Joe needs his toe nails cut. Last week his General Practice doctor who I know well, wrote to me, incensed by the impossibility of organising this simple task. The regional assistant head of community commissioning – let’s call them Jamie, so as not to shame them, responded to her...
Articles by Hilary Cottam
The Radical Way_shifting the social paradigm
What is the new relationship required between the state and our communities? So often the two seem locked in a zero-sum game, a competition, in which the fate and popularity of one rises as the other falls? But could we instead re-imagine the relationship between the local state and...
What is going on here?
‘What is going on here?’ This is the question at the heart of Kay and King’s Radical Uncertainty – a question the authors suggest we should all be asking much more often. In this large and wide-ranging book, John Kay (economist and founding Dean of Oxford University’s Said Business...
Hasty Notes
I spent last week working in East Ayrshire. It was inspiring. What is happening in East Ayrshire, often against some pretty difficult odds, is something most places in Britain could learn from. Here I share some rough and ready thoughts from my notebook. All you need is love? A...
Who are the New Industrialists? (and why they matter)
At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, climate was at the top of the agenda – but close behind (and often discussed in equally apocalyptic tones) was the theme of work. This year I am also focused on work (and its intimate connections to the climate challenge). ...
A Community Power Act?
This week Adam Lent started an important conversation at the New Local Government Network, about how we enable a system shift away from a highly centralised mode of government to one which is community driven. He writes; ‘Currently it takes a rare combination of courage, persistence and vision on...
Balm in a Tea Cup
I received an email last week – from Norway – with an image of a green tea cup and a message that read as follows: “I just wanted to tell you how much you inspired me that day in Arendal. I had never thought about loneliness or solitude that...
Humanising the Inevitable? C21 public service.
What is the role of the modern state in creating the good life? Are we, the public servants of today, simply humanisers of the inevitable, those who must mop up the fall out of rapid techno economic change. Or can we be the radical architects of a much-needed social revolution? Everywhere...
Ode to Odense
Five years ago almost to the day, I made my first visit to Denmark. At a conference on public service design hosted by MindLab, I was struck when Jorgen Clausen, the chief executive of Odense (Denmark’s third largest city) began his presentation talking about the city’s 1,000 leaders and...
Social Work? Policing in the 21st century
I was honoured this week to deliver the annual Newsam Lecture to police leaders from across the country. ‘Is modern policing social work?’ I asked in the title of my lecture. The police are facing something of a perfect storm. They witness every day the increasing vulnerability in the...
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