In 2013 Catherine Mangan and I embarked on new research around workforce change in local public services.

Called The 21st Century Public Servant, it was an attempt to understand how work was changing, and what skills, roles and values people needed to survive and thrive in local public service work. Working out of Inlogov – the Institute of Local Government – at the University of Birmingham, we partnered with Birmingham City Council and were funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.