By MIke Thatcher
13 December 2010
The London Borough of Lambeth has labelled itself a ‘co-operative council’, aiming to hand power to the people. Significantly, this has been couched in terms of community involvement and fairness, distinguishing it from the no-frills ‘easy council’ philosophy advocated by fellow London borough Barnet.
With the ‘Looney Lambeth’ tag now long gone, the borough is seen as a role model for Labour councils. It has transformed its revenue and benefits operation, led the way on participatory budgeting and won numerous awards – most recently being recognised as a ‘best practice employer’ by CIPFA.
Part of the success is due to the transformation of the finances, which, for the past five years, have been run by Mike Suarez. As executive director of finance and resources, Suarez leads a team of 800 people, with a remit that includes corporate finance, revenues & benefits, procurement, shared services, information & communications technology, internal audit and anti-fraud.
His experience in local government goes back more than 20 years, including previous finance roles at Southwark, Westminster and Slough councils.
So what does Suarez understand by the term co-operative council? ‘At its heart, the co-operative council is about redesigning public services and redefining the relationship between the citizen and the public body,’ he tells me, citing the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, English Heritage and the National Trust as models for the new approach.
‘The RNLI is a very well regarded service and it is a service that saves lives. But it gets all of its revenues from voluntary contributions. So what is of value is not always publicly funded,’ he suggests.
Using this model in Lambeth, local people should be able to turn services into citizen-led mutuals, including children’s centres and housing estates. They will rely on volunteers to help run them, building on local knowledge and expertise.
‘We are looking at whether the council has to run services itself. Can someone else do it? If you have a model with professionals and volunteers, then this is going to be cheaper than just professionals,’ Suarez says.
Lambeth has established a commission to advise on the transformation, with members including Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee and Turning Point chief executive Lord Victor Adebowale. The commission is due to report in January and the changes will take effect from April.
The concept has not won universal acceptance, however. Critics see it as a Trojan Horse for spending cuts and claim it is simply a rebranding of the government’s Big Society philosophy.
Suarez, of course, does not decide the political direction of the council – that’s down to the Labour leadership. But he will be at the sharp end in terms of implementing the programme.
The process will involve increased procurement from social enterprise companies and other third sector bodies. Now this will be extended to new areas, possibly including social care and libraries.
There are already examples of this approach in Lambeth, including Greenwich Leisure, a social enterprise that runs Brixton Recreation Centre.
Suarez has personal experience of mutuality, having been the vice-chair of London Authorities Mutual Ltd, which arranged for joint procurement of insurance cover. Laml came to an untimely end following court action, but the philosophy can be applied elsewhere.
So are there any areas that are off limits for mutuality? Suarez accepts that volunteers are unlikely to take on work in areas such as finance and IT, but he is reluctant to be too prescriptive. He returns to the comparison with the RNLI. ‘At the end of the day, when you are drowning in the middle of the Channel you don’t say to the person who is fishing you out at great personal risk to themselves: “Can I see your professional qualification?”. What you say is “Thank you”.’
The council originally planned to give council tax rebates to residents who help run services but has since had second thoughts. A budget consultation exercise showed that this was not viewed favourably. Suarez says citizens were more interested in the council finding better ways of reducing council tax overall than in giving discounts to individuals.
And the residents won’t be disappointed if the plans come to fruition and substantial savings are produced. ‘We think the vast majority of the savings will come from contracts and procurement, efficiency savings and reducing our own cost base,’ Suarez says.
The council is aiming to save £95m over the four years of the Comprehensive Spending Review period and a ‘reasonable quantum’ of that will be due to the move to co-operatism and federated services (a plan for sharing provision with the neighbouring boroughs of Lewisham and Southwark).
This will all inevitably have an impact on employment levels at the council. Lambeth has lost one in ten of its staff over the past year and more will follow – last month the GMB union predicted 2,000 job losses over the next three years. But Suarez points out that other jobs will be created by local businesses or by the community running services itself.
‘We do recognise that this will be one of the biggest challenges we face as a local authority. It’s not just our job losses, it’s those of the police, health and other public agencies in the borough that we will have to keep an eye on,’ he suggests.
Suarez accepts that we are entering uncharted waters. But he believes the strength of the financial storm requires a new approach – and the co-operative council could be the means of rescuing the finances.
‘These are going to be hard times, but they are also going to be exciting times. It might be the best opportunity we have ever had to genuinely innovate in the way we deliver public services.’
13 December 2010
The London Borough of Lambeth wants to become the first ‘co-operative council’, using mutuals to pass power to the people. Finance and resources director Mike Suarez tells PF what this means and how he sees it working
Mutuality is all the rage at the moment. Public bodies across the sector are apparently queuing up to be ‘never knowingly undersold’ in the manner of the John Lewis Partnership. And one local authority has been leading the way.The London Borough of Lambeth has labelled itself a ‘co-operative council’, aiming to hand power to the people. Significantly, this has been couched in terms of community involvement and fairness, distinguishing it from the no-frills ‘easy council’ philosophy advocated by fellow London borough Barnet.
