chief executive Breckland and South Holland

lack of interest in Broadband?

2011-12-08T17:40:00.001Z

I was really disappointed today to read an email informing me of the top twenty Lincolnshire communities to express an interest in faster broadband. Not a single South Holland community on the list. I know that there are lots of businesses and individuals who like me would like faster broadband. Let's all make an effort to sign up and get South Holland noticed. Here is the link to site to sign up.

Notes on SOLGM conference

2011-11-10T21:41:00.002Z

SOLGM Conference, “One Step Ahead”, Rotorua, New Zealand

6th to 8th November, 2011

The conference opened on Sunday afternoon but had been preceded in the morning by a golf tournament at Springfield golf club followed by lunch at the Rotorua Stadium. This stadium had been used for some of the rugby world cup matches. The golf was played in a fairly light hearted and friendly way and was won by the international delegate from Canada, Jim Toye.

The opening ceremony commenced with SOLGM president Clare Hadley, the executive committee and international delegates, Jim and myself, being greeted outside of the conference hall by a Maori warrior who challenged us with the “Wero” (similar to the Haka at the start of a NZ rugby match). Once it had been established that we came in peace we were invited into the auditorium for the official “Pohiri” or welcome and opening ceremony. This comprised of a number of elements including chants, songs, speeches of welcome and acknowledgement all in the Maori language. The opening concluded with all of us filing past the Mayor, Chief Executive and Maori elder and greeting them with the “Hongi” (pressing of the nose).

Kevin Winters the Mayor of Rotorua welcomed delegates and challenged us and our Councils to engage with a new generation of New Zealanders. Those like his son who were networked via social media and embraced new technology into all aspects of their lives.

President of SOLGM, Clare Hadley gave her presidential address in which she used a video clip from the ICMA “life well run” campaign which promotes the value of public services and management. You can view the video here I’d like to hear from SOLACE colleagues as to whether or not they think that we should follow this campaign example. Clare described SOLGM as a family built upon strong relationships between its members.

Lawrence Yule is president of Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) which is their equivalent body to the LGA. In his address to conference he referred to elements of the National Party manifesto. NZ is about to have a general election and the National Party is the centre right party ( Conservative party equivalent). Efficiency in local government, regionalisation, resource management and hazard management all feature in the manifesto. He referred to eight small councils who had failed to meet deadlines to submit annual accounts and their need to do better if they are not to have a negative impact on the sector overall. Something I found personally interesting, as someone who has previously volunteered to work in emerging local democratic areas in eastern Europe ( Albania, Georgia ), was that LGNZ had persuaded the Government to contribute funding towards local authorities in NZ who are supporting local government in nearby Pacific countries. Come on LGA how about trying to achieve the same here.

We were then introduced to the master of ceremonies (MC) for the rest of the conference, Ben Hurley. Ben is a stand up comedian who appears in a weekly TV programme which I understand to be similar to “Have I Got News for You”. A sort of New Zealand Paul Merton. This was a interesting approach and something we don’t do at SOLACE. It provided pace and continuity throughout the conference in a light hearted and sometimes irreverent way. Quite fun.

The opening address to conference was from Marcus Akuhata-Brown, described as a gifted communicator. A motivational speaker. The phrase that the conference was left with following his address was “shake it off and step up” based on a story of a donkey in a well. When others start throwing muck onto you intending to bury you if you shake it off your back and step up on it you’ll eventually get out of the well. “Shake it off and step up.”

Day two began with the SOLGM AGM at 07.30am !! I cannot tell you if it was well attended as I didn’t make it. (the effects of a 24 hour flight). I was there in time for the first conference session of the day. Jonar Nader was a last minute replacement for the original speaker who was unable to make it because of family illness. Jonar is author of a book “How to lose friends and infuriate people” and spoke on social change and innovation. I found I had a mixed reaction to this presentation. It was definitely a strong and worthwhile contribution to the conference and later I chose to attend his optional workshop session in the afternoon. But there were things he said that I disagreed with and I would loved to have had the opportunity to debate with him over a pint in the bar. I missed the fact that with the exception of one speaker there was not the opportunity at the end of a presentation to ask questions of the speaker or challenge with an alternative viewpoint. His thrust was on innovation being a way of life and not a project. On incremental, evolutionary innovation rather than by big leaps forward. Doing what you do today 1% better tomorrow. Things I took away from his talk were; 1. “you cannot innovate if your team doesn’t have a stop button” i.e. the ability to call a halt to the production line when faults are occurring and decide how to address the problem rather than waiting for the ‘product recall’ 2. “little things that are allowed to go on point to a culture and leave you wondering about the big things” i.e. if carelessness or poor customer service is tolerated in the small visible things what is happening that cannot be seen. If a lack of cleanliness is tolerated in the hospital waiting room what’s the operating theatre like? 3. “the more senior you are the less busy you should be” not that senior people should not work hard but that their diary should not be filled with meetings and activity in order to give time to keep close to and understand their organisation and how it’s working and where it can be improved.

