The last 14 years have seen a retrenchment of local public service provider work and action to improve their own and partnership services. This arose because of financial austerity and de-investment combined with a determination of political priorities over the period.

When working with these providers on the learning and lessons from the Total Place programme in 2008, I called for providers to grab the mantle of this ensuing disruption and innovate and improve to provide progressive, more impactful and overall more efficient services.