What Works Scotland Community Planning Partnerships partners identified partnership working as a key issue at the heart of public service reform.Karen Seditas shares some of the key findings of a review of research and other evidence about partnership working.

Report from a What Works Scotland event where 50 people from across Fife Council, the health, and voluntary sectors met to discuss how to get knowledge into action in Fife. It followed a previous national event on Getting Knowledge in Action in Public Services, held in Edinburgh earlier in 2015.

What Works Scotland research associate James Henderson presents highlights from a conference held in November 2015, focused on people who make a difference in communities.

James Henderson reflects on his think piece from November 2015 which considers the potential for community anchors and the community sector to be central to local democratic and inequalities-focused approaches to public service reform in Scotland.

What Works Scotland research fellow Rosemary Anderson reflects, in November 2015, on the relationship between decision-making and caring in public policy work.

The first of a trilogy of posts in which What Works Scotland’s guest blogger Patricia Anne Rodger explores the issues around those deemed ‘hard to reach’. The first blog looks at social shorthand and stigma.

Professor James Spillane from the School of Education and Social Policy at North-western University, Illinois, explains in October 2015 why he considers distributive leadership a fascinating topic and essential to successful school leadership.

David Allan reflects on the policy reunion event which looked at the National Standards for Community Engagement. In early 2015, the Scottish Community Development Centre and What Works Scotland were commissioned by the Scottish Government to undertake a full review and refresh of the National Standards for Community Engagement.

Dr Ailsa Cook from Outcome Focus, Dr Guro Huby from University College Østfold and Dr Sarah Morton from What Works Scotland reflect on the Scottish and Norwegian approaches to improving public services for people with mental health issues and addictions.

Claudia Chwalisz, senior policy researcher, discusses political participation for citizens. The blog, from August 2015, explores case studies where people have been given a genuine voice in decision making, following Claudia’s research for The Populist Signal.