The New Local Government Network report is the second in a series that aims to pin down the main implications of the Government’s new localism agenda across a range of key public services delivered locally. It argues that there are success stories of localism in education, but there could be more if head teachers didn’t have to spend so much time bidding, pitching and wheeler-dealing. Evidence suggests that government needs to think more laterally about the funding process – schools should not have to plug into such a large number of different funding streams to enable them to play a role in responding to the often localised issues that affect their surrounding communities. It proposes that a system should be devised where schools were given sufficient funds to enter the extended school’s arena and play a much wider role in the community than teaching children, especially in disadvantaged areas, without the bidding. There needs to be transparent funding so everybody can see why the funds were allocated in the way they were.The report is available at: www.nlgn.org.uk/publications