Place-based working in the UK
A flightless bird
Place-based approaches are collaborative, long-term strategies that operate in specific local areas to address complex, dynamic social issues.
These approaches focus on developing local, context-specific ways of working by drawing on the collective resources and knowledge of those affected and involved in a system. They often build on the assets, confidence, capacity, and connectedness of local communities.
Place-based working is not a new concept in the UK. Previous government initiatives include Enterprise zones, Single Regeneration Budget, Regional Development Agencies, and New Deal for Communities. There has been an increasing move towards place-based working in recent years, fuelled by policies like the Localism Act, devolution, and the government's commitment to a more collaborative place-based approach for public services. The concept has also gained momentum in the charity sector, with a growing number of place-based initiatives funded and created by philanthropy.
UK practice is currently considered to be at a relatively early stage compared to countries like the US, Canada, and Australia. While many initiatives have been funded in the UK, often by government or individual philanthropic organisations, they have frequently been time-limited and lacked the resources or mandate to transfer and scale learning and expertise. Too much place-based work has stayed in the place. This has resulted in fragmented experience and a lack of continuity, hindering the development of identifiable, trusted practice.
The existing literature highlights several common challenges and gaps in place-based working in the UK that we see as hindering it’s growth:
Policy and funding volatility: Place-based initiatives can be compromised by a lack of stable, dependable, and predictable policy at the national level. Fragmented funding and a history of short-lived initiatives have hindered the accumulation of experience and expertise.
Collaboration and partnerships: While collaboration is a core principle, it can be challenging to build and maintain partnerships effectively. Issues include inertia, capacity limitations, building trust, engaging the whole community (especially those not already engaged), managing power imbalances, and ensuring shared understanding and accountability.
Practice capacity, identity, and learning: There is a perceived lack of a common language, identity, or professional vernacular for place-based working in the UK, which hinders its understanding and development. Practitioners need support to develop the specific skills required, including navigating complex systems and addressing power dynamics.
Governance and accountability: The local decision-making and funding landscape is complex and often fragmented across sectors and geographical boundaries. The recent emergence of a new combined authority layer is just one example of this. There is often a need for forums and leadership to sustain common purpose and deliver shared programs over time within place, and this is highly resource intensive.
Evidentiary and evaluation challenges: There is a wide and weak view of what evidence looks like in this work, with each initiative seemingly focusing on uniqueness and particularlity, meaning that there often feels like few generalisable claims. This is the central challenge of this project and will be picked up in the next post.
Despite these challenges, there remains optimism that place-based approaches are valuable for addressing complex issues and leveraging local potential, but require significant shifts in how policy, funding, and evaluation are approached to reach their full potential.
One practitioner we spoke to described this work as feeling like a flightless bird - those doing it have to keep throwing it into the air, because the conditions aren’t letting it fly by itself.
