Will Callaghan is on a bit of a blogging roll at the moment. Here he is on Kickstarting collaboration during LGR:

Of the speakers, the stand out two for me were Kate Hurr and Madeline Hoskin, of Cumberland and North Yorkshire Councils respectively. They’ve both been through LGR relatively recently, and shared practical hard won advice.

Both argue that councils need to collaborate more, particularly through LGR. We’re all meeting the same needs, there’s very little about our organisations that is unique. I totally agree. The questions for me are: what barriers exist to collaboration over the next few years, and how can we remove them?