Local Government Improvement and Development is one of the six bodies that form the Local Government Group overseen by the Local Government Association

Local Government Association

The Local Government Association is a voluntary lobbying organisation acting as the voice of the local government sector in England and Wales, which seeks to be an authoritative and effective advocate on its behalf....

 (LGA) in England and Wales. Its aim is to support improvement and innovation in local government by developing and sharing good practice through networking

Business networking

Business networking is a socioeconomic activity by which groups of like-minded businesspeople recognize, create, or act upon business opportunities. A business network is a type of social network whose reason for existing is business activity...

, online resources (see Knowledge below), and support from councillor and officer peers.

Brief History

The body was formed in 1998 as the Improvement and Development Agency for local government (I&DeA or IDeA for short) to work in partnership with all councils in England and Wales, to serve people and places better, to enhance the performance of the best local government authorities, accelerate the speed of improvement of the rest, and develop the sector as a whole. It was renamed to its current title in July 2010 along with other members of the Local Government Group as part of the latter's 'Getting Closer' initiative.

Funding

It is funded by a mix of money 'top-sliced' from local authorities' Revenue Support Grant (RSG) payments from the UK government, grant funding from UK government departments, and fee income from chargeable services.

Collaboration

The Improvement and Development Agency regularly collaborated with the public health National Support Teams

National Support Teams

The public health National Support Teams or NSTs constituted a consultancy-style organisational development and change management service provided by the UK Government Department of Health.-History and role:...

until their closure in 2011.

Knowledge management

The Knowledge section of the LGID's website http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=71665 includes content on improvement issues, shares examples of good practice from councils across England and Wales, and provides information on the LGID’s range of tools and services. LGID Knowledge aims to stimulate and support self-sustaining improvement within local government.

External links

• LGID - Official Website
• Local.gov.uk - LGA, LGID and related bodies