Building the foundations for place-based innovation

As we enter our 25th year of supporting local partners across the country to deliver better outcomes that cost less, we have increased our commitment to our growing place-based work portfolio. Our mission is to help more people in more places.

Our growing place team combines senior leadership and front-line experience in city planning, devolution deals, and urban economic development. We are lucky to have local authority ex-Chief Execs and Service Directors who have implemented whole-place transformation programmes alongside colleagues with backgrounds in teaching, social work, and probation. We combine this richness of experience with our range of trademarked tools and analytical capabilities to deliver holistic and lasting place-based change.

As we expand our work, we will be co-hosting a series of four exciting events across the UK on the theme of place transformation.  Working in partnership with the leading independent, not-for-profit think tank Localis. These events will bring together influential thinkers and practitioners with senior colleagues from councils and combined authorities, with leading place institutions to draw upon some key challenges they face.

The four focus topics for discussion are:

• Economic growth
• Place leadership
• Service transformation
• Analytics, innovation and AI

The insights from these sessions will inform a wider research programme and report that will be published  at the LGA conference this July.

As well as our work with Localis, we will be hosting a webinar with the County Councils Network (CCN) on the topic of ‘Better outcomes on SEN transport’ on the 29th April. This is a follow-up to a ground-breaking piece of work delivered by CCN in late 2023, combined with insights from a number of IMPOWER clients on recent SEN transport projects.

While, in May we are sponsoring the ‘Shaping Places for People’ prize in the 2024 ADEPT President’s Annual Awards. The award celebrates collaboration in the delivery of programmes and services that improve outcomes for people of diverse backgrounds and social groups across the preventative health and social care agendas.

If you’re tackling challenges that you think we may be able to help you with or want to find out more information on our work programme, contact Erin Walsh, Director, Place (ewalsh@impower.co.uk) or John Houghton, Senior Manager, Place (jhoughton@impower.co.uk)

Photo by Fraser Cottrell on Unsplash