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Principles met

  • Co-production

    We will develop systems that enable citizens to be equal partners in designing and commissioning public services and in determining the use of public resources.

  • Community leadership and a new role for councillors

    We will explore ways for councils to act as a platform for helping the community to contribute to local outcomes, and to re-think the role of councillors as community connectors, brokers and leaders.

  • Innovation

    We will embrace innovation in how we work with local communities to drive positive change.

  • Learning

    We will capture and ‘expand’ the experience and learning from individual projects and approaches in order to encourage broader application of co-operative principles within individual member Councils and across the Network.

About the project

Fairer Help is the culmination of a three‑year learning journey in Hackney to understand what fairer ways of working look like in practice. Rooted in the borough’s commitment to tackling poverty and inequality, the project tested new relational, anti‑racist and community‑led approaches across services, working alongside residents and voluntary and community sector (VCS) partners.

The work began by recognising that traditional, hierarchical systems were failing to meet the needs of people facing the greatest barriers. As the report notes, “services become fragmented… trust erodes” . Building on the collaborative spirit seen during the pandemic, Hackney set out to prototype approaches that centre trust, share power and value lived experience as legitimate knowledge.

Through temporary roles, cross‑sector working groups and community‑designed experiments, the project delivered practical change. Prototypes included fairer Council Tax and debt support, community‑based drop‑ins for families in temporary accommodation, strengthened peer‑support spaces, and more humane hardship pathways. These efforts demonstrated that “change happens at the speed of trust” and that systems shift when “relationships become our infrastructure” .

The learning has now been embedded across Hackney’s Equalities Plan, Anti‑Racist Framework, Poverty Reduction Framework and refreshed VCS Strategy. Fairer Help also strengthens Hackney’s role as a co‑operative council—championing co‑production, shared learning, social justice and deeper partnerships with the VCS.

This completed project shows how public services can become more human, more equitable and more effective when they work with communities rather than around them. A full account of the prototypes, principles and learning is available in the final report below.

For further information contact the project lead:

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