Nigel Latta, Beware of the Beige Brigade, why modern thinking is letting down young people. Nigel is a clinical psychologist with some interesting and challenging things to say about our rational mind (not) , the teenage brain and the use of punishment. However, his foul mouth and apparent desire to shock and be disrespectful of the feelings and beliefs of others left me deciding that I would not go out of my way to listen to him again. He did however have the best video clip used at the conference - I’m not saying what but I’m sure some of you will see it in my future presentations - courtesy of youtube.

The first part of the afternoon was taken up with parallel education sessions on the themes of collaborative consumption, lean thinking, optimising people performance and handling the media in a crisis. Minister of Local Government, Rodney Hide then addressed conference. He is part of a coalition Government and represents a small party which as I understand it has a similar outlook to our taxpayers alliance. He is now coming to the end of his term and is not standing for re-election. Whilst I think SOLGM initially faced the prospect of him as Minister with some concern it was obvious that over the years a mutual respect had developed between them. He spoke of the collegiate working during the recent disasters facing the country, the restructuring of Auckland into a single Council, the benefits of shared services, the importance of spacial panning and of keeping costs down for the rate payer. He also referenced the recent Hamilton City audit report and how lessons needed to be learnt from this.

Monday concluded with Doug McKay, chief executive of the newly formed Auckland Council on the experiences of merging eight Councils into one. He spoke of the aspirations of Auckland to be a global competitive city. Of planning and strategies to build the economy, of reducing overall costs and minimising rate increases and the importance of embedding the values into the new organisation.

Monday evening was the conference dinner. No bow ties and party frocks for these delegates. The theme was Monday night fever so lots of fuzzy hair and flares.

Tuesday was the day of the “pomms” starting with Andy Gibson. Quietly spoken and at a measured pace he brought insight into the internet and social networking. He gave examples of how the internet is being used to change the way we produce things. Moving from mass production and centralisation to millions of people across the world all doing a little bit. He spoke of the characteristics of successful campaigns such as “invisible children” rescuing child soldiers in Uganda and “it gets better” addressing teenage suicide amongst young gay people. He told of the case of musician Dave Matthews whose guitar was broken by United Airways and his “United Breaks Guitars” website which eventually brought him suitable recompense from them. Other examples of mass action such as when HSBC withdrew their student graduate overdraft. Throughout he illustrated how these new approaches might impact upon or could be used by local government. He spoke of opportunities for citizen participation, social change, staff to engage with communities and the challenge for inclusion. A quote from Andy that I wrote down was “it doesn’t matter if you don’t like it (the internet / social media) your citizens are using it” and therefore we must engage with it. Andy gave time for questions on his presentation and it was apparent that there was a keen interest in his presentation.

Sandwiched between the two “pomms” were Jonathan Slater and John Shackleton talking on local government litigation based upon some recent cases. On the basis that NZ law is different from UK law I missed this session for a walk in Rotorua’s wonderful Tawharakurupeti gardens.

Conference split into concurrent sessions entitled “Leaders in Action” before coming together again for my presentation. I spoke on the impact of Government initiatives on Local Government in the UK. The slides I used for my presentation are available to download. Afterwards i received much interest in the shared chief executive model which some districts, including my own, are adopting in response to the Government’s agenda.