With the ‘Looney Lambeth’ tag now long gone, the borough is seen as a role model for Labour councils. It has transformed its revenue and benefits operation, led the way on participatory budgeting and won numerous awards – most recently being recognised as a ‘best practice employer’ by CIPFA.
Part of the success is due to the transformation of the finances, which, for the past five years, have been run by Mike Suarez. As executive director of finance and resources, Suarez leads a team of 800 people, with a remit that includes corporate finance, revenues & benefits, procurement, shared services, information & communications technology, internal audit and anti-fraud.
His experience in local government goes back more than 20 years, including previous finance roles at Southwark, Westminster and Slough councils.
So what does Suarez understand by the term co-operative council? ‘At its heart, the co-operative council is about redesigning public services and redefining the relationship between the citizen and the public body,’ he tells me, citing the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, English Heritage and the National Trust as models for the new approach.
‘The RNLI is a very well regarded service and it is a service that saves lives. But it gets all of its revenues from voluntary contributions. So what is of value is not always publicly funded,’ he suggests.
Using this model in Lambeth, local people should be able to turn services into citizen-led mutuals, including children’s centres and housing estates. They will rely on volunteers to help run them, building on local knowledge and expertise.
‘We are looking at whether the council has to run services itself. Can someone else do it? If you have a model with professionals and volunteers, then this is going to be cheaper than just professionals,’ Suarez says.
Lambeth has established a commission to advise on the transformation, with members including Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee and Turning Point chief executive Lord Victor Adebowale. The commission is due to report in January and the changes will take effect from April.
The concept has not won universal acceptance, however. Critics see it as a Trojan Horse for spending cuts and claim it is simply a rebranding of the government’s Big Society philosophy.
Suarez, of course, does not decide the political direction of the council – that’s down to the Labour leadership. But he will be at the sharp end in terms of implementing the programme.
The process will involve increased procurement from social enterprise companies and other third sector bodies. Now this will be extended to new areas, possibly including social care and libraries.
There are already examples of this approach in Lambeth, including Greenwich Leisure, a social enterprise that runs Brixton Recreation Centre.
Suarez has personal experience of mutuality, having been the vice-chair of London Authorities Mutual Ltd, which arranged for joint procurement of insurance cover. Laml came to an untimely end following court action, but the philosophy can be applied elsewhere.
So are there any areas that are off limits for mutuality? Suarez accepts that volunteers are unlikely to take on work in areas such as finance and IT, but he is reluctant to be too prescriptive. He returns to the comparison with the RNLI. ‘At the end of the day, when you are drowning in the middle of the Channel you don’t say to the person who is fishing you out at great personal risk to themselves: “Can I see your professional qualification?”. What you say is “Thank you”.’
The council originally planned to give council tax rebates to residents who help run services but has since had second thoughts. A budget consultation exercise showed that this was not viewed favourably. Suarez says citizens were more interested in the council finding better ways of reducing council tax overall than in giving discounts to individuals.
And the residents won’t be disappointed if the plans come to fruition and substantial savings are produced. ‘We think the vast majority of the savings will come from contracts and procurement, efficiency savings and reducing our own cost base,’ Suarez says.
The council is aiming to save £95m over the four years of the Comprehensive Spending Review period and a ‘reasonable quantum’ of that will be due to the move to co-operatism and federated services (a plan for sharing provision with the neighbouring boroughs of Lewisham and Southwark).
This will all inevitably have an impact on employment levels at the council. Lambeth has lost one in ten of its staff over the past year and more will follow – last month the GMB union predicted 2,000 job losses over the next three years. But Suarez points out that other jobs will be created by local businesses or by the community running services itself.
‘We do recognise that this will be one of the biggest challenges we face as a local authority. It’s not just our job losses, it’s those of the police, health and other public agencies in the borough that we will have to keep an eye on,’ he suggests.
Suarez accepts that we are entering uncharted waters. But he believes the strength of the financial storm requires a new approach – and the co-operative council could be the means of rescuing the finances.
‘These are going to be hard times, but they are also going to be exciting times. It might be the best opportunity we have ever had to genuinely innovate in the way we deliver public services.’
Curriculum Vitae
2005–present: Director of finance and resources, London Borough of Lambeth
2001–2005: Deputy chief executive and strategic director of finance and property,
Slough Borough Council
1998–2001: Assistant director of finance and IT, Westminster City Council
1996–1998: Departmental finance manager, social services, London Borough of
Southwark
1993–1996: Principal accountant, London Borough of Southwark
1989–1993: CIPFA trainee, London Borough of Southwark
