The Creating Places Initiative
Connecting fragmented place, population, estate and financial information into a trusted Common Evidence Base that supports data informed long-term decisions.
Education provides the starting point.
Creating sustainable places is the ambition.
1.5m
New Homes to Plan For
£30bn+
Education Estate Maintenance & Decarbonisation
31,900
Acres of Potential Surplus Education Land
Delivery Programmes
Select a programme to explore how the Initiative is put into practice
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Creating a Common Evidence Base for place-based strategic planning
Overview
What is the Creating Places Initiative?
Overview
What is the Creating Places Initiative?
The Creating Places Initiative is being developed to help Responsible Bodies establish a trusted Common Evidence Base that supports more informed, evidence-led, data-driven decision-making across education, housing, health, children's services, adult social care, regeneration, infrastructure, public assets and investment.
By connecting fragmented place, population, estate and financial information through a shared strategic planning framework, the Initiative aims to help organisations coordinate investment, optimise public assets and strengthen the long-term financial sustainability of public services.
Rather than asking organisations to collect more information, the Initiative is being developed to help them connect the information they already hold.
Education provides the starting point.
Creating sustainable places becomes the long-term ambition.
Why Now?Interconnected challenges facing every Responsible Body
Responsible Bodies are facing a convergence of demographic, financial, estate and public service challenges unlike anything experienced in previous decades.
No single issue can be addressed in isolation.
Communities
- Planning for 1.5 million new homes.
- Responding to changing demographics.
- Supporting rising SEND demand.
- Managing increasing pressures across children's services, adult social care and health.
Public Estate
- Addressing more than £30 billion of education estate maintenance and decarbonisation investment.
- Delivering Net Zero 2050.
- Responding to falling pupil numbers and increasing surplus capacity.
- Exploring opportunities presented by 31,900 acres of potential surplus education land.
Financial Sustainability
- Increasing pressure on public sector revenue budgets.
- Growing demand for services alongside constrained public finances.
- Making more effective use of existing public assets.
- Supporting investment decisions that contribute to long-term revenue sustainability.
These are not separate challenges.
They are different expressions of the same place.
A New ApproachConnect the strategic information you already hold
Every Responsible Body already holds valuable strategic information.
- Education data.
- Population forecasts.
- Estate information.
- Financial information.
- Asset records.
- Local intelligence.
The opportunity is not to collect more information.
The opportunity is to connect the information Responsible Bodies already hold.
The Creating Places Initiative is being developed to help transform fragmented information into a trusted Common Evidence Base that supports coordinated strategic planning across multiple public services.
The Optimise Strategic Planning Platform provides the digital capability that enables organisations to establish, maintain and continuously develop that Common Evidence Base.
Rather than commissioning isolated consultancy studies, Responsible Bodies have the opportunity to establish a living strategic planning capability that evolves alongside changing communities, national priorities and emerging opportunities.
From Education to PlaceEducation as the foundation for sustainable places
Education sits at the heart of every community.
Schools influence where families choose to live, where housing is required, how infrastructure develops, where public services are needed and how investment is prioritised.
By beginning with education, Responsible Bodies establish the strategic evidence needed to support coordinated planning across housing, health, children's services, adult social care, regeneration, infrastructure and public investment.
Education therefore becomes the foundation upon which sustainable places can be created.
The Creating Places FrameworkPartnership, programmes and the Optimise platform
The Creating Places Partnership
Developing a collaborative delivery ecosystem through which Responsible Bodies, Government Departments, Strategic Delivery Partners, Specialist Partners and Funding Partners can contribute complementary expertise through a shared Creating Places Operating Model and Common Evidence Base.
The Creating SEND Places Programme
Providing the starting point for organisations adopting the Creating Places Operating Model. Through one of the most significant strategic challenges facing Responsible Bodies, organisations begin establishing their Common Evidence Base and long-term strategic planning capability.
