When accountability fails to bite: governance, democracy and the 2026 Tower Hamlets elections

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Dr Gulay Icoz, Visiting Research Fellow, Middlesex University London

In theory, the 2026 Tower Hamlets local elections should have been a test of democratic accountability in action. The borough entered election year under active statutory intervention. A Best Value Inspection published in November 2024 had documented serious governance failings under Mayor Lutfur Rahman’s Aspire administration: weak internal controls, a culture of concentrated executive authority, poor transparency, and slow responses to statutory recommendations. A further written ministerial statement in January 2026 confirmed ongoing failures and deteriorating financial governance. In March 2026 — just two months before polling day — the Secretary of State escalated the intervention, granting ministerial envoys enhanced powers to step in directly if the council continued to breach its Best Value Duty.

Then voters went to the polls and Aspire won 33 of 45 council seats. Lutfur Rahman was re-elected as Executive Mayor for a third time. Labour was reduced to five seats — its lowest total in the borough’s history.

I stood as the Labour candidate for Bethnal Green West in those elections. What I observed — during the campaign and in the results — reveals a deeper tension between statutory accountability and community-level democratic legitimacy: one with implications that reach well beyond Tower Hamlets.

The structural picture

The results reveal a distortion that deserves wider attention. Aspire secured 73 per cent of council seats with just over 32 per cent of the vote. Labour and the Green Party each received just under 23 per cent of the vote, yet each won only 11 per cent of seats. In ward after ward, the combined Labour and Green vote exceeded Aspire’s total — yet the block voting system used in multi-member wards — where each voter casts as many votes as there are seats and the top candidates win — converted vote fragmentation into a decisive seat bonus for the incumbent. This is sometimes called plurality block voting, and it rewards coordinated slate-voting, which incumbent parties with strong voter loyalty are structurally better placed to exploit.

The ward-level picture sharpens this further. In Bethnal Green West, Labour entered polling day with an estimated core vote of around 540; Aspire’s coordinated bloc was already three times that size, with split votes running into the thousands. Green candidates who had run no sustained local campaign outpolled every Labour candidate standing — a pattern repeated across wards throughout the borough. The block voting system had no mechanism to reward breadth of engagement or effort: it simply rewarded the most organised and unified voting bloc.

It is worth distinguishing block voting in multi-member wards from single-member first-past-the-post. The coordination premium is structurally higher: a cohesive 32 per cent bloc can sweep three seats simultaneously in a way that would not occur in a series of individual contests. The question this blog is asking is not primarily about proportionality per se, but whether the electoral system can transmit accountability signals when a council is under active statutory intervention for documented governance failure.

This points to a question the electoral systems literature and the local democracy literature have rarely addressed together: when opposition parties are structurally disadvantaged by electoral mechanics, what additional tools does a democratic accountability framework need?

The accountability paradox

A long line of research — from Fiorina’s retrospective voting model through Powell and Whitten’s clarity-of-responsibility framework — establishes that electoral punishment for governance failure is neither automatic nor uniform. Recent scholarship sharpens this further: voters weigh integrity against perceived competence and community delivery (Breitenstein and Hernández, 2024); punishment weakens when opposition is fragmented and alternation unclear (Otjes and Stiers, 2022); and elections are in any case a blunt accountability instrument compared to courts, oversight bodies, and civic challenge (Papadopoulos, 2023). The established literature identifies three conditions that must be met for punishment to occur: voters must have clear information about failure; they must be able to attribute responsibility to the correct actor; and accountability must not be crowded out by competing loyalties or trade-offs. Tower Hamlets 2026 illustrates the failure of all three conditions simultaneously.

Yet the Tower Hamlets case also points to a fourth condition, largely absent from the existing retrospective voting literature: the accountability mechanism itself must be seen as legitimate by the communities it is meant to protect. This is the accountability paradox at the heart of the 2026 result — and it is a contribution that the standard retrospective voting framework is not equipped to capture.

For intervention to function as a democratic corrective, it must be perceived by the electorate — and particularly by the communities most affected by governance failure — as rational, impartial, and operating in their interests. Where that perception fails, intervention becomes politically legible as external imposition, and voting for the incumbent becomes an act of community solidarity rather than an endorsement of governance failure. This dynamic is not accidental: it is actively constructed through political framing, and incumbents with strong identity-based bonds with their electorate are structurally well-placed to construct it.

