Let's Talk Ideas (Ideas at Bromford)

Ian Wright is the Founder and CEO of the Disruptive Innovators Network, a community of learning aimed at accelerating innovation through a mix of inspiration and practical experimentation.

Ian talks with Paul Taylor and Helen Swinnerton about the importance of embedding the creative process, why we need to avoid innovation theatre, and what the leaders of the future need to do differently.

You can follow Ian on X as @disruptiveian, on LinkedIn and on the DIN Website

In this episode we are joined by Jennie Watkins, who reflects on her journey from community activist, to city councillor, to senior case worker for the MP for Gloucester, as she starts her new role at Bromford as an Executive Support Manager.

Today's topic, ABCD or Asset-Based Community Development, a methodology for the sustainable development of communities based on their strengths and potential.

If you'd like to know more about Jennie and her work before Bromford, you can find out over on her LinkedIn.

Links:

Gloucester City Council - ABCD Policy

Nurture Development - Cormac Russell

Gloucester Community Building

In this episode we are joined by Rob Fountain, former CEO of Age UK and current Head of Strategic Partnerships at Gloucestershire VCS Alliance to talk about the challenges of heading up service-based organisations and how we need to go about re-defining the leadership and goals of services to better aid the people who need them.

You can follow Rob over on X (Twitter) or LinkedIn

Links:

TEDTalks

Cormac Russell - Sustainable Community Development

Hilary Cottam - Social Services Are Broken

Books 

John McKnight – ‘The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods’ 

John McKnight & Cormac Russell – ‘The Connected Community: Discovering the Health, Wealth, and Power of Neighbourhoods’ 

Hilary Cottam – ‘Radical Help: How We Can Remake the Relationships Between Us and Revolutionise the Welfare State’ 

Organisations/movements 

The Wigan Deal

Camerados

Nurture Development

Gloucester Community Building Collective

Other X (Twitter) Accounts:

@CormacRussell 

@HilaryCottam 

@ProfDonnaHall 

@MaffPotts 

In this episode we are joined by Lauren Bond, Head of Delivery at CLES (Centre for Local Economic Strategies) and frequent endorser of anchor organisations.

Anchor organisations are large public sector institutions which are rooted in a particular place and connected to their communities, through things such as universities, local authorities, and hospitals, together forming anchor networks.

In this episode Lauren explains the ins and outs of anchor organisations, how they tie in to the world of housing and most importantly how they help to progress a place based approach when working within communities.

You can find out more about CLES here and you can follow them over on X.

Get in touch with Lauren Bond via email, LinkedIn or Twitter or view her CLES page here.

Will is the Programme Director at Health Innovation South West, one of the 15 Innovation Networks across England, established by NHS England to spread innovation at pace and scale.
Will joins John Wade and Paul Taylor to talk about the challenges of making ideas stick, the importance of thinking about spread at an early stage of exploration, and why culture trumps innovation every time.
You can follow Will on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-lilley-9302752a/

Links

• Review of spread and adoption approaches across the Health Innovation Network Review of spread and adoption approaches across the AHSN Network - The Health Innovation Network
• Preventing cerebral palsy in premature babies: the PReCePT programme - ARC West (nihr.ac.uk)-
• PReCePT - the programme - Health Innovation West of England (healthinnowest.net) & PReCePT2: Reducing brain injury through improving uptake of magnesium sulphate in preterm deliveries (health.org.uk)
• Health Innovation South West Website- https://healthinnovationsouthwest.com/
• Article I wrote a few years back on the psychology of spread Spreading the psychology of change: the academy helping to build the next generation of adopters - NHS Innovation Accelerator (nhsaccelerator.com)
• Understanding the Spread Challenge- Understanding the spread challenge - The Health Foundation
• HSJ- Thinking Big- Lessons for the NHS on large scale change Thinking big: lessons for the NHS on large scale change | Comment | Health Service Journal (hsj.co.uk)

In this episode we are joined by Jack Shaw, a local government expert to discuss their financial peril. Which factors put a council more at risk from financial pressures? How can a council even go bankrupt? Jack explains all, as well as what will this mean for the the lived experience of residents and anchor organisations within local communities. Finishing with a dose of optimism, Jack sets out practical solutions, as well as thoughts for broader reform of local government.

Read more of Jack's research work here: The State of Local Government Finances - NIESR

Stay up to date with Jack on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/JackTShaw

In this episode we are joined by Lizzie Spring, a writer and commentator to discuss why social housing providers can unwittingly stigmatise tenants by focusing on need.

We talk about how the housing sector could rebalance through a relationship of equals - and how it could transform if it recognised the skills and talents of the people it exists to provide for.
You can follow Lizzie on:

https://twitter.com/SafeHomesForAll

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizzie-spring-886951157/

Taps Mtemachani is Director of Transformation and Partnership for NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board (ICB).  A significant part of his role is building relationships and innovative strategic partnerships within and beyond the Black Country.

Taps is known for his radical thinking and ideas, and in this episode he shares his perspective on the healthcare challenges the NHS and UK has to address. He also talks about the link between health and housing and offers practical advice on where we need to start.

You can connect with Taps on Linkedin and find links to many of the initiatives he talks about here.

Welcome to Season 4 of Let's Talk Ideas.

In this episode we are joined by Mike Dawson, recently retired executive of Tewkesbury Borough council with around 50 years of local government experience and Toby Savage, previous leader of South Gloucestershire council and previous committee member of the mayoral authority for West of England combined authority.

Today's episode will be the first part of our two part discussion around the recently published devolution white paper, 'power & partnership'. We will talk implications, wider impact and the significant changes to the wider organisational structure of councils across England.

You can ⁠connect with Mike through his Bromford email, mike.dawson@bromford.co.uk, and Toby through his LinkedIn handlehere.

