The London Collaborative

Latest news:

The inaugural London Leadership Network Event: 'Working together to shape London's future' was held on 26 June 2008 at the Emirates Stadium.

This event brought together the London Leadership Network to develop a shared vision of London that crosses borough boundaries and sectors. It also introduced the four challenges that will define our workstreams: behaviour change, climate change, understanding population flows and worklessness and social housing.

For more information about this event please email: events.london (at) youngfoundation.org

Links to launch report published March 2008

Click on the images to access the London Collaborative launch report, the Collaborative City, and supporting documents on trends and scenarios

About the London Collaborative

A programme brochure providing a detailed overview of work to date and key milsetones up to April 2008 can be accessed here

The London Collaborative is a new programme aimed at increasing the capacity of London’s public sector to respond to the key strategic challenges facing the capital. It was initiated in 2007 by all of London’s public sector agencies through Capital Ambition (the regional improvement partnership). The London Collaborative will work across London boroughs, the GLA, police and health services and other sectors.

The initiative is delivered through a consortium of three organisations. It is led by the Young Foundation, working in partnership with OPM and Common Purpose.

The London Collaborative aims to help the individuals working at the sharp end of thinking, planning and acting to shape the future of the capital. It will build networks, leadership, understanding of London’s critical challenges and cooperation within and between sectors to maintain the city’s success and tackle its problems.

Key objectives of the London Collaborative programme are to -

• develop a shared understanding of the medium to long-term strategic challenges faced by London
• equip London’s public sector with the inspiration, skills, knowledge, networks and ways of working needed to address these
• improve connections and relationships within London’s public sector, and between the public and other sectors, both on pan-London issues and particular topics

The programme started in November 2007 and runs to April 2009. Key elements are –

• Analysis: an initial synthesis of the future challenges facing London has lead into a focused programme to help London’s public sector develop better responses
• Networking: to build a network of current and future leaders across boroughs and the public sector generally and to increase connections and a shared purpose
• Leadership development: to help public sector leaders to collaborate more effectively and better respond to the identified challenges
• Collaborative action: an agreed programme will flow from the identified workstreams
• Planning the future: defining options for a longer-term vehicle to embed a new culture of collaboration in London

Progress and milestones

To date (May 2008) a London Leadership Network has been set up and already has over 200 members. We have also developed a range of future scenarios based on an analysis of studies and projections for London. We have identified a range of challenges for the public sector that flow from them in four thematic workshops with senior staff from boroughs and other agencies. A workshop of academic and other experts highlighted the unpredictability of the future and the fact that public sector leaders need to be ready to deal with uncertainty, to respond quickly and to collaborate .

The formal launch of the programme and publication of a report titled The collaborative city – working together to shape London’s future and two companion reports on scenarios and an evidence review - took place on 18 March 2008. The key challenges identified in the report are to maintain economic and cultural dynamism while improving the wellbeing of people and places. The public sector needs to develop resilience, adaptive capacity and the ability to act as a whole system.

A two day event for London local authority chief executives in April helped shape the programme for the next stage. There will be work on the following specific challenges: worklessness concentrated in social housing, new approaches to changing behaviours, climate change and carbon footprint, and understanding population flows into and within London. Chief executives will champion and support workstreams on these challenges.

Key milestones for spring 2008 and the rest of the programme are –

• 26 June 2008 there will be a high-profile event for the London Leadership Network at the Emirates Stadium.
• From June 2008 we will deliver a programme of leadership development linked to increasing understanding of the key challenges within themes selected at the 24-hour chief executive session.
• We will have a number of workshops bringing together network members to help us explore what success for London and its public sector looks like, and how we can assess it for the city as a whole. Summer 2008
• Continuing recruitment to the London Leadership Network to include all major public sector agencies. Summer 2008

For more information contact: london (at) youngfoundation.org

The London Collaborative is funded by Capital Ambition