Recent research on statutory intervention in English local government proposes a five-stage model — crisis revelation, delegitimisation, imposed reforms, capacity building, and restoration — and argues that interventions must be carefully designed to appear rational rather than political if they are to maintain rather than undermine faith in local democracy (Lowther, Joyce and Whiteman, 2025). That model’s second stage — delegitimisation — describes central government’s work to undermine the legitimacy of the council being intervened in. What the Tower Hamlets 2026 election reveals is that delegitimisation can also operate in the opposite direction: the incumbent successfully turned the intervention itself into the object of delegitimisation in the eyes of the electorate, making the accountability mechanism the thing that lacked legitimacy rather than the council it was designed to hold to account.

Conversations on the doorstep revealed the depth of this reframing. Many Aspire supporters had not engaged with the contents of the Best Value report because they had already concluded the report itself was politically motivated — a tool of mainstream parties who disapproved of what Aspire represented rather than a genuine accountability mechanism. More striking still, when specific governance failures were raised — including nepotism and unqualified appointments — some voters had internalised a counter-narrative in which such practices represented community protection rather than misconduct.

It would be reductive to dismiss these perceptions as simply the product of misinformation. Communities with long experience of political marginalisation may have genuine historical grounds for scepticism toward central government intervention, and those experiences shape how accountability claims are received. What the Tower Hamlets case illustrates is the extent to which this pre-existing disposition was mobilised and amplified through deliberate political communication — producing not political apathy but the successful reconstruction of what accountability itself means.

This is not unique to Tower Hamlets. It is a dynamic that researchers of democratic resilience and local governance are increasingly attentive to, and it raises important questions about how accountability mechanisms are designed, communicated, and embedded — questions that are as much about institutional culture and civic trust as they are about statutory frameworks.

Tower Hamlets in context

Tower Hamlets did not stand alone in 2026. The elections produced historic Green gains across inner London — in Hackney, Waltham Forest, Lewisham and Southwark — and a significant realignment of the progressive vote away from Labour. What makes Tower Hamlets distinctive is that this regional realignment intersected with the specific dynamics of the Aspire incumbency, the governance intervention, and the structural incentives of block voting, producing an outcome more disproportionate than anywhere else in the capital.

Understanding whether Tower Hamlets represents an outlier or an advance indicator requires systematic comparison. Several English councils have been subject to statutory intervention in recent years — including Birmingham, Croydon, Slough, Sandwell, and Thurrock — yet the relationship between intervention, governance accountability, and subsequent electoral outcomes has received little comparative attention. Whether the accountability paradox identified here is specific to Tower Hamlets or reflects a broader pattern in how statutory intervention interacts with local political culture is a question that future comparative research must address.

The stakes

What the Tower Hamlets elections confirm, above all, is that democratic resilience is not reducible to electoral outcomes. The borough’s communities — residents navigating overcrowded housing, fractured services, and the cumulative pressures of one of England’s most deprived urban environments — continue to engage, organise, and hold their representatives to account through multiple channels. That engagement, not any single election result, is the foundation on which accountable local governance must ultimately be rebuilt.

What forms of accountability can work when statutory intervention loses legitimacy in the eyes of the very communities it is meant to protect?

Dr Gulay Icoz is a Visiting Research Fellow at Middlesex University London and stood as the Labour candidate for Bethnal Green West in the May 2026 local elections and Former Councillor in Hackney (2006–2014). She researches democratic resilience, local governance, and progressive voter realignment in inner London.

References

Academic sources

Breitenstein, S. and Hernández, E. (2024) ‘Too Crooked to be Good? Trade-offs in the Electoral Punishment of Malfeasance and Corruption’, European Political Science Review. doi:10.1017/S175577392400016X

Fiorina, M.P. (1981) Retrospective Voting in American National Elections. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Lowther, J., Joyce, P. and Whiteman, P. (2025) ‘Intervention 3.0: Designing a Responsive Model for Local Government Support in England’, INLOGOV Blog, 4 November 2025. Available at: https://inlogov.com/2025/11/04/intervention-3-0-designing-a-responsive-model-for-local-government-support-in-england/ [Also published as ‘How not to damage democracy’, Municipal Journal, 16 October 2025.]

Otjes, S. and Stiers, D. (2022) ‘Accountability and alternation: How wholesale and partial alternation condition retrospective voting’, Party Politics, 28(3), pp. 457–467.

