By Vivienne Russell
18 October 2010
Good management will be essential to ensuring the forthcoming cuts in public spending are implemented smoothly and easily, CIPFA said today.
A report, produced ahead of Wednesday’s Spending Review by CIPFA in conjunction with the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives says the next six months will be the ‘defining period’ of the government’s project to rebalance the public finances. It highlights a range of risks public bodies face as they grapple with multiple spending cuts.
It urges the government to work with and listen to public service bodies. ‘The skill - or otherwise - with which change is managed remains a critical variable in the system. Handled well, it has the potential to smooth and ease underlying tensions and disappointments. Handled poorly, it may exacerbate already inflamed situations,’ the report says.
The report speculates that a ‘very different public services landscape’ could emerge over the next five years, one that sees greater formal collaboration between service providers at the local level and a redefined relationship between the citizen and the state. But it highlights the risks associated with these transitions and where current practice might fall short.
On shared services, the report questions whether existing voluntary sharing arrangements are sustainable or right for the medium and longer term.
‘Ultimately, new arrangements must be hard-wired into more formal governance and management structures to provide greater clarity and certainty,’ the report states.
Discussing the coalition’s Big Society idea, which envisages a more active role for citizens and communities, the report points out that the idea needs to be developed more fully.
It adds: ‘There is a worrying potential gap between theory and practice. Promoting and encouraging these changes to be adopted widely, amidst heaving cuts and other ambitious reforms, with very few resources available for pump-priming new initiatives, is likely to be extremely challenging. Progress may well be patchy at least in the short term.’
CIPFA chief executive Steve Freer said: ‘This is the point at which the project to rebalance the public finances will become real for every citizen and family in the UK.
‘Multiple impacts – lots of different cuts affecting the same individual of household – pose a real risk of perceived unfairness. It’s critically important the local public bodies work closely together to scan for and try to detect these difficulties as early as possible.’
Mike Bennett, assistant director general of Solace, added: ‘In the next six months, as we begin to see the real impact of last year’s economic downturn on local services, the role of public service leaders serving and supporting their communities will become even more challenging and more important.’
