LDC 2014 Fellow Karl Le Quesne embarks on study and research

Leadership at the Peak, Colorado Springs

I completed the Leadership at the Peak course in Colorado Springs last week.

On Monday I met with some economists from the UK Department of Education, who work in their strategic unit. They have been doing some fascinating work on valuing education. This involves estimating the returns to individuals and society through higher productivity as a result of the levels of achievement currently observed in their education system. This is innovative work in that it starts from the learning being observed in early childhood education, estimating the impact that has on later school achievement, based on earlier longitudinal studies.

Today I met with the Director of the UK Public Service Transformation Network, Robert Pollock, and one of his team Jane Lord.

On Wednesday, I arrived in Manchester and met with staff from both the Network and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to find out more about their public service reforms.

Today I met the Chief Executive and other senior staff at the Chester and West Cheshire Council to find out about their Whole Place Community Budget pilot.

On my final day in Chester, I met with staff from various agencies working on the Whole Place Community Budget projects. The Early Support project identifies families in need of support from a range of agencies, before they require intensive acute services. Social, family, Police and Fire Service staff are co-located in eight sites across the Borough, providing an assessment and case management service for families. They went to full deployment of this initiative rather than a pilot, because they needed to have a big impact as soon as they could. In 12 months they are already seeing results, with referrals to acute support service reduced by 50%. While it is still early days, they are showing the potential of putting family needs at the centre, and designing service around those needs.