up way, for example Households into Work having an impact on social housing strategy.
The combined authority argue that devolving the skills revenue and capital funding in the UK Shared Prosperity Fund would better allow it to align all funding streams and produce a linear model which would offer support to people from transitions into work to progression in the labour market.
The combined authority argues that a devolved approach has made it easier to create stronger links and have more strategic conversations about how and what is delivered, based on need.
The combined authority argues further devolution, whether of careers education or, as in Greater Manchester, of health would allow better join up and tailoring: “I think that is an absolutely critical missing piece of the skills and education devolution at the moment.”
Through the development of a Work Local model, the council wants to improve employment, skills and workforce development opportunities. By engaging with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to understand their future workforce needs, and working with local partner agencies, the city council is building a support offer for local residents to develop job opportunities and career pathways.