CCIN26: Celebration of Cooperative Innovation 2026

Councils Coop Development Toolkit

Tue, Feb 10, 2026, 10:00 – 11:30 (GMT)

Hosted: Jonathan Nunn – Kirklees Council & David Randall – Crystalisr Co-operative

You know the Co-op Option exists. The question is: does it work for your service, in your political and financial context, with your staff and communities?

This session is for people facing real decisions – a service under threat, a failing contract, staff asking to spin out, or a commissioning round where the usual options feel wrong. It tackles the honest questions: is this the right tool, who will back it, what could go wrong, and what do you actually do as your next step? This 90-minute session works through the practical and political realities of making the Coop Option happen: building the internal case when finance or legal are sceptical, engaging staff who are interested but anxious, navigating procurement and subsidy rules, and ensuring what is created is sustainable, not just well-meaning.

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Care Experience as a protected characteristic – Calls For Evidence

Tue, Feb 10, 2026, 14:00 – 15:30 (GMT)

Hosted: Swindon Borough Council

Be part of the CCIN’s Policy Lab to develop resources and tools for local authorities to treat Care Experience as a protected characteristic.

Swindon Borough Council are running a workshop to explore how this can be achieved successfully.

The interactive session will be relevant to councils that have both adopted this formally and those that have not.

Participants will hear about the core foundations for achieving this goal and will be able to share good practices, ideas, and learning.

Output from this group will be used to help inform their Policy Project, “Treating Care Experience as a protected characteristic”

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Pride in Place – Regeneration Boards

Wed, Feb 11, 2026, 10.00- 11:25 (GMT)

Hosts: TBA

With over 56 Neighbourhoods across 25 CCIN Member Authorities, having potential access to £1bn in the next 10 years it’s essential that Local Authorities play their part in encouraging and supporting a community partnership working.

Regeneration boards can be transformative or tokenistic. The difference often comes down to whether communities genuinely shape decisions or just observe them.

This session is for members, officers and partners working with Pride in Place Projects and wider regeneration, town centres or levelling up who want to move beyond traditional board structures and explore place-based leadership that builds community pride and local agency, not just infrastructure.

Attendees will hear how co-operative councils are supporting Pride in Place regeneration governance that gives communities real power and access to resources

This Session will help inform the Cooperative Councils’ Innovation Network shape future support to Pride in Place practitioners as part of our contribution to the Cooperative Placemaking Agenda.

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CCIN Policy Project 2025/26 Application Launch and Advice Clinic

Wed, Feb 11, 2026, 14:00 – 15:30 (GMT)

Hosts: Morgan Jones – Cheshire West and Chester & Cllr Mili Patel – Chair, CCIN Values & Principles Board & Deputy Leader Brent Council

2025/26 Policy Projects are now OPEN!

CCIN’s Policy Labs have tested new approaches to participation, budgeting, climate action and more – but the best ideas often come from councils wrestling with problems right now, with the added benefit of securing financial support to test, learn and review.

This session flips the usual format: instead of just hearing what has worked elsewhere, Morgan Jones is joined by a panel of participants from previous Policy Projects and Prototypes to give the inside track on what it’s like to be part of the CCIN Policy Project.

It is for CCIN members, officers and partners who have a challenge they want to tackle differently, an idea they want to test, or a hunch about what co-operative innovation could look like in their area – and want practical help to develop it.

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“Every Pound Counts: Building Community Wealth Through Social Value – with CLES”

Thur, Feb 12, 2026, 10.00 – 11.00 (GMT)

Hosts: Sarah Longlands, Chief Executive, Simon Grove-White, Senior Researcher, CLES & Cllr Matthew Brown, Leader – Preston Council

“How do Cooperative Councils turn Community Wealth Building from good intentions into pounds spent locally, jobs created fairly, and anchor institutions working together?

Join Sarah Longlands, Chief Executive – CLES and Simon Grove-White, Senior Researcher – CLES and Co-Author of the CCIN’s Social Value Toolkit, as they help CCIN Members explore how Community Wealth Building principles translate into day-to-day council decisions on procurement, employment, land use and anchor institution partnerships.

Councillor Matthew Brown, Leader – Preston Council, and Community Wealth Building pioneer in the UK will be giving a considered response to his approach to regeneration

” The answer is often in the choices councils and anchor institutions make every day about who they buy from, who they employ, and what they do with land and assets.”