After lunch a panel was assembled comprising the Chief Executive of Christchurch plus the chief executives of two neighbouring districts and the region. They each gave an insight into their experiences of the earthquakes and how they and their Councils responded during the response phase and the continuing recovery phase. Christchurch and the Canterbury region experienced earthquakes in September 2010, February 2011 and June 2011 plus the occurrence of many after shocks. There were some common themes in all their contributions. Praise for the way their staff responded and that sometimes they were surprised that staff they thought least likely were shining examples. Rotate staff during the response phase. Adopt a command and control leadership style. Bring in extra staff help. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Whilst response is hectic the recovery phase is enormous; a marathon not a sprint. Programmes to tackle the devastation to infrastructure; bridges, roads, sewerage, buildings and homes are having to be revised and time scales lengthened. There continue to be psycho-social issues some of which are only now surfacing. Have trained recovery manager(s) in place. These presentations were both inspirational and humbling. It made me proud to be a chief executive and I hope that if I’m ever called on to respond to a similar incident in my community I respond with the same courage and leadership as these chief executives demonstrated. The final message was one of hope and determination they’re back in business and are also rebuilding a Christchurch and Canterbury fit for the future.

The final address to conference was from Sir Ray Avery a well known kiwi social entrepreneur, scientist and businessman. He’s written a book “Rebel with a Cause” and used his life-story as a backdrop to illustrate his thesis that observation is the key to innovation.

SOLGM president Clare Hadley concluded the conference by presenting long service awards to delegates for service to local government ranging from 20 years to 45 years. SOLACE doesn’t give long service awards and I wonder if members would think this a good idea. Let me know.

My thanks to president Clare and husband Ken for their hospitality and generosity, Karen, CEO of SOLGM and the staff for their kindness. The delegates & the Sunday golfers for the warmth of their company and Paul of CMNZ for his brilliant organisation and for showing me the countryside of NZ as we travelled from Auckland by car.

Planning rules, public spending & protests

2011-11-06T04:05:00.002Z

After a stop to refuel at Hong Kong a copy of a New Zealand daily newspaper was available as we re-boarded. An article was headed "developer charter claim ..." and read similar to recent articles in the English press on the revision to the National Planning Framework. The political debate focused on the $18 billion budget deficit in public funding and how best to tackle this with the same differences of approach being debated as in the UK. Although one of the reasons for the deficit is the spend on earthquake recovery which is something we fortunately do not share. On arrival in Aukland I encountered a protest march against "corporate greed and bankers". It feels just like home!

SOLGM Conference

2011-11-03T12:35:00.000Z

I'm just leaving for the SOLGM conference in New Zealand entitled "one step ahead" the changing face of local government. I've been asked to speak on the impact of Government initiatives on Local Government in the UK. You can follow the conference which opens on Sunday on twitter at #solgm2011 or on www.facebook/SOLGMNZ. If you're interested in my presentation to the conference you can download the slides that I will be speaking to here.

[bearing in mind recent publicity regarding Lincolnshire County and for the benefit of the Tax Payers Alliance neither South Holland or Breckland Councils are paying for my air fare]

visit by S of S

2011-10-27T08:56:00.000+01:00

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles is visiting Great Yarmouth today and local MP Brandon Lewis. During his visit he'll be meeting with the Leader of Gt Yarmouth BC and amongst the topics for discussion will be the current discussions to explore a three way joint shared management structure. The Leaders of Breckland and South Holland have been invited for this. I suspect the S of S will be encouraged by such innovative thinking towards modernising local government in order to respond to the needs of the present times.

Articles on Sharing

2011-10-26T19:22:00.000+01:00

The latest SOLACE Foundation Imprint has been published. The topic is shared services / management. You can download a copy here.

SOLACE communique

2011-10-26T19:15:00.000+01:00

here's a link to the SOLACE communique produced at the summit. download here

Solace TV interview

2011-10-17T21:07:00.000+01:00

SOLACE webtv from the recent SOLACE Summit

Civic Crowd - have your say

2011-10-10T15:22:00.000+01:00

I've just added a link to South Holland's Civic Crowd site. This has been designed by Dave Briggs to encourage views and ideas to elected members on how they use their ward budgets.

Shared Chief Executives

2011-10-04T20:39:00.000+01:00

Here's a link to an article by Mike Bennett On his new blog publicinteligence. See it here

Localism and the National Planning Policy Framework

2011-10-02T11:29:00.000+01:00

The Government is making some significant changes to the planning system that will affect the responsibilities of all local planning authorities. The intention is to make the planning system one that better supports sustainable economic growth and jobs, underpinned with the principles of localism, with less ‘top-down’ prescription and more ‘bottom up’ involvement.

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) will set out the Government’s priorities for planning in England. It will replace the current raft of planning policy guidance notes and statements with one document of less than 60 pages. The final version will be published around the end of 2011 or early 2012.

