In 2011, the Financial Times quoted an Institute of Fiscal Studies statistic suggesting Wigan MBC was proportionately the third worst council affected by austerity. We would have £160m less within five years and, in the meantime, demand was rising rapidly. We knew we had to re-invent ourselves, re-imagine our future role and our relationships with residents – and quickly.

So we created the Wigan Deal, an asset-based demand-reduction model that cuts across all our services from adult social care to parks and open spaces. It is a new form of social contract between residents and the council and now between citizen and state as all public bodies in Wigan, including the NHS, embrace the principles of a strengths-based model. More importantly they don’t just talk about the social contract – they put it into practice alongside us.

We started this radical approach in earnest five years ago and have been pushing it relentlessly across all our – and our partners’ – services.