Joe needs his toe nails cut. Last week his General Practice doctor who I know well, wrote to me, incensed by the impossibility of organising this simple task. The regional assistant head of community commissioning – let’s call them Jamie, so as not to shame them, responded to her email for help, by suggesting that […]| Hilary Cottam
What is the new relationship required between the state and our communities? So often the two seem locked in a zero-sum game, a competition, in which the fate and popularity of one rises as the other falls? But could we instead re-imagine the relationship between the local state and communities in ways that allow both […]| Hilary Cottam
‘What is going on here?’ This is the question at the heart of Kay and King’s Radical Uncertainty – a question the authors suggest we should all be asking much more often. In this large and wide-ranging book, John Kay (economist and founding Dean of Oxford University’s Said Business school) and Mervyn King (economist and […]| Hilary Cottam
I spent last week working in East Ayrshire. It was inspiring. What is happening in East Ayrshire, often against some pretty difficult odds, is something most places in Britain could learn from. Here I share some rough and ready thoughts from my notebook. All you need is love? A 21st century health system is much […]| Hilary Cottam
At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, climate was at the top of the agenda – but close behind (and often discussed in equally apocalyptic tones) was the theme of work. This year I am also focused on work (and its intimate connections to the climate challenge). I am running a series of […]| Hilary Cottam
This week Adam Lent started an important conversation at the New Local Government Network, about how we enable a system shift away from a highly centralised mode of government to one which is community driven. He writes; ‘Currently it takes a rare combination of courage, persistence and vision on the part of local leaders to […]| Hilary Cottam
I received an email last week – from Norway – with an image of a green tea cup and a message that read as follows: “I just wanted to tell you how much you inspired me that day in Arendal. I had never thought about loneliness or solitude that way. Thank you. I have started a […]| Hilary Cottam
What is the role of the modern state in creating the good life? Are we, the public servants of today, simply humanisers of the inevitable[1], those who must mop up the fall out of rapid techno economic change. Or can we be the radical architects of a much-needed social revolution? Everywhere the social systems, tools and frameworks […]| Hilary Cottam
Five years ago almost to the day, I made my first visit to Denmark. At a conference on public service design hosted by MindLab, I was struck when Jorgen Clausen, the chief executive of Odense (Denmark’s third largest city) began his presentation talking about the city’s 1,000 leaders and 16 thousand employees. These are the […]| Hilary Cottam
I was honoured this week to deliver the annual Newsam Lecture to police leaders from across the country. ‘Is modern policing social work?’ I asked in the title of my lecture.| www.hilarycottam.com
In May 2025 Hilary’s second book The Work We Need will be published by Virago LittleBrown.| www.hilarycottam.com