Papadopoulos, Y. (2023) Understanding Accountability in Democratic Governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Elements in Public Policy).

Powell, G.B. and Whitten, G.D. (1993) ‘A Cross-National Analysis of Economic Voting: Taking Account of the Political Context’, American Journal of Political Science, 37(2), pp. 391–414.

Government documents

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (2024) Best Value Inspection Report: London Borough of Tower Hamlets. London: MHCLG. November 2024.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (2026) Written Ministerial Statement: Tower Hamlets Best Value Intervention. London: MHCLG. January 2026.

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (2026) Enhanced Intervention Powers: Tower Hamlets. Ministerial Announcement. March 2026.

What works in violence reduction? Learning from the London Vanguards evaluation

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Dr. Jason Lowther

This is the last (for now) of our series of blogs on recent evaluations of local public services – if you have published an evaluation you think may be of interest to Inlogov readers, please send me a link to it ([email protected]).

Much of the evaluation literature on violence reduction has focused on system-wide approaches such as Violence Reduction Units. The London Vanguards independent evaluation offers a close look at one defined service model designed to support children and young people affected by violence through integrated, community-based provision.

The London Vanguards programme, delivered across 12 boroughs between 2022 and 2025, brought together health, community and psychological support into a single, coordinated offer for young people at risk of, or affected by, violence. The independent evaluation, led by the Anna Freud Centre, used a mixed-methods realist design, combining service data with interviews and focus groups involving young people, families and practitioners. The aim was not only to assess outcomes, but to understand how and why the model worked in practice.

A holistic, multi-systems approach

At the core of the Vanguards model is a holistic understanding of violence risk. Rather than focusing narrowly on offending behaviour, the programme recognises that many young people experience multiple, overlapping adversities – including mental health needs, family instability, educational exclusion and unmet developmental needs.

The evaluation shows that this approach enabled services to identify needs that had often gone unrecognised elsewhere, particularly around neurodevelopmental conditions, speech and language difficulties and mental health. These underlying issues frequently shape both vulnerability to violence and the ability to engage with support.

The model therefore combined psychological support, practical help and wider system navigation, rather than relying on a single intervention. In doing so, it reflects a shift from treating violence as an isolated problem to addressing it as part of a wider set of life circumstances.

Outcomes: improvements across multiple domains

The evaluation presents a broadly positive picture of outcomes, although with important caveats around data completeness.

Around 1,500 children and young people were supported over the life of the programme. Among those with available data, there were reported improvements across several domains:

  • mental health improved for around 47 per cent of participants
  • education and accommodation outcomes improved for around one third
  • reductions in offending and high-risk behaviours were reported for a significant minority

Qualitative evidence reinforces these findings. Young people, parents and practitioners consistently described increases in confidence, wellbeing and sense of agency, as well as improvements in family relationships and engagement with education or employment.

Importantly, the evaluation suggests that these changes were not always short-lived. Many participants maintained positive outcomes over time, which was attributed to the longer-term, relationship-based nature of the support.

What drives change: relationships, persistence and coordination

Among the most valuable insights from the evaluation are those examining how change was achieved.

First, trusted relationships between practitioners and young people emerge as a central mechanism. The model’s flexible and persistent approach allowed practitioners to engage individuals who might otherwise disengage from services. This sustained engagement appears to be critical in supporting progress.  The importance of this relational approach to public services is increasingly recognised.

Second, multi-agency coordination proved essential. Although establishing partnerships was initially challenging, over time services became more aligned, enabling more coherent and responsive support. This coordination allowed practitioners to address needs across different domains without requiring young people to navigate multiple disconnected systems.

Third, the programme’s holistic design enabled it to respond to changing needs. Rather than fixed pathways, support could adapt as circumstances evolved, which is particularly important given the instability many participants experienced.

The data challenge: promising evidence, incomplete picture

As with many complex service evaluations, the report highlights limitations in the evidence base. Missing data rates are high across several outcome measures, and there is no control group for comparison. This makes it difficult to draw definitive conclusions about impact.

What does this mean for local authorities?

The London Vanguards evaluation suggests several lessons for local government and partners.

First, violence reduction is inseparable from wider needs. Effective responses must address mental health, development, family context and structural disadvantage alongside risk behaviours. Single-issue interventions are unlikely to be sufficient.

Second, relationship-based practice is central. The strongest evidence of change comes from sustained, trust-based engagement between practitioners and young people. This has implications for workforce stability, caseloads and commissioning approaches.

