A Blog on the Creating Social Value through Place Leadership Symposium @LJMU 26th March 2024

Creating Social Value through Place Leadership

26th March 2024

Lisa Newson

Event Hosted by Dr Fiona Armstrong-Gibbs & Lisa Knight Liverpool John Moores University Liverpool Business School

Sitting in LJMU Hardman House, we were introduced to the event by Dr Fiona Armstrong-Gibbs . Hardman House is a welcoming building which encompasses the LJMU Law Clinic, Business Clinic, and the space where the new Applied Entrepreneurship degree uses the space to promote creative thinking, and this is the building where the LJMU Business school conduct much engagement activity (As an LJMU employee from another faculty- I had never been in this building before and what a welcoming and inviting space for LJMU business students). Fiona gave an introduction to LJMUs links to local businesses and an overview of the various engagement activities, such as the work with Liverpool-based Baltic Creative and the work with the combined local authority on the LJMU place and leadership programme.

Lisa provided an introduction to the purpose of inviting community organisations and leaders from the Liverpool region to discuss the purpose of place leadership. Seeking to explore and share our ideas about what place leadership means, how it ties into post-Brexit, devolution and other agendas.

So, the purpose of the event was to ask the following questions:

What is good Place Leadership is?

What is social value, from a place leadership perspective?

How do we develop and create place leaders of the future- what’s skills and values are required?

There were 8 tables for which delegates sat and introduced each other, and the first task was to discuss…How do we understand Place Leadership?

So What is place leadership? (table discussion). As a Health Psychologist, I don’t know what this is (I don’t have a business degree)- I think I know what (good) leadership is and consider Sense of Place as- I would say a situation, local community, the place for which you are serving. I have previously worked in community settings, NHS, and public health- I think I have a good understanding of PLACE- but my experience and, therefore, my views will be outdated- its been a while since I was employed directly in these settings.  Right now, for me, what is PLACE….I might be serving LJMU and Liverpool, but MY PLACE is that of promoting health psychology to improve people's experiences of healthcare and professional’s delivery of healthcare- there are ~600 Health Psychologists registered in the UK (it’s a tiny profession) so we are a limited resource across the world- PLACE for me means to change practices, influence the way health professional work, change systems- so place for me is a contextual environment - I was interested to hear the view of the rest my table…

Lucy Bridge , a colleague and Associate working with me on the Cobalt Housing project described place as being community- organisations that sit within a specific geographic area. In particular highlighting the role that, often in local communities, strong leaders are women who are driven and strong, becoming leaders organically in the area of importance to them- these are the place leaders we should be talking to, involving, supporting and developing.

Our table discussed that the current place leadership framework is top-down and unconnected. Across the Liverpool City Region it was thought that there is a strong local leadership which is politically led and, as such, makes decisions that are not representational of the local communities; there was a real desire to acknowledge that place leadership should be seeking to support grassroots communities.  On my table, there was a real sense of frustration- we know what place leadership is and what it should look like, but how do we evoke change at the top level? How can we make PLACE LEADERSHIP the priority?

Our table reflected on Who are our leaders?  We had quite a discussion acknowledging that Leadership is about support- it’s about the people within the organisations working collaboratively, Not making decisions from up high. Leaders strive to make a change with others, engaging with various people at multiple levels, situations and environments, actively listening to understand, and not (pretending) to listen to respond. Managers are people who use their power, perhaps prioritizing the organisation first and forgetting about the human element of leadership, support and creating a bigger picture. “Nothing will work unless we work together as one; it won't work if we work in silos. We have to collaborate.  Go beyond their job description and look for the common good”. (Table member)

We reverted back to the conversation that Place leadership is about areas that need place leadership- it matters – ‘working class, old working class areas- areas of exclusion’ leaders must understand the reality, understand the local situation, the local context, the local environment, the local history and the local lived experiences.  You have to know the place, you have to know the people.' (Table member)

We briefly (but quickly moved away from a political conversation) discussing the Levelling up agenda- how this is not reflecting the needs of those in Liverpool. That this (levelling up) agenda is not PLACE led, it’s a piecemeal token gesture. We need investment in place- and we need to be proactively developing and supporting individuals to become leaders now (and for the future). We also touched on the need for PLACE LEADERSHIP to be considered in the context of the longevity of businesses and the value they bring to the local areas. We should be helping smaller businesses and enterprises to flourish- often they cannot compete with the ‘spin’ presentation that the bigger organisations have, so how can we help them create a sustained business model to become the preferred businesses for local contracting and tenders?

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We had a room feedback and sharing of thoughts.

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Next Lisa presented a Place-Leadership Model, one that was initially created in 2011. She talked through how this agenda has moved forward and the need to update the model- for which Lisa & Fiona have been engaging with various leaders, including those within the local authority to seek out perspectives and experiences- the next step in revising this model was to seek our views (the room- community leaders more than me!) of what this meant to them.  Lisa says place leadership becomes a group concept- we need to collate the hive mind to bring together place leadership to bring together activity and values.

Fiona invited Joanne Anderson as an invited speaker to share her insights.

