Across the South West, many of us are working on similar challenges, often with similar tools, but largely on our own. We build local solutions, learn hard lessons, and then move on — without always having the space or permission to connect that learning across boundaries.
The South West Learning and Doing Network is an attempt to try something different.
At its heart, this is a test — not just of ideas in services, but of some basic assumptions about how we learn, improve and build capability together. Rather than starting with answers, we’re starting with real work, real people, and a willingness to learn our way forward.
One of the ways we’ve been thinking about this is through a simple analogy:
our own toolboxes as practitioners; a shared regional toolshed of things we build and reuse together; and a wider national warehouse of insight, evidence and experience that we can draw from without reinventing what already exists. The network is about strengthening the connections between those layers — and making it easier for learning to move between them.
This work has only been possible because of the support and encouragement around it.
First and foremost, I want to acknowledge the backing from my own council — Duncan Sharkey, Chief Executive, and Sara Cretney, Service Director – Strategy, Performance, and Communication — and the wider permission at Somerset Council to try, test and learn, even where outcomes aren’t fully known upfront.
I’m also grateful to colleagues in Dorset for shaping this with us in genuine partnership, particularly Lisa Cotton, Corporate Director for Transformation, Customer and Cultural Services, and Nina Coakley, Head of Transformation and Design, as well as Catherine Howe, Chief Executive, whose support has helped create the space for this kind of regional collaboration.
Finally, we’re thankful for the support of the Local Government Association, including Lisa Trickey, Lead Advisor, for helping us connect this work into the wider national system and learn from what already exists.
This is intentionally small, practical and unfinished. Things will shift as we learn. That’s not a risk to be managed away — it’s the work.
Overview
Across the South West, councils are facing many of the same pressures – rising demand, constrained resources, increasing complexity, and the need to transform at pace without losing sight of the human impact of change. Too often, we respond to these challenges in isolation, reinventing tools, templates and processes that our neighbours are also developing.
The South West Learning and Doing Network has been created to change this pattern.
Designed and coordinated by Somerset Council, in partnership with Dorset Council and with support from the Local Government Association, the network is a time‑bound learning cohort that brings councils together to work differently – testing real ideas in live environments, learning rapidly from experience, and turning that learning into practical approaches that can be reused across the region.
This is not a conference. It is a learn and share cohort.
A multidisciplinary community of practice, brought together for a focused 6-month period to work on real challenges, not to attend presentations. The network is built around action, experimentation and mutual support – enabling councils and system partners to test ideas safely, learn honestly from what happens in practice, and adapt their approach as insight emerges.
Participants are not joining to observe, but to contribute – sharing responsibility for learning, reflecting openly on what works and what doesn’t, and helping translate that learning into practical tools, patterns and approaches that strengthen capability across the region and reduce duplication.
The kick-off event – Sowing Seeds on 4 June 2026 – marks the beginning of this shared journey. At this point, regional priorities will be shaped collectively, cross-council working groups formed, and the first ‘Test and Learn’ pilots launched. These pilots will be intentionally small, time-bound, and focused as much on learning as on delivery – creating space for insight alongside impact.
The programme culminates in the Harvest event on 19 November 2026. This is not simply a showcase, but a moment of collective reflection and consolidation. At Harvest, participating councils will aim to:
- share what has been tested in practice – what worked, what didn’t, and why
- surface learning from both progress and uncertainty, including where assumptions are needed to shift
- capture and codify insight into reusable tools, approaches and case studies
- assess the impact of pilots on services, capacity and outcomes for residents
- identify which ideas are ready to scale, adapt or embed – and which require further testing
The Harvest event ensures that learning does not dissipate at the end of the cohort but is translated into practical assets and a clear forward plan – strengthening regional confidence to lead change in contexts where outcomes cannot always be known in advance, but learning discipline and purpose remain essential.
The South West Learning and Doing Network represents a new chapter for the region: one rooted in collaboration, curiosity and collective intelligence. By learning through doing – together – we are building not just better services, but a stronger, more connected regional system with the confidence to contribute to, and shape, national conversations about how modern public services evolve.
As we develop this cohort with partners across the South West and national colleagues at the LGA, the ambition is both immediate impact and longer-term legacy:
to strengthen our regional voice, deepen shared capability, and demonstrate what becomes possible when councils give themselves permission to test, learn and grow – together, and with intent.
Who Is It For?
As a test and learn approach, the network is initially open to Local Authority officers across the South West who are:
- Leading or supporting service transformation, improvement or redesign
- Working on operational, practice or pathway improvements
- Interested in collaborative problem solving across organisational boundaries
- Involved in performance, analytics, programme delivery or culture change
- Keen to contribute to a practical, evidence-led regional learning community
We encourage participation from across a range of professions and disciplines, including:
- practitioners and frontline managers
- service leads and operational leaders
- analysts and performance colleagues
- business improvement or digital teams
This is designed for people who want to do the work, not just talk about it.
What People Will Learn / Gain from Participating
We hope that participants will come away with a blend of practical skills, growing confidence, and shared products that they can immediately apply within their own organisations. This learning is supported not only by peers across the South West, but also – where helpful and practical – by input from existing Council transformation partners such as Newton Consulting, Public Digital, and other trusted improvement organisations who can bring specialist, hands-on expertise into the programme.
1. Learning by doing
Participants gain direct experience of designing and running small, rapid Test and Learn pilots – trying changes, observing what happens, and adapting quickly.
