Miar Crutchley and Jason Andrews of Merton Council join Rhian Gladman to share the work they have been doing to improve air quality for Merton residents. They discuss how they managed to reduce vehicle idling at level crossings and how using the correct message can make all the difference. Access the full transcript of this episode at https://www.l…

Katie Brunger of Newham Council joins Rhian Gladman to discuss how targeted support was used to encourage Newham residents to make payments to tackle their debt arrears and how behavioural insights trials can have sometimes have unintended consequences. Access the full transcript of this episode at https://www.local.gov.uk/our-support/behavioural-i…

Nicola Jones and Rory McGill from Wirral Council join Rhian to talk about how their 'Community Champions' programme was used to encourage adherence to restrictions during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. They discuss how they organised the programme and how they engaged hard-to-reach groups – and give an overview of their findings and where the…

Content warning: this episode contains content that some people may find upsetting; in particular, references to mental health and suicide. In this episode, Rhian Gladman is joined by Katy Ellison and Carys Ward from Cheshire East Council to discuss their behavioural insights trial addressing men’s mental health during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Katy …

Rhian Gladman is joined by Vickie Rowland, former public health practitioner at the London Borough of Havering, and Stéphanie Renucci, managing director and founder of insight and innovation agency UNPITCHD, to discuss how a group of councils in north east London used behavioural insights to help address local health inequalities by increasing the …

Rhian Gladman is joined by the Public Health Lead at Doncaster Council, Caroline Temperton, and Professor of Health Psychology and Director of the Centre for Behavioural Science and Applied Psychology at Sheffield Hallam University, Maddy Arden. In this episode Rhian, Caroline and Maddy discuss how they pulled together a consortium of different cou…

Systems and lives meet often but what more can councils and public sector bodies do to provide a holistic support to help people through these moments? Ken Masser discusses the work carried out by Rossendale Leisure Trust to apply behavioural insights to systems, drawing on examples of supporting long term unemployed, embedding physical activity ac…

Shanara Abdin, Behavioural Science Specialist in the Public Health department at Wolverhampton Council and Michael Salmon, Head of Insight Health and Wellbeing at Active Black Country, join Rhian Gladman to discuss their behavioural insights trial, WV Gets Active. This trial was delivered in partnership to increase physical activity levels amongst …

Chitra Roberts, Behavioural Insight and Marketing Project Manager at Sandwell Council joins Rhian Gladman for this Nudges for Social Good episode to discuss her work in the public health team to increase the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccination in the working age population in Sandwell, using behavioural science techniques. Chitra shares insights int…

In this episode of the Nudges for Social Good podcast series Rhian Gladman is joined by Tim Pearse, Behavioural Science and Service Design Lead at London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Building on the insights shared in the first episode of the podcast series, Tim shares updates on how the council is using Behavioural insights to deliver debt sup…

Councils often have diverse local populations. But those who engage with council activities and with climate change often do not represent that full diversity. In the last episode of this series, our guest speakers discuss the importance of engaging the full diversity of their local populations and what councils should think about before, during an…

This episode will look at how the public can be involved in decision making on climate change, how councils can work with their residents and communities and discuss how to engage communities through these methods. Climate Assembly UK was a high-profile example of engaging the public in climate decision-making. Multiple local climate assemblies and…

The Climate Change Committee said that the public needs access to trusted information about the decisions being made in the transition to net zero, the reasoning behind and impact of these decisions, and the choices available at critical decision points. This episode will discuss where the current knowledge gap is, how we can fix it, and how Nottin…

The Climate Change Committee called for a public engagement strategy on net zero which includes involving people in decision-making and providing trusted information. This episode considers three different techniques which councils could use to engage their communities on the climate emergency in their local areas. We also hear about Camden’s Clima…

This first episode provides a foundation to inform senior council managers and councillors of the need to act and address the climate emergency. Our speakers discuss two main questions: Why should local government care about the climate crisis and why do they need to act now? Why engage the public on climate change and the climate emergency? Guests…

Nicola Plummer, Performance and Projects Officer in the Operations team at New Forest District Council joins Rhian Gladman in this episode of the Nudges for Social Good Podcast to discuss the delivery of their LGA Behavioural Insights project. Building on initial research that they had done before the Pandemic to clear verge side waste from vehicle…

In this episode, Ruth Little, School Readiness Coordinator at North Yorkshire County Council, speaks to Rhian Gladman about the delivery of their LGA Behavioural Insights project. The team originally focused on school readiness and due to the pandemic pivoted to encourage community activity to support neighbours and residents along with helping sta…

Dave Tyrrell from Knowsley Council joins us for this episode to discuss his work with the LGA to deliver a twelve week free trial to improve understanding of assistive technology solutions and encourage increased take up. Dave provides insights into how behaviour change techniques helped residents build understanding and confidence to engage with t…

In this episode, Esther Barrott, a graduate on the National Graduate Development Programme (NGDP), takes us on a journey to find out more about councils and the workings behind them. Esther looks at the general perceptions that surround councils, what councils actually do for communities, the role they have played throughout the pandemic, and why i…

Hazel Wright from the Behavioural Insights Team joins us for this episode of Nudges for Social Good. Hazel and her team work extensively with local authorities across the UK to embed the use of behavioural science. This episode explores how a busy councillor or local government officer could initiate a project with guidance on the key stages of del…

This is the third in the series of our Forget What You Think You Know series. In this episode, Birmingham City Councillor, Paulette Hamilton is joined by Jim McManus, Director of Public Health at Hertfordshire County Council; Julie Yates, Lead Consultant for Screening and Immunisation at Public Health England; and Eleanor Kelly, Chief Executive at …

In this episode, Claire Thompson, Community Insights and Marketing Manager at North East Lincolnshire Council, discusses the process of delivering their LGA project aimed at improving cancer screening rates to prevent late diagnosis in residents. Claire also shares insight into how covid-19 has impacted the public health sector in Lincolnshire and …

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound effects on our communities. In the UK alone, tens of thousands have tragically passed away as a result of the virus. Restrictions on our daily lives have been immediate, and, for peacetime, unprecedented in scale. The impact on local people, and on the services which support them, has been huge. Homelessness i…

This is the first in the series of our Forget What You Think You Know podcast. In this episode, Ben Murray visits Norwich to find out about their award winning council housing scheme, Goldsmith Street. What makes this scheme so special is that it is the first council housing scheme to ever win the prestigious RIBA Stirling Award, beating off compet…

Jim McManus, Director of Public Health and Michelle Constable, Head of the Behaviour Change Unit, talk about a project aimed at getting council staff moving - quite literally. Calorie labelling the stairs and footprints on the floor leading to the stairs resulted in nudging 20 per cent of council staff out of using lifts. The pair also speak about …

Liverpool City Council was one of the first councils to trial an innovation project under the LGA Behavioural Insights Programme. In the podcast, Sue Cummings, Head of Behavioural Insights and Change, explains Liverpool’s approach to tackling childhood obesity through a successful project to reduce sales of high sugar fizzy drinks using a different…

In the inaugural episode, Tim Pearse, Behavioural Science Lead at Barking and Dagenham, shares his insights about an LGA project aimed at helping more domestic abuse victims access support in Kent, and a sucessful project in Barking and Dagenham which prevents residents from falling into rent arrears by using text messages to outline available coun…