Local place leadership: good practice for levelling up

In December 2022, the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) published a good practice guide to support councils with levelling up locally. Darryl Eyers, former ADEPT president and director for economy, infrastructure and skills at Staffordshire County Council, talks about the guide and gives some top tips to local authorities about levelling up

The Levelling Up white paper, released in February 2022, presented an ambitious agenda aimed at addressing economic growth and geographic disparities within the UK. When it was published however, ADEPT felt that significant challenges needed to be addressed to achieve true levelling up.
    
In particular, the absence of an environmental focus within the white paper needs to be addressed, given the impact the environment has on people and places. For example, air quality fundamentally affects public health and life chances.
    
Additionally, for levelling up to truly impact on people, communities, businesses and places, we need to look at the whole system. To level up places we need to take a holistic view and consider broader issues such as adults and children’s social care, public health and education.
    
There is also an urgent need to increase long-term funding to address local disparities and improve local infrastructure. One-off, year-on-year funding, means that it is challenging to think long term and drive innovation. However, long-term funding can deliver real change, by providing the resource and certainty to develop more effective ways of working. Finally, we believe the levelling up and growth agenda must retain a focus on inclusion and improving wellbeing amongst the most vulnerable in society.
    
In response to the white paper, ADEPT co-commissioned a research project with its fellow professional associations (the Association of Directors of Childrens Services (ADCS), the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH)), to explore the concept of levelling up, the government’s intentions, and its alignment with other policies. We also wanted to capture the good practice that’s already happening on the ground, so the research aimed to identify best practices and to shine a light on what places have learned so far about levelling up locally.
    
In December 2022, we published the research Levelling Up for People and Place: an overview and a series of 10 new case studies which highlight examples of local authorities leading action to level up locally. This work demonstrates that local authorities are uniquely positioned to deliver levelling up, to identify local priorities, to bring partners together and to improve outcomes for residents. This is a valuable resource for knowledge sharing and improvement within the sector: while not every solution may be directly applicable to each locality, they offer valuable insights into tackling specific challenges or achieving desired outcomes. It also provides a useful summary document with key takeaways and top tips for each theme.
    
We also published The ADEPT Good Practice Guide for Levelling Up. This research highlights fundamental areas that local authorities should consider to effectively level up their communities, including the role of leadership and having a clear vision. The importance of data and evidence to inform decision-making processes is critical. By leveraging accurate and comprehensive data, local authorities can make informed choices that result in the best outcomes for their communities. Finally, it highlights that effective partnership working is essential to translate levelling up strategies into tangible actions on the ground. Collaborating with partners allows local authorities to leverage expertise and resources from various sectors, ensuring a holistic and coordinated approach to levelling up.
    
The cost-of-living crisis has put the need for levelling up into sharper focus. Regardless of whether it continues to be termed as ‘levelling up’ in the future, the core concept of local authorities playing a central role in fostering holistic and inclusive growth remains relevant. We believe that local authorities are best placed to address disparities, empower communities and enable levelling up to happen.

Top tips:
The ADEPT Good Practice Guide for Levelling Up sets out a series of learning points for local authorities.
    
One: local leadership is essential to levelling up and delivering sustainable growth: local leaders should articulate a long-term vision and build partnerships for delivery.
    
Two: each place will have its own vision: this needs to be well communicated and supported by short and medium-term goals for delivery, with a clear focus on outcomes.  
    
Three: think big and think differently: use data and insights from people and communities to rethink ways of doing things and be willing to take risks. Make sure that you are listening to everyone not just the loudest voices.
    
Four: set a framework for analysing and monitoring data that is close to the vision for levelling up: focus on the metrics that are important to each place, and make sure that data is collected for a purpose. Keep close to your customer base and listen to real stories as well as quantitative data.
    
Five: have a plan to respond to the data: establish feedback loops and ensure that delivery plans and goals are adaptable over time. Acknowledge that this has resource implications, and that these should be planned for.  
    
Six: consider different ‘lenses’ for decision making: consider problems from different perspectives and seek to understand what drives and influences behaviour.
    
Seven: local leaders, including elected Mayors, have ‘soft’ power to form partnerships and prompt actions beyond their statutory powers.

Eight: resources need to be in place to support and enable effective partnership working. Aligning resources around a shared delivery plan will enable more to be achieved.
    
Nine: open minds and good communication are central to effective partnerships.

More information about ADEPT can be found on its website.

The ADEPT Good Practice for Levelling Up can be found here.