Determining “what works” in local councils – the case of ‘Street Champions’ in Lambeth

Local government in the UK is responsible for a number of key public services and has the potential to be an ideal testing ground to trial new ways of delivering such services. Historically, however, there has been relatively limited use of rigorous evaluation methods, such as Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs), to determine “what works”.

For the last two years, IFS researchers have been collaborating with Lambeth Council to design and run an RCT that seeks to evaluate different ways to get citizens more involved in the delivery of public services. The scheme we trialled asked residents to volunteer to become a ‘Street Champion’ and coordinate efforts to improve the cleanliness and beauty of their local environment. Different types of incentives were randomly offered to different streets to test their additional motivational effects. We then tested the effects of the scheme and different sets of incentives on the activity levels of citizens, environmental outcomes, resident satisfaction and levels of social capital.

At this event, we will be launching the first set of results to come out of this evaluation.  IFS researchers will present the empirical results and policy implications of the evaluation, whilst representatives from Lambeth Council will talk about their experience of the trial.

In addition, we have put together varied panel of speakers to respond to the results of the evaluation and set them in a wider policy context.

This event will be of interest to policymakers and practitioners interested in understanding what works in local government and ways to promote greater levels of civic engagement by citizens.

Speakers will include:

Luke Sibieta (Associate Director, Institute for Fiscal Studies)

Jason Prentis (Lambeth Council)

Cllr. Jenny Braithwaite (Lambeth Council, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport).

Dan Corry (Chief Executive, New Philanthropy Capital)

Abdool Kara (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, Policy Spokesman on Evidence Based Policy and Chief Executive of Swale Borough Council)

Charlotte Ravenscroft (Head of Policy and Public Services, NCVO)

Timings:

Registration from 09.30am for a 10.00am start. Buffet lunch will be provided from 12.00.

This launch event and some of the foundation work required for the pilot with Lambeth has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council under the IFS Impact Acceleration Account ES00105.0000. We are grateful for their support.