Third, integration works, but takes time. The evaluation shows that multi-agency coordination improved over time, but required sustained effort to establish.

Fourth, flexibility is a strength. The ability to adapt support to individual needs was a key feature of the model. Highly standardised approaches may struggle to achieve similar outcomes with complex populations.

Finally, the evaluation highlights the importance of taking a long-term view. Improvements were gradual, interconnected and not always immediately visible. This may challenge some performance frameworks but better reflects the reality of supporting young people affected by violence.

Taken together, the evidence from the London Vanguards suggests that what works in this area is not a single intervention, but a way of working: holistic, relationship-based and coordinated across services. The challenge for government and local authorities is creating the conditions to sustain this approach over time.

From top-down diagnosis to co-design: what youth‑led evidence adds to the Government’s review of Young people and Work

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Sonia Bussu

The government’s Young People and Work interim report presents a stark diagnosis. Nearly one million young people in the UK are not in education, employment or training (NEET), and the problem is structural, longstanding and getting worse. The report describes a system failure spanning education, labour markets, health and welfare, and it concludes that the UK lacks a coherent “participation system” to support transitions into work. It is a powerful diagnosis of a system that no longer supports young people. But it is also striking that much of what the report “discovers” has already been articulated vividly by young people themselves, many times over!

The INSPIRE programme in the West Midlands offers exactly this missing perspective: lived experience. Through participatory research and legislative theatre, a diverse group of young people aged 14–17 from across the region identified specific barriers, staged a play to reflect on these barriers with the community and policymakers, and co‑designed policy proposals to address them. Set alongside the government’s diagnosis, this youth‑led evidence helps move from description of problems to concrete and youth-led solutions.

Structural barriers are visible in lived experience

The government review highlights three major structural issues: reduced entry‑level jobs, fragmented systems and unequal access to support. The INSPIRE young co-creators showed us how they encounter these issues day to day. Their play, You’re Fried! The realities of youth employment, depicts a system where career guidance is rushed and superficial, where broken weblinks and empty words replace meaningful support, where opportunities are inaccessible, in a cycle of “entry‑level” roles that always require prior experience.

You’re Fried! The Realities of Youth Employment
Scene One: “What Should I Do With My Life?” revealed how love, when bound by fear, could become a cage. A young apprentice’s dream was crushed beneath the weight of parental expectations, where university was seen as the only safe route to independence.
Scene Two: “It’s All on You” exposed the hollow machinery of career guidance – rushed advisors offering broken links and empty words, leaving hope behind in the rush to tick boxes.
Scene Three: “Link Not Found” brought a computer to life, its customer-service smile masking the cold indifference of digital systems that fail those who need them most.
Scene Four: “This Isn’t What I Signed Up For” pulled back the curtain on the myth of ‘real-world experience’ – a McDonald’s shift where understaffing and blame replaced training and support.
Scene Five: “It’s Your Fault” returned to the family living room, where systemic failure was rewritten as personal shame, completing a devastating circle.

The government review links NEET risk to socioeconomic background, race, disability and geography. The INSPIRE young people described the same dynamics of discrimination and constrained expectations. Systemic failures are often reframed as individual shortcomings, reflecting a system that assesses young people but does not adequately support them, placing the burden of navigating complexity on individuals.

While employers face uncertainty and capacity constraints, young people also reported the limited support on accessing valuable work placements or apprenticeships, as they suffer from limited training, little supervision and weak protections. In these situations, responsibility again falls on the young person to adapt. The issue is not a lack of motivation from young people, but a lack of fit between systems and the realities young people face. Young people want to work but are navigating fragmented and often inaccessible pathways.

Youth‑led proposals provide concrete solutions

One of the most innovative aspects of the INSPIRE project is its methodology. Legislative theatre allowed young people not just to describe problems, but to stage them, rehearse alternatives, and co-create policy responses. We co‑designed  proposals to improve access to work experience and employment through creative and structured dialogues between young people, policymakers, employers and communities.

Several of these proposals directly address the issues identified in the government review.

1. Earlier and family‑centred career support
The review highlights the importance of early intervention, noting that disadvantage accumulates over time. The INSPIRE young people proposed starting career conversations at primary school level and involving families, recognising that aspirations and knowledge about career pathways are shaped early and collectively.

2. Accessible and community‑based careers guidance
To address fragmentation and inequality in provision, participants proposed delivering career support also through community organisations and the voluntary sector.