You can also read more about the white paperhere.

In this episode, we are joined by David Parkin, a recognised industry leader in the development of low carbon energy infrastructure to discuss the bigger picture of the UK's transition to a net zero world. We discuss what we mean by net zero, common misconceptions about the transition, and what we need to do to get there.

Find out more about Dave's work at Progressive Energy here:

https://www.progressive-energy.com/

Dan Minchin is the CEO of Chorus,  in Western Australia. Chorus are a for-purpose organisation who work alongside people to support them to live the life they choose.

Paul Taylor and John Wade learn about the remarkable transformation that Chorus have gone through which includes introducing small empowered teams, reducing bureaucracy and operating with principles of kindness.

You can learn more about Chorus at www.chorus.org.au

Please also make sure you follow @BromfordLab on X and visit www.bromfordlab.com

In this episode we are joined by Bryony Shannon, who is the Strategic Lead for Practice Development in Adult Social Care at the City of Doncaster and author of the influential blog site Rewriting Social Care.

We talk about why language matters, how human lives and relationships can be reduced to transactional processes through the use of certain terminology and we imagine a brighter future for social care.

This episode was inspired by Bryony's own site dictionary of words that make her think twice and go 'hmmm'.

You can subscribe to the Rewriting Social Care blog here.

Follow Bryony on Twitter or contact her directly here.

Kate Davies is the founder of Buena ltd and the former CEO of Notting Hill Genesis.

Kate joins Paul Taylor and John Wade to talk about the things she perhaps couldn’t say as a CEO, the need for radical technological transformation, and why we must learn from the past whilst embracing the future.

Download her white paper here.

Join Kate on LinkedIn and visit the Buena website. 

Kicking off Season 3 of 'Let's Talk Ideas' the strategy team here at Bromford have decided to do something a little different.

In this episode we introduce Bromford's exciting strategic shift towards a Place-Based Working model, of which will also be the overarching theme of this podcast season.

We talk about the thinking behind the change, how we intend on putting our plans into action, what problems we aim to solve with this new way of working as well as discuss the impact it will have going forward.

To learn more about Place-Based Working or the Bromford 2023-2027 Strategy as a whole, click here.

To receive updates on our progress you can follow us on Twitter, Linkedin or read our updates over on the our blog.

Welcome back to Let's Talk Ideas.

This is part 2 of our discussion with Mike Dawson and Toby Savage, discussing the devolution white paper, 'power & partnership' that was released by the government just before Christmas.

We highly recommend you go and listen to part 1 before listening to this episode, as it provides important context to the imminent government reforms.

In part 2 we discuss the establishment of strategic authorities and their role in local government.

Don't forget, you can ⁠connect with Mike through his Bromford email, mike.dawson@bromford.co.uk, and Toby through his LinkedIn handle⁠here.⁠

You can also read more about the white paper ⁠here.

In this episode we are joined by Tom Knox, who is a Netherlands based solicitor and consultant whose knowledge bridges the best of Dutch and UK Housing expertise.

He’s the founder of One Future Consultants who are committed to creating a collaborative environment that fosters innovation and helps to improve the quality of affordable housing across the UK and the Netherlands. He is also a contributing solicitor at a leading Legal 500 law firm in the UK social housing sector, MSB Solicitors.

Tom talks with Paul Taylor about the differences between Dutch and English culture, how to have more direct conversations, and the need for us to engage differently to think about tomorrow today.

You can connect with Tom on LinkedIn and find out more here about One Future Consultants.

Please remember to leave a comment, subscribe and like and follow our new YouTube channel for monthly webinars 

Welcome back to Let's Talk Ideas.

In this episode we are joined by Dan Gregory, Independent Advisor and Oliver Holtaway, freelance Independent Researcher, Strategist and Advisor.

Today we talk about social capital and infrastructure, which speaks to the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular place and the essential facilities, services, and spaces that support social well-being and community development,

We can't recommend enough the list of resources below that were mentioned at various points in the podcast:

• Dan Gregory's paper - Skittled Out: The collapse and revival of England’s social infrastructure
• New Social Spaces in Stir to Action
• Dan giving evidence to APPG on ‘Left behind’ neighbourhoods
• 99% Invisible podcast: Palaces for the People
• Social Capital 2025: The Hidden Wealth of Nations by Andy Haldane and David Halpern

• Britain’s Lost Spaces
• Camerados and Public Living Rooms
• Onward’s landmark research report: The State of our Social Fabric

If you'd like to follow up with Dan or Oliver you can go to:

www.popular.org.uk

Dan's LinkedIn

Oliver's LinkedIn

Local Trust

In this episode we talk to Rob Rowlands and Andy Wright about the value and challenges of having meaningful community conversations, the benefits they can bring and the tools that can assist in enhancing them.

How can AI help in community conversations? Should we have a Community Curiosity Fund? And what is the harm in trying something completely different?

Rob and Andy have joined forces in a new venture Engaging 4Thought which combines their track record in consultation, research and leadership coaching to deliver effective engagement and embed critical skills and confidence within your organisation for long term benefit.

You can connect with both Rob and Andy on LinkedIn.

Please also subscribe to our YouTube channel. 

In this episode we are joined by Dr Rob Rowlands, discussing the importance of data in resolving problems, where organisations should start with research, and how to cultivate curiosity.

You can follow Rob on X as @robrowres or connect with him at robrowlands.co.uk

Please also make sure you follow @BromfordLab on X and visit BromfordLab.com

Chris Bolton is a researcher, blogger, and good practice expert.

Chris joins Paul Taylor and John Wade to talk about the idea antibodies that can kill innovation, the problem with following ‘best practice; and why we spend so much time ‘bike-shedding’.

You can follow Chris on X and subscribe to his excellent blog here.