Where appropriate, partners like Newton and Public Digital may offer practical coaching on problem framing, flow, service design or delivery discipline to help teams build confidence and momentum.
2. Tools, templates and reusable assets
Participants have access to a growing suite of readymade resources to make the work easier and more repeatable. Sector partners can also contribute additional methods, templates and tried and tested improvement tools drawn from national programmes and wider system experience – further strengthening the regional toolkit.
Each participant leaves with materials they can immediately use in their own organisation, helping to accelerate improvement without starting from scratch.
3. Stronger regional relationships
The network builds long-lasting connections across councils, disciplines and systems – enabling peer challenge, shared troubleshooting and a deeper sense of collective identity across the South West.
External partners add value by offering a broader national lens, helping local teams see how their work compares to, aligns with, or can learn from practice elsewhere.
4. Greater confidence in measurement and evaluation
Participants learn simple, practical, “rightsized” ways to understand impact without burdening frontline teams.
Partners like Newton can support teams to think about measurement in a proportionate, operationally grounded way, while Public Digital can help frame digital-ready learning and product-focused evaluation approaches.
5. Reduced duplication and faster improvement
By working together on shared problems, councils save time, reuse proven ideas, and avoid reinventing the wheel.
Sector partners help surface patterns seen in other places and share insights that prevent councils from repeating avoidable pitfalls.
6. A safe space to experiment
The Network creates a supportive and permission-rich environment where teams can test ideas, learn from missteps, and adapt approaches based on real-world insight.
External partners reinforce this culture by modelling curiosity, openness and reflective practice – showing how iterative improvement works in modern delivery teams across the public sector.
The Network’s Learning Focus – How the Network Helps Build Capability: Toolbox, Toolshed and Warehouse
The Learning and Doing Network is designed to strengthen capability at three levels: the individual, the regional system, and the wider national ecosystem. We describe this through a simple model – the Toolbox, the Toolshed and the Warehouse – which helps show how learning grows across layers of practice and collaboration.
1. The Toolbox – Personal Skills, Methods and Confidence
Every practitioner arrives with their own toolbox: the methods, approaches and experiences they already use in their day‑to‑day work. This might include mapping tools, service design techniques, data insight methods, product or digital delivery approaches, or local improvement frameworks.
- through the Network, participants will:
- discover new tools they can add to their existing practice
- deepen their skill and confidence in using tried and tested approaches
- learn through practical collaboration with peers
- apply modern, iterative, multidisciplinary ways of working in real settings
Learning outcome:
Participants leave with an expanded, more versatile personal toolkit—and a clearer understanding of when and how to use each tool.
2. The Toolshed – A Shared Regional Library of Reusable Assets
No single council can (or should) build everything alone. The toolshed represents the shared South West resource base: the templates, playbooks, prototypes, patterns, toolkits and practical outputs created collectively through the Network’s Test and Learn cohorts.
The Network helps participants:
- contribute to, and benefit from, a growing regional library of reusable tools
- reduce duplication by using common assets rather than recreating solutions locally
- access the strengths and specialisms of other councils (“Somerset leads on X”, “Dorset has developed Y”)
- build shared capability that accelerates delivery across the region
External partners – such as Newton Consulting, Public Digital and others – can also contribute proven tools, delivery patterns and frameworks, enriching the regional toolshed with wider sector expertise.
Learning outcome:
Participants learn how to co‑create regional assets, adapt them for local use, and use shared capability to accelerate improvement.
3. The Warehouse – The National Ecosystem
Above the regional toolshed sits the warehouse: the wider national landscape of resources, evidence and communities. This includes LGA improvement programmes, LocalGDS initiatives, MHCLG Local Digital, national digital and transformation networks, specialist partner organisations, and wider sector research.
The South West Network is not designed to replace this; it is designed to connect to it.
- through the Network, participants are supported to:
- link regional learning to national practice
- contribute to national programmes rather than duplicate them
- draw on established frameworks, methods and evidence without waiting for perfection
- demonstrate the value of South-West collaboration and amplify the region’s voice nationally
Learning outcome:
Participants gain a stronger understanding of how their work sits within the national picture and how to make meaningful use of national assets and communities.
Time Commitment
The Network has a small number of structured programme touchpoints designed to anchor the year, build relationships, and maintain shared momentum across the region:
Sowing Seeds Event – 4 June 2026 (Full day)
Our launch gathering, where shared priorities are agreed upon, and the first working groups are formed.
Late Summer Check‑In (TBC) – Virtual, Half Day
A space to reconnect, share early learning, and adjust plans based on what is emerging in each cohort.
End‑of‑Season Harvest Event (19th November 2026) – Full day
A regional learning event to consolidate insights, celebrate progress, and decide what should be adopted, adapted, or stopped.
Alongside these milestones, each Test and Learn cohort will set its own working pattern, based on what is realistic and sustainable for the change it is pursuing. This means:
- cohorts agree on the pace and frequency of their own sessions
- activities are shaped around the scale of the pilot being tested
- the work is designed to be manageable within existing operational pressures
- flexibility is built in – recognising that local circumstances shift
In practice, some cohorts may opt for short, regular touchpoints; others may choose fewer, deeper sessions. The expectation is not uniformity – it is clarity, shared commitment, and a rhythm of work that enables meaningful progress without overwhelming teams.
The principle is simple:
a structured regional spine, with locally determined flexibility around it.
RSVP by: 20 May 2026
Complete this form to register: Register for the South West Learning and Doing Network
