Strengthening Collaborative Leadership Across North East Essex
Creating the conditions for long‑term, whole‑place change
Building on the foundations of the Local Delivery Pilot (LDP), the North East Essex Alliance has continued to strengthen a shared leadership approach across the system. This reflects a clear understanding that long‑term change in physical activity, active wellbeing and prevention can only be achieved when partners are connected, collaborative and working towards a collective purpose.
It’s now widely recognised across the Alliance that sustainable impact depends on strong relationships, confident system stewards and a shared culture, rather than isolated programmes or short‑term initiatives. Through this approach, the Alliance is continuing to create the conditions for meaningful, joined‑up change.
Active Essex has played an important role in shaping, influencing and supporting this leadership development journey. They have helped design and guide the approach, ensuring that LDP learning continued to influence wider culture and behaviours across the North East Essex system.
Involvement kept physical activity, prevention and community voice at the centre of the programme, helping partners recognise these themes as core drivers of better outcomes. Active Essex also aligned the BCF‑funded workshops with Place Partnership Deepening investment, maximising value for the system and contributing to the development of a sustainable leadership model. This alignment has enabled BCF funding to form match‑funding for the Deepening programme, protecting the investment for future phases of leadership development.
Key Learnings
It's important to take time to reflect and understand the learnings from work undertaken, to focus on ways to improve in the future.
Patience
Local Government Reform, ICB restructuring and emerging responsibilities created uncertainty
Alignment
A fixed long‑term programme risked misalignment with evolving structures
Commitment
Leaders stayed committed through uncertainty, highlighting the need for flexible development
Active Essex’s involvement has contributed to several ripple effects across the system. Relationships between partners have strengthened, creating improved trust and a more connected environment for shared problem‑solving.
Prevention and physical activity are increasingly recognised as essential components within wider determinants of health, and partners have shown a growing appetite for distributed leadership, peer mentorship and broader involvement in leadership activity. These changes demonstrate a gradual cultural shift that aligns strongly with the ambitions of the Active Essex Implementation Plan.
Looking ahead, partners want to maintain the momentum from the workshops. In the short term, a flexible phase will keep leadership conversations going while the system adapts, building on earlier ideas, testing collaborative behaviours and staying aligned with NNHIP and Active Wellbeing. Despite reduced capacity, the priority is maintaining coherence across Deepening investment, prevention work and wider system ambitions.
In the longer term, the partnership will continue to “hold its nerve,” avoiding fixed commitments during ongoing reform. The focus will be on co‑designing a refreshed leadership model with key influencers that fits the new system landscape, protecting LDP and Deepening learning and ensuring leadership development remains relevant, impactful and aligned to future structures.