SOLACE in partnership with the LGG and PAS have recently published a brief overview the changes and their implications to which I've contributed the foreword.

You can read and download the document here Localism and NPPF

CIWM conference

2011-06-13T21:01:00.000+01:00

I'm speaking at the CIWM conference on Wednesday on what Localism and Big Society mean in the context of sustainable waste and resource management. I'm part of a panel with CLG under Secretary of State Bob Neill. My few slides that I'm using can be viewed here

Moving on

2011-03-12T21:35:00.000Z

Ancient words of wisdom say

" unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."

Sometimes one thing has to be ended in order that something new can be created for the new season. This is how I feel about the changes which are occurring in the management team. It's been great to work with a successful team of people under whose management South Holland moved from "fair" to "excellent". That team is now giving way so that a new team can be formed to take us through the challenges of the new season. Whilst there's a sadness to see the old team break up and people go their own ways it's only by doing so that we can be fruitful in the future.

Local Society

2011-02-21T16:59:00.000Z

"Local Society - the role of Councillors and Councils in strong local communities" was an event held earlier this month bringing together thinkers who hold a view and have experience on localism and public sector reform. I came across the blog entry of one of the participants Sam Markey Head of Insight with the LB Barnet. Although I'm sure Sam's job job title would be described by Mr Pickles as a "none job" he did, as they say, 'do exactly what it says on the tin' and bring some insight into the day to someone who hadn't attended.
Here's the link to Sam's blog. To tempt you here are a couple of clips

"Both easyCouncil and Lambeth Coop were mentioned, but one new analogy caught my attention – the Apple iPhone council. In this analogy, the local authority becomes an enabling environment – a platform for hosting apps (services) that are created, run and rated by others. It’s essentially a commissioning role, except that Council simply defines the problem not the solution. Clearly, this model assumes a belief in the market, but it neatly illustrates the gross distance between Apple’s streamlined model and the current experience of most local authorities where providers, stakeholders, users and partners are all using different ‘operating systems’. "

"When it comes down to it, it’s all about courage.

Courage to embrace change.

Courage to open ourselves up to closer scrutiny and challenge.

Courage to our admit mistakes and move on.

Courage to listen to residents and act on what we hear.

Courage to keep going (even when it all seems uphill).

Courage to remember that we are only human."

Council tax consultation event.

2011-01-26T13:12:00.000Z

South Holland's consultaion with the community on its proposal for Council Tax setting included, this year, a "question time" type event with representatives from the older persons forums, youth council, business, community sector, parish councils and other public sector bodies raising their questions and concerns. To make this accessible to more people in our rural community the event was web cast and web viewers were able to email in questions to the panel. The panel comprised the Leader and two deputy leaders of the Council. An archive version of the web cast can be viewed here http://www.sholland.public-i.tv/site/player/pl_compact.php?a=51469&t=0&m=wm&l=en_GB

Big Society Book

2011-01-17T12:43:00.001Z

Alot of my reading, blog following and podcast listening of late has been around the "big society". The Keystone Trust who are based in Breckland have just published a new book on Big Society. This can be downloaded from their website. Here's their release ...

The Big Society Challenge - please feel free to distribute to your colleagues and networks. I hope you find it of use. The book was launched at the RSA in London on Thursday; it has papers from 22 authors (practitioners as well as academics) tackling the issues of the Big Society from many perspectives.

Amid calls for a new localised state, a strengthened civil society, and communities made powerful, how do community practitioners foresee the implementation of the Big Society initiatives?

Keystone Development Trust’s new book, sponsored by Development Trusts Association (DTA), Lankelly Chase, bassac, and Social Enterprise East of England (SEEE) investigates the intellectual roots and political context for the Big Society agenda, and challenges the detail of plans to empower communities, and for public sector reform, suggesting ways to implement the vision of Big Society successfully.

This collection of short and accessible papers, featuring case studies from DTA and bassac membership, addresses the perceived difficulties of accountability, the dichotomy of civil society and the state, the relationship between individual action and collective action, and points to the successful examples of the vision in action now. It also explores how the idea will affect key areas such as housing, poverty, inequality, rural communities, the environment, and how it sits alongside social enterprise and the new austerity.

