The Raven's Blog

Social value: what is it and why?

14.09.18: Ben Carpenter, chief executive of Social Value UK, discusses the worth of social value, and argues that, before we start measuring social value, we should ask clearly: what is it, and why? Social value is so much more than a value for mone...

Social value in Greater Manchester: lessons learned

12.09.18: Peter Schofield, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) collaborative procurement programme manager, looks back at the region’s history of adopting social value policy and outlines what lessons his team has learned as a result. ...

Pioneering the future of housing

10.09.18: In an ideal world, housing should follow infrastructure rather than the other way around, says County Councils Network (CCN) Conservative vice-chairman and leader of Staffordshire County Council, Philip Atkins. In June, CCN held its first-e...

Make more of your digital transformation with Intelligent Connectivity

10.09.18: Tim Skinner, Director of Central Government, BT. We believe in building better public services in the UK. Through people, places and ideas. Aligned with the Cabinet Office’s ‘Smarter working’ theme, we want to improve how...

Inspiring leadership in social value

03.09.18: We have learned a lot since the last National Social Value Conference, with many organisations both in the public and private sectors now embedding social value into commissioning and procurement. Guy Battle, chief executive at Social Value Port...

The great British sell-off

28.08.18: Tony Armstrong, chief executive of Locality, takes a look at the number of publicly-owned assets being sold off to the private sector after bearing the brunt of austerity, and considers what can be done.  We have known for some time th...

Don’t horse around! Council finds new home for house-bound pony

13.08.18: A council that took four years in a legal wrangle to remove a pony from an Isle of Lewis house may have found the four-legged beast a new home. Western Isles council removed Grey Lady Too – a Connemara pony that was taken into the hom...

Modern policing: the future is bright

06.08.18: SPONSORED INTERVIEW The public sector, and policing in particular, has often been criticised as being slow to adapt to change. But now, says Louise Fellows, O2’s new managing partner for Homes Affairs, things are changing. She sits down...

One step closer to voter IDs at elections

19.07.18: Chloe Smith MP, Minister for the Constitution, evaluates the outcomes of the voter ID pilots conducted at the last local elections. We are one step closer to strengthening the integrity of our electoral system through requiring electors to...

How councils can better understand citizen movement in urban areas

02.07.18: Local authorities are being urged to consider the benefits of using anonymised data to improve the way they shape and deliver public services, as well as to plan ahead by predicting how the urban environment will change in the future. By ta...

Helping children to recover from sexual abuse: a therapeutic service that works

25.06.18: Peter Richards, implementation manager at the NSPCC, writes about the benefits of Letting the Future In, an evidence-based intervention for children who have experienced sexual abuse. There is a significant gap in the provision of therapeut...

The work of the vanguards can help overcome the challenges of integrated care

29.05.18: Following the announcement of the second wave of integrated care systems (ICSs), NHS Providers, the NHS Confederation, NHS Clinical Commissioners (NHSCC) and the LGA reflect on how lessons learnt by members from across the four organisation...

The complexities of Brexit and the hunt for exceptional data scientists

16.04.18: Christopher Gallagher, public sector – SAS, says it’s imperative that organisations have the most experienced data scientists at hand. The Civil Service is feeling immense Brexit stress. Making the right decisions, analysing the...

Women are scaling the heights at Cheshire East Council

04.04.18: Kath O’Dwyer, acting chief executive of Cheshire East Council, assesses the importance of the women in the authority’s workforce. After speaking at a Cheshire East Council event on International Women’s Day, I started to...

Apprenticeship levy – five myths busted

05.03.18: On the first day of National Apprenticeship Week 2018 (NAW 2018), the director of the National Apprenticeship Service, Sue Husband, challenges some of the key myths around the apprenticeship levy. NAW 2018 takes place from 5 to 9 March...