18 March 2010
Source: LocalGov.co.uk ()

Total Place 'demands better collaborative working in Whitehall'


Nick Appleyard

Work between Whitehall departments must improve if a Total Place approach to public services is to succeed, it has been claimed.

The New Local Government Network warns a lack of coherence and reluctance to devolve threatens to derail the project.

In an in-depth study of the Total Place initiative, the think-tank claims billions of pounds can be saved if a more collaborative approach is adopted.

The report – Greater than the sum of its parts: Total Place and the future shape of public services – calls for a new 'Department for Devolved Government' to subsume the Department for Communities and Local Government and Cabinet Office in order to help Whitehall coordinate Total Place activities.

Report author Nigel Keohane said: ‘The concept of aligning all public resources in an area around the needs of its community is simple and commonsense. Putting it into practice, however, remains a major challenge not just for local areas but also for Whitehall.

‘The changes needed go way beyond merely removing a few ring-fenced budgets or performance targets. Our cultures of governing and our current systems of funding and accountability cut through and undermine our focus on what the citizen needs.

‘With public sector budgets under pressure, it is more important now than ever that we seek to institute reforms that can ensure the most targeted and efficient responses to our local communities. This must include greater freedoms, responsibilities and resources at the local level.’

Greater than the sum of its parts: Total Place and the future shape of public services

 



Your comments

Full marks Nigel on the obvious analysis - but beware of thet old "Department for Everything" "solution"! All of the failed "total approaches" over forty years show coordination is best achieved through the financial system. So one must distinguish the mass of (devolved) local spending (which keeps things going) from central strategic spending - and define the latter across all our domestic Whitehall departments, locking individual Ministers in via an external parliamentary supply procedure.Q.E.

Des McConaghy, Reticulist, England, Added: Saturday, 20 March 2010 11:53 AM



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