27 April 2010

A blueprint for the next year


Guy Clifton and Nigel Keohane

Despite the uncertainty around the outcome of the general election, there is common ground among the main political parties about the need to pursue the Total Place agenda. Guy Clifton and Nigel Keohane look ahead to see how it might unfold in the next 12 months.

Looking ahead during a general election campaign can often be a hazardous exercise. It is less problematic, however, when national political parties share a common cause. And one such common cause is Total Place.

Last month, the Government published its report on Total Place and set out how this would be taken forward.

In April 2011, major change is being heralded, with high-performing local authorities encouraged to come forward and bid for a ‘single offer’ – where they would receive additional freedoms, budgets and responsibilities for their areas. Others may put forward an ‘innovative policy offer – where budgets in specific policy areas would be devolved.

These moves could augur radical reform of the shape and nature of public services and democratic decision-making across the England. The key questions are:

  • What position would we hope to be in one year’s time?
  • What reforms should be under way by then?
  • Where would we hope local areas and national government could be in their thinking one year from now?
  • How do we ensure that Total Place flies rather than flops in spring 2011?

As with many political and policy initiatives, loss of momentum remains a key threat. Maintaining impetus relies heavily on the scope and scale of activity over the ensuing months.

Many local areas will be considering how to apply the principles of Total Place, or continue the work already undertaken as pilots or parallel projects. Recent predictions that as many as 80 localities may have the opportunity to develop a single offer are, therefore, welcome, reinforcing the necessary shift from Total Place as an initiative into the ‘way of working’.

But, we cannot merely wait for change to happen 12 months from now. Local areas can and should seek to progress the concepts that underpin the philosophy of Total Place, where regulatory or statutory changes are not required.

A Total Place approach can provide solutions for some of the challenges facing the public sector, and society in more general. For example, the pilots indicated that taking an integrated approach to asset management by the public sector across a locality or sub-region can realise savings of 10%.

Using public sector assets more efficiently across a locality can also support the Carbon Reduction Commitment for better management and reduction of energy consumption across the public sector estate. Localities can also continue to develop innovative service delivery models, for example, in relation to early intervention, without waiting for national government to trial new approaches to locality-based, cost-benefit analysis tools.

In line with this work, local areas should also seek to position themselves to take on additional responsibilities and resources come April 2011. The cultural cross-working which has played such a crucial part in successful pilot areas must be continued to maximise the chance of successful single-offer bids, and otherwise realise Total Place ambitions.

Alongside this, robust partnership governance arrangements should be developed to provide a sound basis to deliver against any new responsibilities and freedoms granted from April 2011.

This approach should include strengthening, focusing and streamlining LSP arrangements. Likewise, areas could consider strategic commissioning options for the locality.

Critical to the overall success of Total Place will be the level and depth of engagement of local citizens, local politicians, and partner organisations, because the major reforms in the pipeline will rely on a wider input from all these stakeholders.

Local authorities and their partners must seek to develop robust business cases for change where the justification is clear – this may cover services such as unemployment, skills and benefits, and public and acute health care, which are delivered by multiple agencies across a locality.

Treasury criticisms of the pilots concerning the lack of specific evidence and supporting data in some instances should be heeded, and the prospect of service improvements and budget efficiencies made transparent. This would put a clear onus on the centre to carry out the reforms it has proposed.

For its part, central government must be bold in establishing the best methods for handing control down to local areas. The Treasury report conceded that councils retain too little influence over other public service agencies – new models of local democracy should be explored which can exercise greater control.
Likewise, Whitehall should look to mirror the improved partnership working at a local level by better aligning departmental strategy.

Few would say these are all easy to achieve. However, if the interest of national politicians and Whitehall is to be retained in the medium term, localities must continue to deliver Total Place.

If Total Place is to realise its potential of radically altering the way public services are delivered, this momentum is crucial so that localities continue to develop and present unarguable justifications of the value of service improvements to customers, and the associated efficiency potential that can be realised.

Guy Clifton is associate director at Grant Thornton, and Nigel Keohane is head of research at the

New Local Government Network





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