Heart of the Matter
Getting to grips with whole place transformation
Author: Joe Fyans, Sandy Forsyth and Callin McLinden |
Driven by the dynamics of a new political cycle, we are on the edge of a major shift in the way we go about delivering local public services. The circumstances call for a reform agenda encompassing the positive hopes of devolution and community empowerment without shying away from the sombre realities of limited fiscal headroom and years of sluggish economic growth, even as public trust in politicians and their ability to deliver change is at an historic low.
Heart of the Matter draws on extensive research and conversations with local leadership from across the country in an attempt to present some of the key elements of a reform agenda aimed at whole place transformation. The aim is to contribute to the national conversation of where we are and what we need to achieve, at the local level, to improve our public services, revive the economic heart of our places and deliver for communities.
Download the executive summary and recommendations
An appendix detailing some of the underlying case studies from the research project is also available for download here.
Key Points
Throughout the research for this report, engagement with leaders across local government unearthed an optimism about the possibility of radically improving the efficiency and efficacy of public services through adopting a ‘whole place’ approach.
A whole place approach entails focusing on:
- Empowering local leadership through long-term and sustainable financing.
- Embedding a preventative approach by investing to address problems at source.
- Developing a collaborative culture for user-centred service provision.
- Practising community co-design with structured and sustained community engagement
Taking this approach can deliver better service outcomes with a more humanistic focus on resident experience. Optimism about the prospects for whole place transformation is not grounded in a denial of the hard truths. Below is an overview of the key learnings of the project:
Where we are
After austerity, local government is in a precarious financial position, with its ability to act strategically – as well as its skills base – depleted. Adding to the difficulty of the current moment is the demographically driven rise in social care spending at the expense of other public services, which is exacerbated by a funding system that does not properly value proactive, preventative approaches. Councils are recognised by central government as a key agent in driving placemaking and economic development, but the uncertainty and short-term nature of funding cycles must be remedied for the successful production of local economic strategies.
Local leaders and council staff adjusted to the austerity measures of the 2010s and managed to maintain service levels in core areas, although often at the expense of discretionary services as budgets tightening necessitated focusing provision on statutory services. Despite the ongoing capacity drain, and in the challenging context of an asymmetrical system of devolution, councils have developed increasingly mature cross-sectoral partnerships as a response to financial challenges.
How we got here
A whole place approach to local government financing has been mooted in several forms in recent decades, with the most recent manifestation being at the subregional level in the form of Trailblazer funding settlements for combined authorities. This modest progress has been set against increasingly short-term funding cycles which have driven a reactive approach to service provision which makes planning for whole place transformation and developing preventative services difficult.
Throughout this period, the local role in placemaking and supporting local economies has been repeatedly reorganised and restructured through central government policy changes, creating further challenges for local leadership in implementing strategies. At the local level, there is a frustration with the repeated changing of policy regimes and withdrawal of trial structures and ways of working before lessons have been properly absorbed. A more consistent thread throughout this period has been the development of locally devised public-private partnerships as vehicles for delivering public services and placemaking strategies, which have become embedded as a way of working through many evolutions in model.
How we move forward
The well-rehearsed problems in the funding and delivery of public services in the UK can be viewed as part of a wider failure to invest in the future, with poor outcomes stored up through short-termism. As part of a wider push for the UK state to invest more, the funding architecture for local government must take into account the potential of a whole place approach to service provision which properly prices in the value of prevention. Beyond the need for a change in approach to financing public services, circumstances necessitate a rethinking of provision and the development of more robust and holistic frameworks for cross-sectoral collaboration.
To drive innovation locally, the partnership working which local government has refined over the past few decades must be accelerated and deepened, using the existing institutional framework to draw in the whole potential of local public sector and private partners to deliver services more holistically and efficiently. In doing so, a culture and practice of local community participation must be embedded from the start, with councils taking the lead on developing mature and consistent mechanisms for resident input into service design and delivery.
Recommendations
Local government recommendations
To continue to deliver for residents even under considerable pressure, the use of partnership models centring on upstream prevention will be crucial. An examination of best and emerging practices in this area informs the following recommendations:
- Plan to transform. To help foster a collaborative culture, councils should produce transformational whole place service delivery plans, in collaboration with other agencies, to give a clear overview of the efficiency and quality of service delivery across an area.
- Model to prevent. Councils should develop internal models for valuing prevention and review spending accordingly, to help ensure that they can adopt an outcomes-focused approach to reducing demand on frontline services.
- Prime for good growth. Being primed for good growth will be key to sustaining long-term transformation. Councils should set out what good growth looks like over the immediate, medium and long-term as part of the forthcoming statutory local growth plans.
- Work in partnership. Councils should form partnerships and pool resources with local partners across the public, private and third sectors. Operating with severely restricted capacity that is mostly outside of their control, it is more important than ever that councils lead collaboratively.
- Deliver through innovation. Councils should work with private and third sector partners to establish innovative vehicles for regeneration, with explicit mandates to use procurement and other strategic functions to promote local economic growth.
- Empower people. Local partnerships should embed a culture of community engagement and empowerment. This means adopting an asset-led and strengths-based approach, focusing on trust building, and develop different channels of communication with diverse communities. Mechanisms for collaboration should be built into the process of formulating strategy and devising policy across all policy areas
Central government recommendations
To lay the groundwork for this transformation and equip local authorities to deliver on national priorities by providing high quality, sustainable public services and strategic, dynamic placemaking for economic development, a new deal for local government must meet the following requirements:
- Steady the ship. As an interim measure, central government must make an immediate cash injection into local authorities for frontline service delivery, to restore sustainability to core services and halt decline in neighbourhood service provision. The immediate focus of spend could be on the improvement of the built and natural environment to deliver a visible uplift, followed by investment in community services, longer-term housing improvements and preventative measures at neighbourhood level.
- Chart a course to sustainability. Looking to the future, there must be an examination of local government revenue sources, including fiscal devolution, to chart a course to longer-term sustainability.
- Fill the capacity gap. To accelerate efforts to fill the local government capacity gap and ensure the workforce is properly equipped to address the service challenges of the future, government must work with the Local Government Association (LGA) to further develop and scale-up employment and training programmes.
- Invest in prevention. The new funding settlement must commit to the value of upstream prevention and look to move beyond the ‘discretionary’ categorisation of non-statutory services, recognising the value of these services in reducing frontline demand.
- Value outcomes. The success of local growth plans should be evaluated on public service outcomes as well as economic indicators.
Research sponsored by:
