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Member policy briefings- Reform of 14-16 Performance Tables from 2014 (date: 13/02/2012)
- A good education for all: Ofsted consultation on amended inspection arrangements (date: 15/02/2012)
- Delivering the free entitlement to education for three- and four-year-olds: NAO report (date: 10/02/2012)
- Education and training – Raising the Participation Age – consultation on policies that will form regulations (date: 07/0...
- Building Engagement, Building Futures : 16-24 year olds in Education, Training and Work (date: 25/01/2012)
- High Speed 2 rail infrastructure project (date: 13/02/2012)
- Health Select Committee report on Social Care (date: 20/02/2012)
- Public car parking and local government: key trends and developments for 2012 (date: 16/01/2012)
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Author Archives: Andy Sawford
Super Thursday and elected mayors
Patrick Wintour reports on the Greg Clark’s plans to hold mayoral and police commissioner elections on the same day – Thursday 15 November, now being called ‘Super Thursday’. The government’s tactics in bringing forward elections to November seem designed to generate some momentum and interest around the country, as well as forcing the hand of those Councillors [...]
How we’re changing our member briefings, and why
This blog post is aimed at councillors and officers in LGiU member councils who receive our briefings service. Each year we do a members survey and you consistently say our briefings are excellent, value for money, and help you do your job. In our 2011 survey we asked for your thoughts on improving [...]
New approaches in an age of massive demographic change
Towards the end of last year, I spent some time travelling around the country meeting council leaders and chief executives to find out about new approaches in an age of massive demographic change. In the next few months, working jointly with Age UK, I will be publishing a review of these conversations. We will be [...]
Tags: Age UK, Big Society, culture, demograpics, health, localism, localism act, public services, social care |
Thoughts on the Community Budget pilots
The Government has today announced the fourteen areas that will pioneer new Community Budgets. This announcement is good news today for everyone involved. Congratulations to all the councils who will have the opportunity to develop new approaches that could save money and improve services. The variety of bids put forward by local government to address [...]
Tags: Community Budget, finance |
Andy Sawford’s thoughts on what lies ahead for local government in 2012
This post was first published by Public Finance. Crystal-ball gazing about what 2012 holds for local councils is not an exact science. But we can be sure of one thing – the going will get even tougher Looking beyond Christmas can be gloomy. January is the month of diets and abstinence, dark days and cold nights. But [...]
Full list: Local Government Elections 2012
Here is a full list of the Local Government Elections taking place in 2012, provided by the Department for Communities and Local Government. Shire District Councils Electing By Thirds (67) 1. Amber Valley 2. Basildon 3. Basingstoke and Deane 4. Bassetlaw 5. Brentwood 6. Broxbourne 7. Burnley 8. Cambridge 9. Cannock Chase 10. Carlisle 11. [...]
Localism and Austerity – One year on
In these challenging times I had not expected ‘optimism’ to emerge as the main theme of our Localism and Austerity Summit yesterday. A year ago we brought people together to discuss the emerging new environment for local government and local public services. The mood then was one of apprehension amid a fog of uncertainty – [...]
Andy Sawford’s Powerful Ideas lecture: Part 2
This blog series is composed of Andy Sawford’s Powerful Ideas lecture. The speech looks at where localism comes from, what it means, in the world we live in and, by commenting on current reforms, sets out how localism can help us meet the challenges we face now and in the future. The second post explores [...]
Andy Sawford’s Powerful Ideas lecture
The Powerful Ideas lecture series is designed for high profile thinkers to engage with sector leaders from across civil society. Andy Sawford’s lecture was entitled “Localism will lead to the emancipation of local government and give much- needed power back to the people”
Government drops ‘Shadow Mayor’ plans
As Jonathan pointed out in TotalPolitics today, the Localism Bill is currently going through the House of Lords. Proposals for elected Mayors to be created in the 11 largest cities outside London (excluding Leicester, which has an elected Mayor) are highly controversial. In particular, there has been opposition from the Lords to proposals for current [...]
Tags: democracy, elected Mayors, localism bill |
Who runs the Councils in No Overall Control?
There are 54 NOC councils. Andy looks at who really holds the balance of power Council Control lists and maps, such as the LGiU and LGC map, leave lots of grey when it comes to the 54 councils that are currently in No Overall Control. There was a time when NOC meant some councils had rotating [...]
Tags: council control, data, map, May 5 elections |
Local elections 2011 – how my predictions are playing out
Andy Sawford made a whole bunch of predictions about the local elections on Wednesday night. Below in red you can see all the results so far and have a check on how well he’s doing. We’re still bringing in results from around the country on @LGIU Birmingham, the biggest local authority in England, is currently run by [...]
Tags: local elections |
Local elections 2011 – the picture so far
With about a third of results in, the main headlines of this election are already emerging: – disastrous night for the Lib Dems, – pretty positive for the Conservatives with, at time of writing, three additional councils falling under their control and ten council seats gained; # – for Labour progress but perhaps slightly mixed [...]
Tags: local elections |
Local elections 2011 – the battles mapped out
Yesterday, Andy Sawford wrote his predictions for ‘50 councils to watch‘ in today’s elections. The map below provides a quick visualisation of where these key battle grounds are. The full image can be found on OpenHeatmap here. Follow us throughout the night on the blog and @LGiU.
Tags: local elections |
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