Learning from yesterday, leading for tomorrow
Thursday, 12 March 2026, Millennium Point, Birmingham B4 7XG
Sponsored by the Local Government Association and Anthony Collins.
Our annual conference is now over. Phew! And thanks to everyone who made it such a special event.
While we’re working on collecting all the learning and reflections from a fantastic day, we’ll soon share as many photos from the conference with you. And we’ll be using this page over the next few weeks to collect resources attached to the conference, and share more learning from the event as well.
Background
On 12 March, 2026 our annual conference – Learning from yesterday, leading for tomorrow – marked 25 years of overview and scrutiny, and the Local Government Act of 2000. A moment to look back, of course, is also the perfect moment to look forward. And we used this opportunity to ask how the next five, 10, and 25 years will look for local democracy. With sessions organised across three key themes:
- Place governance: How we govern across places, not just within institutions?
- Systems of assurance: How councils build cultures of shared responsibility for governance risk and resilience?
- Future democracy: How democracy adapts and endures in the face of social, digital and ecological change?
Find out more