Solving real-life challenges for councils.
The LGA’s annual competition for council officers is approaching its final stages.
Back in December (first 700), we announced that the Local Government Challenge had once again recruited 10 talented officers to participate in five real-life, council-hosted challenges throughout 2025.
This initiative aims to foster innovation and leadership within local government by providing participants with the opportunity to tackle pressing issues faced by councils across the country.
At stake is the prestigious £10,000 Bruce-Lockhart Scholarship, awarded each year in honour of former LGA Chairman Lord Sandy Bruce-Lockhart OBE.
As first was going to press, the 2025 cohort was completing the last of five challenges and we are pleased to provide an update on the journey so far.
This year’s LG Challenge began in January at Buckinghamshire Council. Each challenge varies in topic, and Buckinghamshire’s focused on the role town centre regeneration plans could play in retaining and re-attracting talent across the county.
The council emphasised that regeneration is a significant priority, with plans to revitalise larger towns such as Aylesbury, Chesham and High Wycombe.
Buckinghamshire’s ambitious vision aims to make these towns more attractive and functional for residents, businesses, and visitors, driving economic growth, enhancing quality of life and ensuring sustainable development.
Team Ascend put forward three key strategies: an upskilling strategy to grow future talent, creating business hubs to attract businesses to town centres, and showcasing local industries such as film, manufacturing and the Westcott Space Centre.
On the other hand, Team Visionaries focused on fostering community and inclusivity through networks and capitalising on the unique selling points of county towns. After careful deliberation, the judges favoured Team Visionaries’ ideas for their ability to be implemented across the county, awarding them the first win of the 2025 programme.
The second challenge took place at Nottinghamshire County Council in February, where the cohort was tasked with addressing recommendations in a joint strategic needs assessment –particularly around poor mental health as both a barrier to work and a challenge for those already in employment.
The council’s 10-year vision for a healthy, prosperous and greener future for residents includes tackling disparities in employment and economic activity rates, as well as addressing long-term health conditions, disabilities and mental health issues.
Team Visionaries proposed developing strategic community hubs for mental health and employment support, a good employment charter starting with Nottinghamshire County Council and rolling out to local employers, and fostering regional partnership working.
Meanwhile, Team Ascend pitched the ‘Nottinghamshire Outstanding Work (NOW)’ programme, which integrates employment support into the council’s core business. The judges were impressed by Team Ascend’s strategic approach, awarding them the win for this round.
In March, the third challenge took the teams to Stroud District Council, where they explored how effectively its recently developed community engagement principles could be implemented and further developed within the context of the council’s ‘Fit for the Future’ modernisation programme.
Teams were asked to prepare both a presentation and an action plan outlining how these principles could be actioned by everyone at the council.
Team Visionaries proposed re-evaluating the council’s community engagement principles into three coherent stages: create, collaborate, and consolidate. Their plans aimed to embed community engagement throughout the council, ensuring it sits within all roles rather than in silos.
Team Ascend recommended redefining the existing principles as a process and creating four new overarching principles: learn, listen, involve, and empower.
They argued that distilling the process into four core principles retains the work already undertaken, while providing the council with clear principles that can be understood and embedded across services.
This time the judges felt Team Ascend’s proposal best aligned with the council’s values and behaviours and gave them the win for the challenge.
The cohort headed east for challenge four, which took place at Harlow Council in April, this time focusing on procurement.
Following the new opportunities afforded by the Procurement Act 2023, the teams were tasked with developing a new procurement approach that allows for agile tendering to better meet council needs. The focus was on speeding up processes, quantifying added value, and creating social value linked to the council’s corporate missions.
Team Ascend proposed a ‘cultural procurement shift’ for the council, centred on four Ds: define, design, deliver, and discover. Their approach encompassed the entire procurement process, ensuring all officers have a responsibility for the life-cycle of procurement. They emphasised social value and the involvement of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Team Visionaries pitched redesigning the procurement process by introducing a new gold standard called the ‘Heart of Harlow,’ which would fast-track decision-making and use artificial intelligence (AI) to move away from paperwork and emails toward a fully digital service.
The judges were impressed by both teams’ proposals, but awarded the win to Team Ascend for their comprehensive approach.
“Four finalists will go head to head at the LGA’s annual conference in Liverpool in July”
Throughout the competition, contestants are rotated to ensure diverse experiences and perspectives; and are scored individually on their innovation and problem solving, political awareness, business acumen, team working, communication, and their ability to inspire and motivate others.
As first was going to press, the cohort was in the North West, completing its fifth and final challenge, hosted by Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council.
Once all five challenges have been completed, four finalists will be identified and – supported by their fellow competitors – travel to the LGA’s annual conference in Liverpool in early July.
There, they will go head-to-head as they pitch their individual proposals to delegates and judges in the hope of winning the coveted scholarship. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in the conference’s Innovation Zone on 2 July.
To find out more about the Local Government Challenge, please visit local.gov.uk/lg-challenge
- See local.gov.uk/conference to book your place at the LGA’s annual conference in Liverpool from 1-3 July