The Big Society Challenge is available in PDF for free at www.keystonetrust.org.uk or £10 for a hard copy

Provisional 2011-12 financial settlement

2010-12-13T18:26:00.003Z

I've just had the email through from CLG and our settlements for next year are. On the government's figures

Breckland £9.247 million a reduction of 13.8 % from last year

South Holland £7.347 million a reduction of 13.8% from last year

This is for what's called formula grant and accepts the Government's "recalculation" of what we got this year. There are other grants which we're not yet clear on and finance colleagues tell me the nett reduction in government grant could be much worse than this.

The BBC web site says Secretary of State announced an average reduction of 4.4% and no Council would undergo a decrease of more than 8.9% as a result of grant reductions ................ if so it looks as if his cheque for the balance must be in the post to me !!

So why is there this discrepancy? Well it's complicated but several people have asked that I have a go at explaining - so here goes.

The answer is that whilst the government grant has been cut by 13.8% the Secretary of State has introduced a new concept called "spending power" in which he adds other income the Council gets from sources other than the Government. And so he cuts the grant by 13.8% but doesn't clearly say this instead he refers to the cut in spending power.

Another example may help. If you are a retired person your income may come from the state pension, a work pension and interest on your savings. The Secretary of State cuts the state pension by 13.8% but tells you its OK because your "spending power" has only reduced by 9% because you're still getting your work pension and interest on savings.

SOLACE CONFERENCE

2010-10-23T16:02:00.004+01:00

Here's a link to notes from the recent SOLACE conference SOLACE 2010 conference notes

Exercise Watermark

2010-10-23T15:50:00.000+01:00

Exercise Watermark is a national emergency planning exercise based on a flooding scenario. It will take place 4th - 11th March 2011. Lincolnshire will be a contributor to the exercise and we are getting ready for it. I have added a link to the Exercise Watermark web site.

skills and characteristics for the future

2010-10-17T18:09:00.001+01:00

Rob Whiteman MD of Local Government Improvement and Development (LGID) Has been to both Norfolk and Lincolnshire delivering a message to elected members and officers on the skills and characteristics that individuals and organisations will need to lead in the new world of local government . Here are some of the points I made a note of from his presentation:

• Confident to act without being given direction

• Passionate about doing more for less ( this is not the era when skills of developing cases for more investment will be in great demand)

• Create time and space for innovation

• Passionate for listening to and being accountable to the public

• Influencing skills

• Market making and brokering

• Collaborating to succeed not competing

• More political leadership and less managerialist

• Staff with a “sunny disposition” – optimistic, “can do” attitude

• “walk the talk” around values

• Take a look in the mirror – organisations reflect the people who lead them

• Act quickly and do things that make appositive difference to the citizen

• Professionals “on tap” not “on top”

Beyond Sharing

2010-10-04T09:06:00.001+01:00

Beyond sharing, post public sector reform and with the "Big Society" operating what will the new sustainable model of local government in district councils look like? What's the end game? Where are we aiming to get to? The LGID assembled a small group of district council chief executives to explore both how we are preparing for the immediate future but also the longer term. Here are some of the issues we touched on:

Opportunities to generate income (including return on investment of funds)
Creating a culture of innovation
What is / will be the acceptable cost of democracy
Creating "super" districts - by agreement , hostile takeovers
How far can we / do we want to move towards self service on line - "Amazon Council"
Workforce planning for this new vision for districts
"Franchise Council "

The unattributed quote of the day " don't make your services too efficient if you want to outsource them as the private sector will not be interested" Amongst many present there was a real appetite to take on the private sector and not just hand over rich pickings.

The LGID are preparing a pamphlet, based upon interviews with us and covering some of the transformational things that are happening now, which they hope to publish shortly.

As always I'd like to hear views - please post your comments particularly on what you think district councils will be like in 10 years time.

Social Productivity

2010-09-20T18:52:00.001+01:00

An interesting weekend as I got to reading the report from the public services trust which was published earlier in the week -"From social security to social productivity: a vision for 2020 Public Services" . I then attended the chairman's civic service and the bishop of Grantham preached a message which supported many of the ideas and views emerging from the report.

The report calls for a complete reconfiguring of public services around the needs and capabilities of citizens, based on the principle of social productivity. It argues that our public services are increasingly unsustainable. The Commission calls for a new deal between citizens and the state, based on social productivity - greater social responsibility and more intelligent collaboration between citizens and public services.