3. Reform of work experience and employer engagement
In response to declining entry points into the labour market, young people proposed structured work experience, mentoring and exposure to workplaces through site visits and flexible placement formats. They also highlighted the need to prepare employers to support young people effectively. Working with local schools, we are now co-creating standards for youth‑friendly employers.

4. Cross‑sector coordination
The government review identifies fragmentation across institutions as a core problem.
INSPIRE proposals include the creation of a cross‑sector alliance on youth employment in Birmingham bringing together young people, education, employers, public bodies and community organisations to coordinate action.

5. Youth‑led evaluation and accountability
Young people know best what they need. They proposed mechanisms for evaluating careers services and employer practices, embedding youth perspectives into ongoing policy development. A youth-led evaluation of career and employment support is now being implemented, co-led by Birmingham City Council and the University of Birmingham.

Rethinking policy: from programmes to relationships

A recurring criticism in participation is the lack of follow-through from policymakers. Young participants expressed frustration with commitments that are vague or delayed, or carelessly forgotten, which deeply undermines their trust in institutions.

INSPIRE suggests that the answer is not simply better engagement programmes, but different relationships between institutions and young people, where trust depends on feedback loops, transparent commitments, and long-term engagement rather than one-off consultations. It’s not simply about redesigning systems but redistributing power.

Young people do not need to be fixed or made “work-ready”. They need systems that recognise their knowledge, respond to their realities, and involve them as partners in shaping policy that affects them.

Sonia researches and teaches public policy. Her main research interests are participatory governance and democratic innovations, and creative and arts-based methods for research and public engagement.

What works in community ownership and local assets?

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Dr Jason Lowther

Alongside major programmes on local growth and regeneration, there has been increasing policy interest in the role of community-owned assets in strengthening local places. The Community Ownership Fund (COF) was a £150 million programme designed to support communities to take control of valued local buildings and spaces at risk of loss, from pubs and community centres to sports facilities.

The interim evaluation provides an early but valuable insight into how this model works in practice. It focuses on both delivery processes and emerging outcomes, based on a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative survey analysis, qualitative case studies and value-for-money assessment across a sample of projects. Rather than offering definitive conclusions, it highlights the conditions under which community ownership can succeed, and where it struggles.

A distinct model: enabling communities to “save” assets

The COF was designed to address a specific gap in the system: the loss of locally valued social infrastructure. By providing capital funding to support acquisition and refurbishment, the programme enabled community groups to intervene where assets would otherwise have closed or been sold.

The evaluation finds that, in this respect, the fund has been effective in enabling communities to secure assets that were at genuine risk. In many case study areas, projects would not have gone ahead without this funding, particularly given wider economic pressures. The scale of capital support is identified as a key feature, allowing communities to take on projects that would otherwise be financially out of reach.

Early outcomes: social value more visible than economic impact

At this interim stage, the evaluation points to positive early social outcomes, although evidence on longer-term impact is still developing.

Qualitative findings from case studies suggest that community-owned assets are already delivering benefits in terms of:

  • strengthened local identity and pride
  • increased community participation and volunteering
  • improved access to services and social spaces

These outcomes reflect the broader theory of change behind the fund: that ownership can generate not just service provision, but engagement, empowerment and social capital.

However, the evaluation is more cautious on economic outcomes such as financial sustainability and local economic growth. These are necessarily longer-term and more uncertain, particularly given the time required to refurbish and reopen assets.

What enables success in practice?

The process evaluation provides important insight into what makes community ownership projects work.

First, existing capacity within community organisations matters. The fund was most accessible to groups that already had the skills, governance structures and experience required to develop complex capital projects. Where this capacity was lacking, projects found it more difficult to apply for and deliver funding.

Second, support and advisory provision are critical. Changes made to the programme over time, including increased support for disadvantaged areas and adjustments to match funding requirements, improved accessibility. This suggests that financial investment alone is not sufficient; communities also need technical and developmental support.

Third, relationships with funders and partners shape delivery experience. Many projects reported the need for clearer communication, more consistent engagement and greater flexibility from central government during the delivery phase. This reflects a wider lesson across local programmes: delivery quality depends as much on how funding is administered as on the funding itself.

The challenge of accessibility and equity

A recurring theme in the evaluation is the tension between opportunity and inequality.

