Recent writing and resources
The resources from the 8 October 2026 workshop, ‘The system is inside the practice: making relational, place-based public services ordinary’, are now part of the relational public services hub, alongside papers, practical tools, and the infographic.
- Legibility without destruction (13 October 2026). How can government obtain assurance without forcing local life into its categories? Citizen-held measures, through-life costs, and an unresolved question about funding and control.
- Is insight easy in #publichealth, but impact hard? (15 October 2026). Neighbourhood working, missing authority, and what makes understanding consequential; introduces fourteen Public Service Transformation Academy and RedQuadrant briefings, separate from SCiO workshop materials.
- How will a rewired state resolve disagreements? (6 October 2026). Who decides when neighbourhoods, councils, and regional authorities disagree, and can experience change the division of responsibilities itself?
- My pessimistic prediction for English local government (6 October 2026). A forecast, not an announced settlement: devolution could reproduce central control at a larger scale. Examines autonomy, cohesion, care, and the ability to challenge national assumptions.
See my preprints and working papers (currently all on this topic)
https://antlerboy.com/library/preprints-and-working-papers
A collection in one place of some recent posts, including version 1.0 of my paper on ‘degrees of relationality in public services’:
These posts cover a range of issues:
- Definition: what ‘relational’ actually means
- Practice: what to do differently at the front line
- Diagnosis: ladder / degrees / gradient
- Conditions: governance, history, why it struggles to persist and grow
At heart, I’m saying:
- Relationality isn’t tone but operating system
- It’s about engaging person-to-person to move from demand to need to purpose, and from service to system to place and community
- This only works if you shift authority, measures, and system conditions (and psychology) – d otherwise immune systemss absorb or reject it
- That means our mechanism of change needs to be informed by all the above
Latest posts
Definitions – what is it actually about?
Primary diagnosis but also understanding of ‘what does relationality mean here’, while psychologically trying to move away from splitting and polarisation to pragmatic change.
A companion piece to the above, defending and explicating the common use of ‘relational public services’ and the mindset shift we need.
How do we change the way we relate? and How to move to relational public services
The most complete narrative (in different forms) of what I think are some of the key issues in the way of moving to better, more relational, public services – and things we need to pay attention to to get there.
A Hundred Origin Stories – an Unfinished History of Relational Public Services – Parker, Dove, and Taylor (2025)
An attempt at “‘a decent accessible history of relational practice/thinking/leadership (ideally short form)”
Relational public services and reality
The simplicity and impact of relationship public services, even in the current context – and the energy and effort it takes to maintain.
A cheat sheet for more relational customer-first services
Focused on getting beyond ‘level 0’
Why relational public services are linked to systems practice as a humanism
My keynote speach at #STSP26
Some practical ways to see where current conditions come from, and how we could approach the starting point here differently.
Provocations about why we’re trying to change relational services wrong, and my position papers
Why do relational public services keep failing?
A provocation paper – ‘we’re trying to change to relational services wrong’
On The Community Of The Covenant
A manifesto for relational public services
A shorter manifesto
Why we keep on keeping on
Comments and debates
A comment on a very good piece by Polly Mackenzie about ‘provision’ and civic life
Most public services don’t talk about real outcomes
A response to James Plunkett’s excellent piece on ‘institutional immune system’ and Sophia Parker’s post about it
Pointing to Alison Turner’s work on failure demand in the NHS
A response to Mick Ward and Anthony Morrow: moving to community at the centre – and the challenge to commissioning
re: a podcast interview I did
A response to James Plunkett’s ‘centre for the edge’ piece
Thoughts on Renaisi’s pattern book for place-based change
Always worth reading your posts. Not so relevent to the work but fascinating as ever. Thanks
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how is it NOT relevant to ‘the work’ (whatever ‘the work’ is)?
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