2010 Public Services are described as too centralised, too prescriptive, too narrow, too passive, too static, too opaque and too patchy. The commission argues for public services which engage others to to create better social and economic outcomes - leading to social productivity.

It's well worth a read.

Acknowledged by Minister

2010-09-15T13:04:00.000+01:00

Local Government Minister Bob Neill told Local Authorities thinking creatively will help them do more for less at a conference hosted by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) . In his presentation he made reference to the work which we at Breckland and South Holland are doing. It's always pleasing to get acknowledgement. This is what he said ....

" frontline services could be protected as finances get tighter if councils start to rethink procurement, sharing services and being more transparent to get value for money.

The new Government is putting councils and communities back in control of their own destinies by pushing power away from the centre. With their new freedoms councils can be more innovative and radical than ever before about the way they deliver services.

Mr Neill highlighted councils that were already leading the way. Westminster and Hammersmith and Fulham Councils are planning to merge their education departments saving a total of £4 million. Already there are 11 shared chiefs in place and twenty other district councils are discussing whether to share their chief executive and senior management teams. South Holland and Breckland district councils are poised to establish the first cross-county shared chief executive post between two authorities that do not share a border.

The Minister stressed councils must work with citizens to decide how to deliver services in a new era of transparency and openness. He pointed to Dartford Council where they held a public poll to decide on whether to keep the weekly rubbish collection. An overwhelming 94.5 per cent voted yes and so the Council developed a plan to share some services with Sevenoaks to cover the cost.

Bob Neill said:

"The most urgent issue facing the country is the need to reduce the deficit, put finances back on a stable footing and ensure economic recovery. To help cope we are transferring more power to councils that will mean more local decisions can be made with greater local flexibility. We are putting councils and communities back in control of their own destinies.

"Many councils are already taking steps to make their own efficiencies through innovative and effective working. I want to see more sharing management, expertise and resources. Incremental changes won't be enough. Councils need to think about how they can radically reconfigure services. I don't for a minute believe that this will be automatically painless. But the sector recognises that there are savings to made to focus resources on the front line through better procurement, greater collaboration and sharing of services.

"There is still waste to be driven out - greater transparency and accountability will help identify this potential. It is vital that we all look at where every penny is spent and that citizens are engaged in making these decisions. This is why we want all spending over £500 published online by January.

"The Chancellor recently met with local government to discuss how we can increase productivity by reducing unnecessary waste and costs on things like reporting to Whitehall and the ring-fencing of grants. We are committed to a phasing out more ring-fenced budgets. We have already cut the centrally-imposed burdens on local government. The Spending Review will drive decentralisation across all areas that fund local government. Departments are considering issues beyond their traditional remits including those that cross administrative boundaries.

"There will be real challenges as we face the future. But there are many things we can do to ensure that frontline services are protected, and that local people are able to hold local government to account. Localism will help local authorities to make the savings necessary to live within the fiscal constraints facing us all free from central government interference. Government's role is in the opening up of public services so they can be locally-driven services and meet local needs."

street clutter

2010-09-01T20:34:00.001+01:00

"Our streets are losing their English character. We are being overrun by scruffy signs, bossy bollards, patchwork paving and railed off roads wasting taxpayers' money that could be better spent on fixing potholes or keeping council tax down. We need to 'cut the clutter'.

"Too many overly cautious townhall officials are citing safety regulations as the reason for cluttering up our streets with an obstacle course when the truth is very little is dictated by law. Common sense tells us uncluttered streets have a fresher, freer authentic feel, which are safer and easier to maintain."

so says Communities Secretary Eric Pickles who is encouraging Councils to get rid of unnecessary clutter in a bid to make streets tidier and less confusing for motorists and pedestrians. This would be a good time to have a look around your community with a fresh pair of eyes and report any bad examples of the kind referred to by Mr Pickles.

Understanding Big Society

2010-09-01T20:26:00.001+01:00

I came across this article by Adrian Brown on the Institute for Government blog. It makes some interesting points which add to our understanding of the "Big Society"

Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist reportedly said that “anyone who isn’t shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.” And so it is with the Big Society.

Over the past few weeks, the Institute for Government has been hosting a seminar series on Big Society Public Services along with NESTA and the Design Council. The series provided an opportunity to explore what the Big Society means in five different policy areas.

