By David Williams
1 October 2009
Senior ministers are backing radical proposals to transform public services by devolving power to local government.
The reforms were set out at the Labour Party conference in Brighton by Sir Michael Bichard, director of the Institute for Government, and enthusiastically endorsed by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne.
Bichard is a leading advocate of increased working across Whitehall departments and between local agencies. He is the architect of Total Place, a pilot scheme seeking to improve services and cut costs by considering all spending in a local area as a single sum.
At a fringe meeting co-hosted by CIPFA and the Social Market Foundation on September 29, Bichard said that innovation was being stifled by centralised constraints on frontline workers.
He argued that better procurement and more ‘mature’ relationships between government and service providers could also lead to new ideas being adopted.
Bichard said ‘fragmented’ services provided by many agencies with little co-operation between them were failing the most vulnerable members of society.
‘It wastes billions of pounds every year,’ he added, calling for an explicit requirement for Whitehall departments to provide value for money.
Bichard said the debate around public services needed to shift from concentrating on the money put in to focusing on outcomes. Pumping money into services might yield some improvements, but not transformation, he added.
At a separate fringe meeting later that day, also attended by Bichard, Byrne said: ‘Looking ahead at the public finances and public service reform, the argument that Michael has developed on innovation has to be front and centre. The only way we will get the innovation that is needed in the years to come is with a pretty radical decentralisation of power.’
Byrne said government has ‘formed a love of targets and stock takes’, but defended the approach as ‘not all bad’, saying central control was necessary to safeguard the public’s investment. ‘But that’s not going to work in the decade ahead,’ he said. ‘You can’t order innovation from the centre. You have got to let go.’
Byrne also gave a strong indication that the government plans to devolve more power to local authorities.
‘The local, elected mandate is something that is unique and precious in local democracy, and we will get more people interested and voting in local elections when we give local authorities more power to make a difference in the places they serve,’ Byrne said.
‘A national framework of rights plus new freedom for locally elected representatives to set local priorities could be quite fruitful territory.’
Bichard’s proposals were enthusiastically received by experts at the conference.
At the CIPFA briefing, Chris Leslie, director of the New Local Government Network, said thinking about departmental budgets as separate entities, and ring-fencing investment for some, was dangerous. It would cause a more severe squeeze on ‘Cinderella services’, including many provided by councils.
Leslie added that government regulators such as the National Audit Office and Audit Commission should be merged to reflect increased cross-departmental working.
CIPFA chief executive Steve Freer emphasised the scale of the challenge facing public bodies in the years ahead. ‘This clearly isn’t going to be business as usual. What we’re being asked to handle is much bigger than the challenges of the 1970s with the International Monetary Fund or the 1980s when we were at the height of Thatcherism.’
He said more collaboration between public bodies and a new lighter-touch approach to regulation would be needed if savings of around 10% were to be made by the public sector.
Freer underlined the danger of neglecting the provision of services in the debate about efficiencies, warning that talking only about ‘tough choices’ could result in services becoming worse.
Echoing Bichard, he said all those entrusted with public money – including ministers – should be required to demonstrate value for money.
Labour MP John McFall, chair of the Commons Treasury select committee, said there was a ‘screaming need to do things differently’.
He argued that a lack of co-ordination between agencies was a barrier to improvement, adding: ‘Devolution – yes. Whitehall doesn’t know best.’
However, he also said that no department could be exempted from cuts. ‘Reductions in spending will need to be shared across government to some extent.’
1 October 2009
Senior ministers are backing radical proposals to transform public services by devolving power to local government.
The reforms were set out at the Labour Party conference in Brighton by Sir Michael Bichard, director of the Institute for Government, and enthusiastically endorsed by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne.
Bichard is a leading advocate of increased working across Whitehall departments and between local agencies. He is the architect of Total Place, a pilot scheme seeking to improve services and cut costs by considering all spending in a local area as a single sum.
At a fringe meeting co-hosted by CIPFA and the Social Market Foundation on September 29, Bichard said that innovation was being stifled by centralised constraints on frontline workers.
He argued that better procurement and more ‘mature’ relationships between government and service providers could also lead to new ideas being adopted.
Bichard said ‘fragmented’ services provided by many agencies with little co-operation between them were failing the most vulnerable members of society.
‘It wastes billions of pounds every year,’ he added, calling for an explicit requirement for Whitehall departments to provide value for money.
Bichard said the debate around public services needed to shift from concentrating on the money put in to focusing on outcomes. Pumping money into services might yield some improvements, but not transformation, he added.
At a separate fringe meeting later that day, also attended by Bichard, Byrne said: ‘Looking ahead at the public finances and public service reform, the argument that Michael has developed on innovation has to be front and centre. The only way we will get the innovation that is needed in the years to come is with a pretty radical decentralisation of power.’
Byrne said government has ‘formed a love of targets and stock takes’, but defended the approach as ‘not all bad’, saying central control was necessary to safeguard the public’s investment. ‘But that’s not going to work in the decade ahead,’ he said. ‘You can’t order innovation from the centre. You have got to let go.’
Byrne also gave a strong indication that the government plans to devolve more power to local authorities.
‘The local, elected mandate is something that is unique and precious in local democracy, and we will get more people interested and voting in local elections when we give local authorities more power to make a difference in the places they serve,’ Byrne said.
‘A national framework of rights plus new freedom for locally elected representatives to set local priorities could be quite fruitful territory.’
Bichard’s proposals were enthusiastically received by experts at the conference.
At the CIPFA briefing, Chris Leslie, director of the New Local Government Network, said thinking about departmental budgets as separate entities, and ring-fencing investment for some, was dangerous. It would cause a more severe squeeze on ‘Cinderella services’, including many provided by councils.
Leslie added that government regulators such as the National Audit Office and Audit Commission should be merged to reflect increased cross-departmental working.
CIPFA chief executive Steve Freer emphasised the scale of the challenge facing public bodies in the years ahead. ‘This clearly isn’t going to be business as usual. What we’re being asked to handle is much bigger than the challenges of the 1970s with the International Monetary Fund or the 1980s when we were at the height of Thatcherism.’
He said more collaboration between public bodies and a new lighter-touch approach to regulation would be needed if savings of around 10% were to be made by the public sector.
Freer underlined the danger of neglecting the provision of services in the debate about efficiencies, warning that talking only about ‘tough choices’ could result in services becoming worse.
Echoing Bichard, he said all those entrusted with public money – including ministers – should be required to demonstrate value for money.
Labour MP John McFall, chair of the Commons Treasury select committee, said there was a ‘screaming need to do things differently’.
He argued that a lack of co-ordination between agencies was a barrier to improvement, adding: ‘Devolution – yes. Whitehall doesn’t know best.’
However, he also said that no department could be exempted from cuts. ‘Reductions in spending will need to be shared across government to some extent.’
