Yearly Archives: 2023

From Polarisation to Collaboration: Rethinking Political Culture – Final Report

How do we generate a political culture that puts nation before party? How do we energise the electorate to take serious cognisance of their civic responsibility as voters? Why cannot our government operate as collaborative problem-solvers, putting the long-term needs of the nation ahead of those of their parties? Is it that we have the wrong politicians, or are these issues inherent in our parliamentary system and first-past-the-post electoral process? In short, how might we do things better?

From Polarisation to Collaboration: Rethinking Political Culture explored these issues by bringing together a cross-sectional mix of senior politicians, civil servants, and creative minds from business, media and academia. This initial Consultation took as its starting point electoral reform, civic engagement, parliamentary procedures and the role that media plays in connecting those who vote with those who govern.

Final Consultation Report

Our Consultation had a its starting point the question, ‘What sort of NHS do we as a nation want?’ Using cancer care as our template, we brought together thought leaders from across society to help us shape the future of health care in this country. Change will require innovative thinking. It will require a willingness to think laterally about and learn from good practice in other sectors and internationally. This is not a time for tinkering at the edges of the problem. This is time for a radical rethink of our approach to cancer care and, by extension, to health care in general in the UK.

Shared experiences across generations are amongst the most enjoyable, enriching and memorable. Yet until now there has been no single point where the value of intergenerational activity is supported. Intergenerational practice should be recognised as a central pillar and foundational building block of society, essential for creating stronger and more connected communities for the long term. Nurturing this type of collaboration can lead to increased empathy, understanding, mutual respect and appreciation for different perspectives, as well as a stronger sense of belonging and social connectedness. The Consultation looked at how intergenerational practice can respond directly to local and national agendas, addressing societal issues such as ageism, social isolation, and inequality.

This year marks 25 years since the publication of the Social Exclusion Unit’s groundbreaking report ‘Bringing Britain together: a national strategy for neighbourhood renewal.’ This kickstarted New Labour ‘s approach to tackling place-based disadvantage through its neighbourhood renewal strategy, providing the basis for a raft of policies and programmes supporting resident-led regeneration of deprived neighbourhoods. Generally regarded as successful on their own terms, subsequent governments failed to build on their momentum and deliver on the strategy’s long-term ambition that “that within 10 to 20 years no- one should be seriously disadvantaged by where they live.”

We used this consultation to bring together diverse perspectives from senior policy experts, practitioners, community leaders and parliamentarians to explore the case for a new focus on deprived neighbourhoods; to discuss the learning from previous initiatives and map out the government action and targeted interventions that should be taken to turn them around.

This consultation was held in partnership with Local Trust.

AI Threats & Opportunities – Final Report

We are entering an age of artificial intelligence (AI). Although the term “artificial intelligence” was coined nearly 70 years ago, and AI has been making tremendous technical and market progress for more than a decade, there has been a huge leap in perceived possibilities and public attention to AI in the past year. However, the many benefits of AI are not without substantial risks, and these risks have become increasingly apparent with the development and spread of Large Language Models. It was the aim of this Consultation to discuss those risks and consider approaches to engaging with and mitigating them.

The Forces in MindTrust exists to enable ex-Service personnel and their families to make a successful and sustainable transition to civilian life. FiMT delivers this mission by generating an evidence base that influences and underpins policy-making and service delivery, and by strengthening the Armed Forces charities sector through collaboration and leadership, and by building its capacity.

The quality of people entering public life is crucial for Britain’s future success. We worked with Civic Future to bring a cadre of their recently selected Fellows to the House to begin their year-long fellowship. The weekend featured an introduction to the programme as well as detailed discussion of extreme long-term risks such as pandemics, nuclear war, population decline, and artificial general intelligence. The intention is to establish a new talent pipeline to attract brilliant and inspirational people from various backgrounds and support them to become public leaders.

Make Ethical Investment Real – Report

As the global climate change crisis deepens, there is a growing and urgent emphasis on how we all respond to this uniquely dangerous predicament facing our people and our planet. One highly significant factor is where society chooses to invest its money, an issue that is now fundamental to the future of our planet and our people. It might be simplified as a dichotomy between responsibility and return. Our consultation proposed to define a process by which an ethical investment policy can be created and enacted. Board members Richard Collier-Keywood and Hugh Montgomery were the instigators of this Consultation.

Global Food Systems – Report

Building on our 2022 Consultation, this gathering took place as its starting point the view that food systems are at the crossroads of pathways for net zero climate goals, a nature-positive future, and combatting the related and growing global inequalities in poverty and human health. Yet, despite an overwhelming rational case for change, civil society is failing to counter entrenched narratives which reinforce large-scale, industrial food production and processing. Our purpose is to begin to find a pathway through the problem.

Collaborative System Leadership for Social Purpose – Report

Governments and the public sector can only do so much to support the public in improving their health and wellbeing. The future depends on more co-design of health & wellbeing action by the people who use it most and those who miss out on services available. The pace and scale of Government and the public sector sharing their planning, service design and budgeting powers and control must change radically. Consultation explored the role of civic society in supporting people to improve their daily lives; considered the challenges facing those who work in this area and identified ‘what works’ in overcoming them; and discussed how system leaders can create maximum impact.