It is fair to say that for each area, from education to criminal justice, the full implications of the Big Society for policy and the management of services are still being worked out. What is already clear is that many of those implications are likely to be profound.

A new relationship

Most people solve most of their problems most of the time without reverting to the state. Families, friends, communities and the marketplace can all help individuals to solve problems with minimal involvement from government.

Even when the government does get involved there is a great deal that can be achieved without the state providing all the funding, assets or people involved in the solution. This switch in emphasis lies at the heart of the Big Society argument and suggests a potentially radical shift in the relationship between citizen and state.

The implication is that individuals and communities must take more responsibility for achieving outcomes that matter to them. They must also be willing to accept a greater share of the risks that were previously held elsewhere.

Big platoons

Central to the Big Society narrative is an enhanced role for civil society including charities, the voluntary sector and social enterprises. Newly formed public sector mutuals would also sit here such as the twelve Pathfinder Mutuals announced earlier this month.

But the romantic view of Burke’s “little platoons” sits uneasily with the demands on such organisations to professionalise and scale-up if they are to successfully work alongside large, private contractors without getting crowded out.

Quantifying social value is difficult, but the Big Society demands that everyone will need to get a lot better at it if we are to make the difficult trade-offs that are likely to be necessary. Add to this, the fact that many of these organisations are predominantly reliant on government money which will inevitably be squeezed over the next few years and the need for radical thinking becomes clear.

No, Minister

Handing greater decision making powers to localities means that central government will need to become a lot more disciplined about how and when it chooses to intervene.

Establishing a clear ‘operating framework’ which outlines the boundaries to local freedom would be a good starting point. In the most devolutionary scenario this could be a very limited set of specifications designed to ensure that minimum standards are met and the appropriate actors are clear on their roles and responsibilities.

Everything else would be for local discretion. Ministers would need to respect this even when decisions are taken locally that they disagree with. Can we expect to see Secretaries of State standing at the dispatch box and saying “that was a matter for the local people” more often?

You’re in charge

With greater devolution must come greater local accountability. Local councillors and local authorities are an obvious place to start but in the future will be supplemented by other elected representatives such as locally elected police and crime commissioners.

Local people will also be engaged directly through mechanisms such as community forums, e-petitions and special interest groups. Choice of provision also has a role to play, and the schools agenda is aiming to put more power in parents’ hands to choose the school that best meets their needs (or to help establish new schools in areas where provision is poor).

Unblinking transparency of performance is the essential ingredient that will give these mechanisms teeth. But people must also be willing to use that information to hold providers, officials, elected representatives and ultimately each other to account. Different communities are likely to require different incentives to adopt this role.

There also needs to be an acceptance that services will not be the same everywhere – the dreaded “postcode lottery” – except in contrast to a lottery you can actually do something to change the outcome.

The Big Society has been criticised by some as unsubstantial. On the contrary, I’d argue that while the full implications are only slowly emerging, each new layer triggers further, often profound questions.

Where will this vision lead? Almost certainly to a radically different role for the state but to quote Bohr again, “prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.”

Slavery

2010-08-23T18:52:00.001+01:00

I notice that Communities Minister Andrew Stunell has today in Liverpool taken part in a ceremony to mark the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. We must remember however that an illegal slave trade still exists and sadly appears to be flourishing. We tend to call it "people trafficking" these days. Check out www.thea21campaign.org and prepared to be shocked by the statistics.

Foundation Councils

2010-08-23T11:08:00.000+01:00

We've heard of Foundation Schools and Hospitals what about Foundation Councils? Here is an interesting article I came across. It's written by Cllr Colin Barrow leader of Westminster City Council. I wonder if the idea will catch on?

"Councils are hampered in their ability to innovate and provide good quality low cost services by three factors:

An onerous, centrally-imposed performance framework – despite the welcome end of the CAA and Audit Commission, we still have the onerous regimes of Ofsted and CQC plus the ‘control freakery’ from Whitehall departments with directives, guidance and data demands requiring us to produce numerous plans and strategies implementing Government priorities. This leads directly to the next factor and leads to Whitehall telling local authorities how to run their services.

Insufficient operational freedom to design services that suit local circumstances - local authorities are best placed to know what will work at a local level, are directly accountable to local residents and operate effective partnerships with other local public service providers. As we will detail over the next few days, local services should be freed from central control to design services around the needs of the customer and produce better outcomes at lower cost.