The Creating Sustainable Places Programme
Building upon the Common Evidence Base to support coordinated planning across education, housing, health, children's services, adult social care, regeneration, infrastructure, public assets and investment, creating opportunities for long-term place-based strategic transformation.
Optimise Strategic Planning Platform
Providing the enabling digital capability that supports every stage of the Creating Places journey through strategic planning dashboards and the web-based sufficiency assessment platform.
What Does This Enable?Evidence-led planning and long-term strategic capability
- Understand current and future community need.
- Benchmark strategic performance.
- Coordinate planning across multiple public services.
- Identify opportunities for estate optimisation.
- Prioritise investment using trusted evidence.
- Support capital investment that contributes to long-term revenue sustainability.
- Develop place-based strategic transformation programmes.
- Establish a living strategic planning capability that continues to evolve over time.
A Shared OpportunityComplement existing strategies through shared evidence
The Creating Places Initiative is not intended to replace existing strategies, partnerships or statutory responsibilities.
It is being developed to complement them by providing a shared evidence base that enables organisations to plan together more effectively whilst retaining their own governance, statutory responsibilities and decision-making.
As the Initiative continues to evolve, organisations will have the opportunity to contribute their expertise, experience and innovation whilst benefiting from coordinated strategic planning, trusted evidence and collaborative delivery.
Looking AheadFrom fragmented information to sustainable places
The Creating Places Initiative is being developed to help Responsible Bodies move:
- From fragmented information to trusted evidence.
- From isolated decisions to informed, evidence-led, data-driven decision-making.
- From disconnected investment to coordinated place-based investment.
- From individual projects to long-term strategic transformation.
- From education planning to creating sustainable places.
Together, we have an opportunity to:
- Create trusted evidence.
- Support informed, evidence-led, data-driven decisions.
- Coordinate strategic investment.
- Strengthen collaboration.
- Create sustainable places.
Summary
The Creating Places Initiative at a glance
- ✓Help Responsible Bodies establish a trusted Common Evidence Base for strategic planning across education, housing, health and public services.
- ✓Connect existing place, population, estate and financial information — not collect more data — to support informed, evidence-led decisions.
- ✓Begin with education, with the broader ambition of coordinated investment and financially sustainable places for future generations.
They are different expressions of the same place.
Read full summary
The Creating Places Initiative is being developed to help Responsible Bodies establish a trusted Common Evidence Base that supports more informed, evidence-led, data-driven strategic planning across education, housing, health, children's services, adult social care, regeneration, infrastructure, public assets and investment.
Responsible Bodies are planning for a future shaped by increasingly interconnected challenges. Delivering 1.5 million new homes, responding to changing demographics, addressing more than £30 billion of education estate maintenance and decarbonisation requirements, supporting rising SEND demand, adapting to falling pupil numbers and managing increasing pressure on public finances can no longer be approached independently.
Every Responsible Body already holds valuable strategic information. The opportunity is not to collect more data, but to connect existing place, population, estate and financial information into a trusted Common Evidence Base that enables organisations to understand communities more holistically, coordinate investment more effectively and strengthen the long-term financial sustainability of public services.
Beginning with education, the Initiative provides a practical framework for coordinating planning across multiple public services, recognising that schools influence housing, infrastructure, health, regeneration, public assets and future investment decisions. Supported by the Optimise Strategic Planning Platform, organisations can establish a living strategic planning capability that evolves alongside changing communities, national priorities and emerging opportunities.
The Creating Places Initiative is not intended to replace existing strategies, partnerships or statutory responsibilities. It is being developed to help organisations connect information, strengthen collaboration and make better-informed decisions through a shared strategic planning framework.
The journey begins with education, but the ambition is much broader: to support coordinated investment, create long-term public value and enable more resilient, financially sustainable places for future generations.
Download Full Initiative Details
Download the complete Creating Places Initiative document, including the Partnership, SEND Places and Sustainable Places programmes.
Download PDFStart the Conversation
Find out how your organisation can begin building a Common Evidence Base and join The Creating Places Initiative.