Last week I wrote a piece for the PF blog suggesting that the chancellor could launch a revolution by pushing the ‘go’ button for Total Place in his Budget statement. While local authorities and their partners did not have to wait for Alistair Darling or anyone else in Whitehall or Westminster to drive forward with their Total Place initiatives, central government has a role to play in facilitating its development.
The Budget report and, more significantly, the joint Treasury/Department for Communities and Local Government report, Total place: a whole area approach to public services, have sent very strong signals of the government’s intent. There is a clear commitment to greater localism and there is an opportunity for revolutionary change. Of course, the report is not written in the style of a classic revolutionary tract but the message is clear and its proposals offer a real opportunity for progressive change. The challenge for local government and its leaders will be to seize lessons from the Total Place pilots and the ideas in the report and persuade government to be bold in their implementation.
Local government should not simply wait for central government to tell them what they may or may not do. They have to create the space and the momentum for radical change. They have to make the case for change in Whitehall and Westminster and for a new settlement between the centre and localities.
The Total Place pilots have shown that significant financial savings can be made by eliminating duplication, rationalising services and assets between agencies, and redesigning services around citizens and users rather than institutions. These savings can be accompanied by the transformation of outcomes for these citizens and users. Many of these improvements do not require Whitehall action. Focused local leadership and partnership could achieve much quickly. Given the prospects for public expenditure over the next few years, there can be no excuse for any delay in implementing such Total Place programmes.
Total Place has identified many other opportunities that will require collaboration between Whitehall and localities if they are to realise their full potential. The proposed ‘extended field trials’ set out in the Treasury/DCLG report could enable genuine joint working to identify Whitehall blockages and the means to sweep these aside.
The government has announced 11 Total Capital and Asset pathfinders and a project, which government will undertake with Kent and Worcestershire county councils, to explore the options to drive greater value from the local public estate including the central government civil estate and the development of locally controlled property vehicles. These offer localities the chance to take control of local property and asset use for the benefit of the local people. This is certainly radical.
The proposals for the ‘single offer’ and to a lesser extent the ‘innovative policy offer’ could herald a major shift of authority and finance from Whitehall to town and county halls. The use of the word ‘offer’ is unfortunate as it suggests largesse by government to localities, rather than a genuine partnership between the two to empower local people and their representatives to act locally. However, one word should not be allowed to impede progress. There is not yet much detail on these offers. Government has clearly said that it wants to work with councils and others to turn these ideas into practical action by April 2011. Therefore, authorities and their local partners have the opportunity to set out what they would want and the consequential benefits.
Total place: a whole area approach to public services sets out ideas for less ring-fencing of central government finance - to be welcomed by all localists though they will rightly argue for an end to ring-fencing. This policy announcement must lead to an immediate debate between the government and localities about what few national entitlements should be set by government. The general assumption should be that most public service outcomes and entitlements would be determined locally.
There is also a need for urgent discussions between government, local government and others on new governance and accountability arrangements necessary to take Total Place forward. These arrangements will have to enable greater local control of and accountability for the use of public resources to achieve locally set outcomes. The report states that government is ready for such debate so let it begin.
Local government should not accept the concept of ‘earned autonomy’ but equally has to demonstrate its capacity and will to show the necessary leadership of place, strategic commissioning and resource allocation. Local government has to win the confidence of local people as well as those who believe that it should not have a significant role in key services such as those covering education, health, and worklessness. There has to be an acceptance that the pace and nature of the development of localism will be different in different places given different priorities and variance in the effectiveness of community leadership, and partnership working and governance
Local government also has to recognise too that localism is not just about more power to councillors and council officers but also includes greater control and influence for citizens, service users and neighbourhoods.
The report also has proposals for greater powers and control in localities of economic development and regeneration. Again there is little detail which should allow local government the chance to shape the agenda.
Total place: a whole area approach to public services may not be a revolutionary manifesto, but it certainly is a radical one. It offers local government the chance to make a difference in its localities; to have more control and influence; and to shape national policy. Central government of whatever political persuasion has to be ready to let go; to trust localities and local government; and to agree how it can stop directing and proscribing and start to support local control, decision making and choice.
Last week the government placed itself as facing in the right direction but it has much further to go. Local government has to show leadership and hold the government and any new administration to their rhetorical commitments to localism, while at the same time practising effective leadership of their communities – not always waiting for central government.
John Tizard is director of CPSP@LGIU
