Camden Centre for Relational Practice

The Camden Centre for Relational Practice is a research and practice centre launched in November 2024. The Centre is dedicated to creating relational cultures in public services.

Join our free webinars - November 2025 to April 2026

We’re excited to invite you to a new series of six free webinars from the Camden Centre for Relational Practice. Each month, we’ll explore a key part of building a relational culture in public services – what it means, why it matters, and how it works in real life.

Everyone’s welcome – use the links below to sign up.

Relational leadership

How senior leaders are driving change across Camden – with examples from directors in People & Inclusion, Children and Learning.

Thursday 20 November 2025, 1pm to 1.55pm, register here.

Relational people practices

Everyday relational work in unexpected places – with examples from Contact Centre, Youth Justice and Money Advice services.

Thursday 11 December 2025, 2pm to 2.55pm, register here.

Relational infrastructure and service design

Designing services that help relationships thrive – with examples from Libraries, Adults Early Help and Employment Support.

Tuesday 27 January 2026, 11am to 11.55am, register here.

Relational culture building in complex policy spaces

Making relationships work in challenging policy areas – with examples from Missions, Housing and Integrated Neighbourhoods.

Wednesday 25 February 2026, midday to 12.55pm, register here.

Relational participation and power sharing

Working together with communities to share power – with examples from Community Wealth Fund, Young Community Guardians, and the Kailo project on adolescent mental health.

Tuesday 24 March 2026, 11am to 11.55am, register here.

Relational Culture Building: Question Time

Your questions answered.

Thursday 30 April 2026, 2pm to 2.55pm, register here.

About us

Relational public services have to mean more than just ‘having good relationships’. The Camden Centre for Relational Practice is about increasing institutional capacity to do things with people, not to them. To do this, we support public services to put relationships at the heart of staff practice and at the heart of the environments staff work in.

This doesn’t just mean training people to do relationship-based practice, it means designing workplace systems to support relationships. This could be from the language used in a policy to the way a meeting is run. We believe relational cultures can thrive when public services do both of these things.

Led by Camden’s Director for Relational Practice Nana Bonsu, the Centre aims to support 21st century public services to tackle 21st century problems. Through relationships of reciprocity, recognition and respect, with residents and with each other. This starts with institutional cultures, where relationships are deliberately designed into the fabric of the organisation.

What we do

We offer support with:

relational practice – drawing on the Camden relational practice framework
relational infrastructure – designing policies, processes and services that support relational practice
relational leadership – supporting public service leaders to champion and model relational cultures
collaboration and participation – practices to help public services to work with residents and solve problems together.

Watch: Relational Practice in discussion

Who we work with

We work with:

local authority children’s services in England, offering peer support through the DfE Sector Led Improvement Programme
internal Camden services, including delivering Camden’s relational practice framework training for council staff.
academic institutions, knowledge centres, policy labs and community services who are wanting to try new things in relational public services, acting as a research and development partner and test site.

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