The new Community Budget pilots are a step forward in joined-up local services and budgeting. But DCLG must do more to roll out this programme nationwide
Just before Christmas, as though it were a present from Santa Pickles, the Department for Communities and Local Government made an important announcement in which it revealed the fourteen areas that will pioneer Community Budgets.
The LGIU has long championed bringing local public sector spending together, whether it's called Total Place, Community Budgets, or simply common sense, to help connect and improve local services. This latest announcement then is good news for everyone in local government.
As I said in my ‘predictions for 2012’ piece for Public Finance, Community Budgets will come to the fore this year as the pilot areas prove that we can get more bang for local spending by connecting up budgets and services.
I am confident that these pilots can succeed. The variety of bids put forward by local government to address key challenges - such as helping people back to work in Greater Manchester, assisting elderly people to live more independent lives in Cheshire West and Chester and boosting local economic growth in Essex - all show the ambition of councils to innovate locally and in collaborate with communities.
But central government must do more to ensure this success. In Promoting Independence, a recent LGIU report into the future of housing related support, we called upon Whitehall to place more priority on community budgets. Whilst it is encouraging to see DCLG taking a lead on this programme, I would like to see all departments with a role in the local state taking an active role in promoting Community Budgets. By doing this, the government can add some substance to its desire for joint working, to improve services and make them more efficient.
The next step from the government should be to extend community budgeting to every council. There are many across the country keen to make the most of new opportunities, such as leading on the public agenda and developing health and wellbeing boards.
Promoting Independence also identified how important it is that local authorities capture and share their experiences with each other. I am therefore glad to see the government is to set up a Challenge and Learning Network to share learning and help drive the community budget agenda forward.
The pilots then represent an important ‘next step’ in the government’s decentralisation agenda. Councils must press ahead at a local level, but I urge central government too to show real commitment by working with local authorities to make Community Budgets a reality.
Andy Sawford is chief executive of the Local Government Information Unit
