22 March 2002
Its report, A force for change, surveys 41 government interventions into 38 top-tier authorities. It argues for earlier and quicker action in the future, to head off 'serious and sustained service failure', with central government playing a more effective role.
Twenty cases of intervention in local education authorities and 21 in social services departments were examined. Examples of failure included one authority where 47 children on the child protection register had no social worker attached to them, and another where the LEA was leaving schools to fend for themselves.
The interventions, triggered by critical Ofsted, Audit Commission and Social Services Inspectorate reports, ranged from placing authorities under 'special measures' to near-total outsourcing of services.
An NOP survey of the councils found that 72% of officers and members thought they had made 'substantial progress' as a result, while 75% had found intervention 'fairly' or 'very' helpful. Evidence that services have improved is backed up by subsequent inspection reports.
Audit Commission controller Sir Andrew Foster told Public Finance that the councils' response came as a surprise. 'We expected local authorities to say how much they resented outside intervention. But most told us that, although they didn't enjoy it at the time, they can think of no other way services could have improved so much.'
Poor corporate leadership lies at the heart of serious service failure, said Foster. The first step, argues the report, is to get the council leadership 'to recognise the scale of its problems and commit to tackling them, through a mixture of challenge, persuasion, threat and compulsion.'
It also sees a heightened role for bodies such as the Improvement and Development Agency (IDA) in conducting peer reviews.
The number of central government interventions looks set to rise again as new powers of intervention are extended via the police, NHS and education bills currently before Parliament. The Audit Commission expects its inspection of 150 authorities, using comprehensive performance assessments, to uncover more cases requiring serious intervention.
However, Matthew Warburton, head of futures at the Local Government Association, is concerned this could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. 'Heavy-handed intervention doesn't fix things in the long-run. What councils need is much earlier preventive action and external help.'
PFmar2002