While the COF provides a mechanism for community empowerment, it does not operate on a level playing field. Communities with stronger organisational capacity, access to professional skills and existing funding networks are better placed to take advantage of the opportunity. Less advantaged areas may face greater barriers, even where need is higher.

Programme adjustments, such as reducing match funding requirements and targeting support, have helped to address this. But the evaluation suggests that structural inequalities remain a significant factor in shaping who benefits from community ownership.

Sustainability and risk

The evaluation also highlights the question of long-term sustainability. Taking ownership of an asset creates ongoing responsibilities, including maintenance, staffing and financial management.  While many projects have strong business plans, the wider economic environment poses risks, particularly for organisations reliant on trading income or voluntary effort.

What does this mean for local authorities?

The COF evaluation suggests several implications for local government.

First, community ownership can deliver real social value, particularly in maintaining assets that would otherwise be lost. For councils facing financial pressure, this provides an important mechanism for sustaining local infrastructure.

Second, capacity and capability are the critical enablers. Local authorities have an important role in supporting community organisations through advice, development support and partnership working, rather than simply acting as funders or commissioners.  Central government should invest in this support.

Third, early investment in support pays off. The evaluation shows that changes to improve accessibility made a tangible difference. This suggests that programmes should prioritise capability-building alongside capital funding.

Fourth, equity requires active intervention. Without targeted support, community ownership risks reinforcing existing inequalities between places and groups. Local authorities are well placed to identify and support communities that might otherwise be excluded.

Finally, sustainability must be considered from the outset. Transferring assets to communities is not a cost-free solution; it shifts responsibility rather than removing it. Ongoing support, realistic business planning and long-term partnership will be essential to ensure success.

Taken together, the evaluation suggests that what works in community ownership is not simply funding assets, but supporting communities to own, manage and sustain them effectively.

What works in mental health and employment support? Learning from recent evaluation

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Dr Jason Lowther

Alongside the growing evidence base in areas such as homelessness, local growth and skills, there is increasing attention on how local systems respond to the intersection of mental health and employment. This is a critical issue for local authorities and their partners, given the strong relationship between work, wellbeing and wider social outcomes.

The recent evaluation of Individual Placement Support (IPS) integrated within Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT), delivered through the Mental Health Trailblazers programme, provides a valuable contribution to this evidence. The programme was designed to address two linked challenges (poor mental health and unemployment) through a combined intervention offering both therapeutic and employment support. It was delivered across three areas (Blackpool, the North East and West London) as locally commissioned “growth deal” projects aimed at improving both economic and health outcomes.

An integrated approach to mental health and work

The overarching premise of the programme is simple but important: mental health and employment are interdependent. Traditional services often treat them separately, with employment support and mental health treatment delivered through different systems. The Trailblazers programme sought to integrate these approaches by embedding employment specialists alongside psychological therapy services.

The evaluation employed a mixed‑methods design, combining an impact evaluation – using a trial‑style comparison between IAPT alone and IAPT plus IPS – with a detailed process evaluation examining implementation, service design and user experience. This dual approach reflects the complexity of the intervention: it is not only about whether outcomes improve, but about how services work together in practice.

Findings on outcomes: modest but promising

On outcomes, the evaluation presents a cautious but broadly positive picture. While the evidence on impact is not definitive, there are indications that combining IPS with psychological therapies can support improvements in both employment and mental health outcomes compared to standard provision.

This aligns with a wider evidence base for IPS, which consistently shows strong performance in helping people with mental health conditions move into and sustain work. Employment itself is recognised as beneficial for recovery and wellbeing, reinforcing the rationale for integrated approaches.

However, the evaluation also highlights the difficulty of demonstrating impact in complex, real‑world settings. Data limitations, variation in local models and challenges in maintaining experimental control all affected the strength of conclusions. This is a recurring issue across many local public service evaluations: outcomes are shaped by multiple interacting factors, making attribution difficult.

What makes the model work in practice?

The process evaluation provides rich insight into the mechanisms behind the model. Several features emerge as particularly important.

First, the relationship between service users and employment specialists is central. IPS is explicitly client‑led, focusing on individual preferences, strengths and readiness rather than predefined pathways. This personalised, relational approach appears to be a key driver of engagement.

Second, integration between services matters. Embedding employment specialists within IAPT teams helped create a more holistic offer, reducing fragmentation and enabling better coordination of support. Where integration was stronger, services were better able to respond to the complex and fluctuating needs of clients.

