West Midlands LPIP

This 5-month project will establish a West Midlands Local Policy Innovation Partnership (WM LPIP). This will involve connecting local policy and research partners across the region to deliver a programme of activity that supports inclusive and sustainable local growth.

We will achieve this through the provision of research, evidence, data and expertise to take advantage of opportunities and to find place-based solutions to challenges that matter to local people and communities. Our emphasis in the Phase 1 period which is the subject of this application is on building, strengthening and diversifying partnerships between research organisations and local stakeholders in the West Midlands to identify local priorities and formulate a plan for addressing them in the coming years in the WM LPIP Phase 2 programme.

Insights and solutions will be developed within and across policy domains relating to economy (inclusive and sustainable local economic performance, innovation, skills), community (communities in their places, felt experiences and pride in place, cultural recovery) and environment (living and working sustainably in a greener economy) themes.

Our ambition is to make inroads towards tackling 'wicked problems' across geographical scales (hyper-local, local, regional, national) that are challenging to address because of their complex and interconnected nature, as well as more straightforward challenges where the prospects for people and places can be improved more quickly.

To achieve this, we will map relevant local and national administrative data to outline data sources that are available for analysis and insights into thematic priorities. We will also undertake a rapid evidence review of the academic and grey literature on the challenges relating to achieving inclusive and sustainable economic growth, with a particular emphasis on place. We will also draw on academic and policy literature and strategies relating to circumstances and activities in the different sub-regions in the West Midlands.

Alongside this we will design and deliver a series of place-based stakeholder and community workshops across the West Midlands. Each stakeholder workshop will bring together local stakeholders from across the public, private and third sectors to discuss key challenges and priorities for the local area and the region, with local universities drawing on their networks to enable this. A public engagement event will follow to help us to further understand the needs of local communities and to receive feedback on the priorities identified in the place-based workshops. In this way priority areas of focus will be established in consultation with local stakeholders and communities and we will develop a platform for sustained engagement with them. Together the place-based and policy prioritisation workshops will inform the design of our model and work programme for Phase 2 of the WM LPIP.