Extending the community sector inquiry through a cross-sector learning community?

James Henderson, Research Associate with What Works Scotland (up to December 2018) and now working on the Smart Urban Intermediaries project, reflects on the potential for further shared inquiry work on the community sector role in public service reform and social change. 

He links his thoughts with three blogs generated by the community sector inquiry – from Ian Cooke of the Development Trust Association Scotland, Pauline Hinchion from Scottish Communities Finance, and Aidan Pia, Director of Senscot.

Tackling health inequalities means more than service reform and design

Chris Littlejohn, Deputy Director of Public Health with NHS Grampian, responds to At the frontier of Collaborative and Participatory Governance: Eight Discussions to support putting Christie into action, a report by What Works Scotland and Aberdeenshire Community Planning Partnership which reflects on the learning from their collaborative work. 

He considers some of the challenges the report raises for a public health agenda committed to tackling inequalities.

Continuing to learn from international experiences of participatory budgeting

Coryn Barclay, research consultant at Fife Council, took part in an international learning visit to Paris in December 2016, supported by what Works Scotland, to consider how Scotland could learn about participatory budgeting and public sector reform.

Two years on, she was invited to participate in an international round table discussion at the Third National Meeting of Participatory Budgeting, hosted by the City of Montreuil on 8/9 November 2018, again in Paris. Here she shares the experience.

Community social enterprises: innovators in public service reform?

Building from the recently published research report on community anchor organisations, What Works Scotland is exploring further the crucial relationship between the community sector on the one hand, and public services partnerships and public service reform on the other. 

Here Aidan Pia, Director of Senscot (Social Entrepreneurs Network Scotland), considers the potential of community social enterprise to innovate, lead and contribute in complex ways to the Christie Commission agenda of partnership, participation and prevention.

Exploring community anchors, public service reform... and the wider local community sector

What Works Scotland has recently published a research report and policy and practice briefing about community anchor organisations and public service reform. But what happen next? 

In this blog post research associate James Henderson introduces some of the key learning from the research and highlights the ongoing discussion of the developing role of the community sector across society in Scotland.