Third, the model benefits from being less target‑driven than traditional employment programmes. The evaluation notes that a focus on client needs, rather than rigid job outcome targets, enabled more sustained engagement – particularly for individuals with more severe or complex mental health challenges.

At the same time, implementation was not without difficulties. Referral processes, administrative requirements and clinical wait times all created friction in the system. Experiences and outcomes  were inconsistent.

The system challenge: integration is difficult

Perhaps the most important learning from the evaluation is about the difficulty of integrating services across organisational boundaries. Bringing together health and employment support requires alignment between different funding streams, professional cultures and accountability frameworks.

The evaluation highlights challenges such as eligibility criteria, information sharing and differences in service priorities. These issues are not unique to this programme; they reflect broader structural barriers within public services. Even where the case for integration is clear, delivering it in practice requires sustained effort and coordination.

There were also challenges in engaging employers and navigating local labour markets. Employment outcomes depend not only on individual readiness, but on the availability and quality of jobs. This again points to the importance of seeing mental health services within a wider economic context.

What does this mean for local authorities?

The evaluation offers several implications for local government and system partners.

First, integration across services is both necessary and challenging. The evidence supports the case for bringing together health and employment support, but also shows that this requires deliberate design, strong relationships and ongoing coordination.

Second, personalised, relationship‑based support is critical. Models like IPS work because they focus on individuals, not categories. This has implications for commissioning and performance management, which often rely on standardised models and metrics.

Third, employment should be seen as a health outcome. The evaluation reinforces the idea that good work is not just an economic goal, but a key component of wellbeing and recovery. This has implications for how local systems define success.

Fourth, local variation matters. The programme was delivered differently across areas, reflecting local labour markets, service configurations and partnerships. This flexibility is a strength, but also makes evaluation and scaling more complex.

Finally, the evaluation highlights the importance of longer‑term thinking. Supporting people with mental health conditions into work is not a short‑term intervention. Outcomes take time to emerge, and services need stability to build the relationships and capability required.

As with other areas of local government, the evidence increasingly shows what works in principle. The challenge is less about identifying effective models, and more about creating the conditions – organisational, financial and cultural – that allow them to be implemented flexibly and at scale.

Labour must listen, learn and change if it is to regain trust

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Ketan Sheth

After two decades as a Labour councillor in Brent, I was deeply disappointed to lose my Wembley seat in the local elections on 7th May —  serving our local residents has been a great honour and privilege, and I remain grateful to everyone who placed their trust in me over the years.

I do feel, though, that Labour needs to learn urgent lessons from these disastrous results. Again and again on the doorstep, people told me that they valued my work as a councillor and would happily vote for me again — but they simply could not bring themselves to put a cross next to a Labour candidate. There is a deep well of anger in Brent, and across the whole country — a feeling that the Labour government has let people down and failed to deliver the change they promised in 2024.

Make no mistake, voters reflected the national political picture rather than what is going on in Brent. People relate local grievances like the state of our roads, pavements and parks to a wider sense of hopelessness based on their view of where we are nationally, rather than voting specifically on local matters. Indeed, many people said they voted on issues like immigration or the economy which local government has no power to fix.

This is arguably always the case in local elections and I’m hardly the first local councillor to lose their seat due to people’s views on how well the national government is or is not doing. But this time felt different. The vitriol directed towards the government, and the Prime Minister, was stronger than anything I have encountered while canvassing in the past. Unless Labour changes direction quickly and radically, it is hard to see how future elections will yield a different result. Labour has made big mistakes in government — our first notable action was the winter fuel payments fiasco and we seemed to go on making mis-steps from there. The appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador was a catastrophic error of judgement. The cost of living crisis remains largely unaddressed — voters do not see their lives or their crumbling public services getting any better. All of these things are exacerbated by our government offering no hope that things are about to improve. We need to listen to what the voters are telling us — and we need a sharp, fast change of direction.

Locally, addressing our collective challenges under a hung council will be difficult, as it is always easier for a Council to have a clear electoral mandate and we now have a position where there will need to be negotiation and trade-offs between the different parties. But I am sure all those involved will take their responsibilities seriously and work together to deliver for the people of Brent.

For my own part, I will hugely miss representing local people as part of Brent Council. I want to thank those who voted for me, the officers and colleagues who supported me over many years. I will continue to be active in local politics and to campaign for a better deal for the communities I was proud to serve.