Joanne in her words presented an ‘uncomplicated view of social value- pick values of the organisation- measure yourself against these values. All the other calculations and fancy stuff doesn’t matter. Just go for it and do’ 

Joanne gave an example of Manchester combined authority who have embedded social value within their waste management contract to create a reuse (waste) hub to create an impact on the local community and address local people's needs. In this instance, social value is part of the procured contract.  Some examples of Place leadership and creating social value- can be rolled out and applied in other places- however, Joanne issued a word of caution: do not assume roll-out is a standard process. All places are different; people are different, and the context is different.  You can pick up an idea, but rollout must be bespoken to the local communities and places in which you are influencing. Collaboration and co-development are the heart of creating successful social value through place leadership.

Joanne gave a few other examples, some very successful, such as Kindred and then gave a few examples of others where things haven’t worked quite so well. Joanne highlighted that those in public sector leadership positions shouldn’t be making decisions about areas and communities that they are not familiar with. Her advice to those in the audience was to ‘absorb yourself into the place’ and reiterated that ‘public services are there to serve communities rather than be an authority’.

Joanne explained her role at Social Enterprise UK- is to work with and reach out to policymakers and government to lobby and push back. Joanne is a place leader at the strategic levels, with a lived experience and genuine understanding of community ‘grassroots’ needs.  (more of this please!)

Next up was Lucy Bridge - from LJMU, working with Cobalt Housing on a Management Knowledge Transfer project funded by Innovate UK and presenting her work on Place and Social Value in the housing sector.  Lucy explained that Cobalt Housing has ~6k homes, all within a 3-mile radius in North Liverpool. Lucy lives in North Liverpool and has reflected on her own life experiences, her own family needs, experiences of living in the community and having a passion for making a difference.

As part of Lucy’s role, we have been looking at how housing associations engage in social value; what does this look like? Lucy explained she had reviewed Cobalt’s strategic plan, for which the corporate priorities include providing excellent customer service, excellent customer homes, and supporting thriving communities; within the plan social value was recognised as a key element, mentioned 11 times, but the approach and methodology haven’t been clearly outlined. Historically, where social value may have been looked at, it has been inconsistent.  Lucy summarised her investigation and split these into Cobalt’s external investment into the community, the internal working practices within Cobalt (how they make decisions and as individuals act as place leaders), and finally, procurement and tendering procedures, embedding social value into the contracts for services across the local area.

Lucy gave a specific example of using social value to demonstrate such external impact based on ~£200k investment from Cobalt into the Cobalt+ service.  One project from this Cobalt+ service from the Environmental Team has been to promote safe, healthy and welcoming local environments (key performance indicators include access to, maintenance and safety of local green space) as a result of this portfolio of work, Lucy has calculated a social value of benefit to the local community : (SROI) for every £1 = £20.10, currently £2,725,009 return social value. This is just one of many community-based projects. Lucy has been working up a portfolio of examples of this social value- which can be used as a benchmark to aid future (investment) decisions and help to seek out further funding opportunities to enhance the local area further.  Lucy also mentioned that we have encouraged Cobalt to implement social value into their tender contracts, and we have also discussed the value of contracting local organisations to promote local economic growth. A key approach to our work has been to support the development of the organisation and of employees to think and do things differently, to be PLACE LEADERS across all aspects of the organisation.

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Fiona invited the group to consider what are the values, skills knowledge of a place leader?

What do they need to have?

We moved around tables and wrote on flipcharts what we thought was needed to be a Place leader. In summary for the whole group:

Fiona and Lisa facilitated the summary of the room activities, beliefs and perceptions. They made a case for working collaboratively and presented their next steps in terms of showcasing success in this field and encouraged those in the room to come forward with case studies and to collaborate on publishing this work.

Within the event, there was a room full of experience and expertise around place leadership, all enthusiastic to make a difference and achieve positive change in their ‘places’.  This was brilliant to witness and have the pleasure of being part of it, at least for that day!

Whilst we have this expertise, the next challenge is to work together to utilise this knowledge; considering how do we challenge above and strategically to shift knowledge skills and values so that they align with what places need to create meaningful social value?

As a Health Psychologist- this PLACE LEADERSHIP and SOCIAL VALUE is not my core business. The week before, this event, another staff member from within my school asked why I would attend a business event. I do so because I am interested in pushing boundaries, learning from outside of my immediate field, and finding ways to work collaboratively and creatively. I attended this event to be supportive to my colleagues- Lucy Bridge presenting on the Cobalt MKTP in which I manage (a project which pushes all my boundaries), and to Dr Fiona Armstrong-Gibbs and Lisa Knight as event leaders. Indeed, all who spoke and contributed to this event were demonstrating leadership and are clearly passionate about our shared PLACE of Liverpool and surrounding areas. Over the past few weeks, I have been reflecting on my own VALUES and what it means to influence people, processes and systems. How successful am I in doing so? Do my values and what I believe to be important align with what other people value and recognise? Whilst I may not have the full answers to these questions right now (unfortunately), this event, whilst not aimed to, helped me re-energise and have the will to carry on pushing back on the status quo. It was inspiring to hear from so many others who in the business and community world are willing to ‘just do it’ and make that change.

Obviously these notes and my perception of the event may differ from others, and I am interested to hear how this work progresses. I look forward to seeing (and supporting if applicable) the next steps in this agenda, Lisa and Fiona and ALL the place leader delegates who co-developed this event.

Thank you for the invite.

Lisa

 Adam Shore Tim Nichol Dr Track Dinning Joanne Anderson Christine Spriggs John Ghader MBA FCIH Melissa Holt-Brewster Dr Lisa Newson Melanie Lewis Kevin Rodgers Sharon Senior Emily Walker Adam Thomas Knowles