Lack of financial control in their areas - businesses in Westminster contribute £1.2bn in business rates to the national economy, but the council receives only 12% of this to invest locally. Meanwhile, nationally-set fees and charges, for example in planning and licensing, mean that councils are unable to recover their costs.
Legislation to permit locally differentiated charging based on a full cost-recovery model would have saved Westminster Council £2.8m in 2009-10.

The solution

We believe that the solution to these issues is the creation of Foundation Councils - a concept that has been jointly developed by three authorities with a long established track record of delivering high-quality, value for money services - Hammersmith & Fulham, Wandsworth and Westminster.

Foundation Councils would automatically be granted powers to:

set local fees and charges, including variable business rates, to enable them to recover costs and generate a profit for reinvestment in local public services;
generate income and save money through full freedom to trade and share services;
exempt them from regulatory burdens, including the excess of Ofsted and CQC requirements. We recognise that in areas of high risk social care, assurances are needed but these two regimes have gone beyond ‘safeguarding’ to regulate local authority activity in these areas;
introduce bye-laws and manage the public realm without reference to specific enabling legislation;
present “offers” to central Government for more specific powers, freedoms and flexibilities in particular areas, such as employment and skills services, where it can be demonstrated that these would improve performance, increase satisfaction, and reduce cost.

We believe that the establishment of Foundation Councils would:

Support government in its ambitions to decentralise
Demonstrate the savings and better outcomes possible from reducing the duplication of local and national agencies.
Match payments and results. The growth in public spending over the last decade has not been correlated with results. Productivity and competitiveness must be built into the DNA of local public services. The specific grants, targets and inspection regimes of the last decade have been enfeebling and counter-productive. Foundation Councils now give us the opportunity to drive this major and necessary change where payment is by results.

Over the next few days I will be setting out further details of how Foundation Councils could work and the sort of powers and areas that we believe they could make a genuine difference to delivering high quality, cost effective public services."

10 tips to avoid wasting time at meetings

2010-08-16T16:32:00.000+01:00

This month’s theme in South Holland’s ongoing campaign to cut waste is “wasted time”. One of the ways in which we waste time is in unnecessary or unproductive meetings. We have a lot of meetings in Local Government so you’d think we’d be experts at running good ones but this isn’t always so. Here are my 10 top tips

Is the meeting really necessary? Be clear on its purpose don’t just roll over from one meeting to the next because that’s the way its always been.
Are the right people at the meeting? Invite only the people who are needed ( the fewer the better) and if its a long meeting with a number of agenda items invite people for specific agenda items only.
Consider a suitable venue for the meeting - do all attendees have to be physically present in the room or would a telephone conference or video conference be better.
Plan the meeting beforehand including start and finishing times, make sure all attendees understand why the meeting has been called, why they have been invited and what is expected of them.
Start on time and expect attendees to arrive on time - don’t excuse lateness
Expect attendees to come prepared having read papers circulated with the agenda before they arrive at the meeting.
Ban multi-tasking. No mobile phones, text messaging, emails during the meeting.
Insist attendees speak in plain English and avoid jargon so that all present can understand and follow what is being said.
Make sure the meeting has an effective chairperson to keep the meeting focused on its purpose, deal with confusion or conflict, and assign actions to individuals
Don’t automatically set the date for the next meeting - check that one is really necessary

Please let me know if you have any further tips.

There are some great quotations on meetings please share your favourite. Here’s one to get you started

“ Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything” J.K.Galbraith

An exciting future

2010-08-07T10:44:00.001+01:00

In the past 24 hours Breckland and South Holland Councils have formally agreed to appoint me as their joint chief executive. I consider this to be an immense honour and privilege. This is the first step towards the two Councils establishing joint senior management and implementing closer working in order to deliver savings and efficiencies.
All Councils are facing cuts in their finances and the Leaders and elected members of these two Councils are positioning them for a positive and sustainable future where each will continue to provide effective local government to their communities. These will be tough times for local government and it's great to be part of such a forward looking and positive approach where we will shape and determine our own futures and not sit back to be victims of the circumstances we find ourselves in.

Welcome

2010-08-07T10:25:00.001+01:00

Welcome to this new blog which I have set up as a place where from time to time I'll share my thoughts and reflections and let you know what I'm doing. My hope is that it will help you to keep in touch with me and that you'll use the comments feature to let me know what you think.