Last week, the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA) hosted a conference with the Joint Improvement Team (JIT), NHS Scotland, COSLA, the Third and Housing Sectors. The title of the conference was: “Making it Happen, the importance of housing in…
We are delighted to announce that Professor Richard Kerley is joining MainStreet as a non-executive Director from 1st September, 2015. As well as supporting us with direction-setting and performance management for the business, Richard brings many years of academic research…
According to Think Tank MCA, the future of local government calls for a radical rethink early in the new Parliament. An important view on the definition, and reform, of councils is laid out in a report - Local Government – Time…
I’ve noticed a fair bit of discussion about poverty in Scotland over the past week or so. Last night, BBC Scotland aired Low Pay For Life, a programme ostensibly about the campaign for the Living Wage but which inevitably showed the…
Public sector spending on goods and services across Scotland amounts to over £10bn per year. In procurement terms, Scotland’s Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) are public sector bodies and so must comply with all procurement legislation; this includes the new Scotland Procurement…
Reading some recent reports on how the state needs to be more of an enabler to help our communities got me thinking again about a scheme I have been involved in for the past 7 years. It is called Adopt a…
Read the full report here. How councils and housing associations can collaborate for impact – a report by NLGN (New Local Government Network) think tank – reminds us that local authorities, HAs, and the health sector are intrinsically linked. They face…
We are delighted to welcome to the MainStreet team our new consultant, Anca Johnstone. Anca has recently joined MainStreet Consulting from Coaching Direct. Having four degrees and speaking several languages, Anca has experience in a range of consultancy skills including organisational…
I spent tonight’s train journey re-reading the Scottish Government’s Community Empowerment Bill (in fairness, my iPod was knackered). We at MainStreet have been planning to respond to the Local Government & Regeneration Committee’s requests for written evidence and we may yet do so.…
There's growth on MainStreet. In September 2014, Mark McLintock joined as a Director. He comes to us from Ernst & Young, where he worked on several large public and civic sector transformation projects. As well as great experience in business case development,…