We support Local Government Leadership in many ways, for example by providing an invaluable evidence base for the Connected Communities programme, through our research and consultancy services.

As part of the Local Government Group, the Leadership Centre for Local Government has led a number of large-scale change programmes with local authorities and other organisations. These pioneering programmes paved the way for the Total Place programme. Local Government Leadership also provides space through a range of facilitated events for groups of localities and partners to come together and explore common factors that affect them, with a view to creating a manifesto for policy change.

Local Futures has been involved in a number of research projects for the Leadership Centre over recent years.

During 2010 Local Futures was involved in a major Connecting Communities project. Sponsored by the Department of Communities and local Government, the project aimed to give local councils a deeper understanding of the drivers of low community cohesion in some parts of the country and of the values and behaviours of people.

As part of the project we provided a comprehensive analysis of place for each of the 50+ participating local authorities. This included use of the OAC classification to provide an analysis of the make-up of local communities and to identify the types of groups where problems of cohesion were most prevalent. As part of the project we also modelled a range of national and local survey data, creating Local Data Estimates to enrich the analysis at a local level.

Response to the project was extremely positive, with the combination of a high level analysis of place, OAC profiling and local data estimates providing unique insights that were used to shape local strategies and engagement activities.