The 'go to' organisation for Local Government improvement in Scotland

In addition to the senior leaders working together there is a group of volunteers from across the sector who met for the first time in April 2024, and their focus is going to be on two key areas of research and evidence going forward: public service reform and collaboration, including relationships and culture.

The work on public service reform is going to look at how community planning partners, not just local government, can move away from communicating and co-ordinating with each other to fully integrated systems as envisaged by the Christie Commission but not yet delivered. Best practice within Scotland, UK and internationally will also be identified, to build an evidence base of what works, especially models which take a different approach to preventing and poverty and inequalities.

With regards to collaboration, this work will examine how we can improve and develop relationships to maximise effective working across local government and the wider public sector, while creating the conditions, the relationships and the culture to ensure there is capacity for organisations to deliver on the outcomes of these constructive discussions. There will also be an effort to identify examples of collaboration powers or legislation that exists to support integrated services.