Bold political and managerial leadership is needed to meet the economic challenges of the downturn and to secure value for money in service delivery, contend John Tizard and Robert Hill
L eadership of place is increasingly moving from being an interesting idea to becoming an essential objective for local authorities – and their key strategic local partners in the public, business and third sectors.
The challenges of economic recession, tighter public finances, climate change, and the social and political demands of the community, are requiring agencies to work more closely together.
Every public body is seeking to secure more outcomes with fewer resources. Logically, this should accelerate the pace of partnership working and strengthen the role of local strategic partnerships.
One way of doing this is to strengthen the capacity of LSPs to use strategic commissioning to achieve partnership objectives and address the needs of their place.
To test this, and explore what strategic ‘commissioning for place’ might look like and how it can best be achieved, the Centre for Public Service Partnerships recently brought together senior practitioners and some of their local partners from Brighton and Hove City Council and Tower Hamlets LBC.
They were joined by senior officials from Whitehall, the Government Office for London, academics, policy and practice specialists, and advisers.
During a 24-hour – with time off for sleep – workshop, the aim was to draw on practical experience while, at the same time, being visionary about what could/should be achieved through commissioning for place.
There was a strong consensus that strategic commissioning was primarily about agencies collaborating to secure improved outcomes for their place. The outcomes should be rooted in a shared vision for the place, people and communities who live, work and play there – now and in the future.
However, as the chart below shows, strategic commissioning also involves process and skills. For example, making sure all local partners have a shared rather than a sector-based understanding of the needs of an area is vital. Brighton and Hove has carried out an equalities survey across the city which now informs decision-making by all local public agencies.
But just as important as the needs of local people, businesses and communities are their aspirations. Leadership of place, especially for elected politicians, should be about raising expectations and aspirations, and encouraging their senior officers to think imaginatively and creatively about pushing their powers of wellbeing to the limit. Strategic commissioning then provides the means for leaders and partners to use available resources effectively to realise those aspirations.
As Brighton and Hove, Tower Hamlets and other authorities are starting to do, this will involve both pooling and aligning public sector budgets on a scale previously not attempted nor achieved. It will also require leaders within organisations to be prepared to let go; to trust others; and to recognise that securing their objectives might be best achieved through others.
It requires neutrality about who delivers and delivery models. What matters is what will make the greatest impact and deliver value for money. It may involve the type of joint procurement arrangements that are being developed in Tower Hamlets through its recently-established procurement board – which is intended to support the partnership as well as the council.
The potential benefits from re-profiling total public expenditure across the agencies in any locality or place, and using this to leverage in contributions from the business and third sectors, is potentially enormous. The barriers – real and perceived – to making a reality of strategic commissioning are significant: self-interest; inward silo-based professionalism; complexity – for example, the concept is not easy to explain, different agencies use different terms and language and the processes vary; and there are different performance-management and inspection regimes, accountability mechanisms and funding arrangements.
Aspirations and expectations among the public and professionals may also be low, and/or there may be a high degree of cynicism. These barriers do not encourage an integrated culture.
Success, therefore, requires bold political and managerial local leadership. Central government must also play its part, in terms of better aligning performance-management systems; introducing easier rules on resource sharing and pooling for both local and Whitehall-managed agencies; and operating local area agreements and Comprehensive Area Assessments innovatively and flexibly.
Public sector partnership working can be risky. So any move towards strategic commissioning for place has to be underpinned by comprehensive risk-management strategies, effective performance management and clear accountabilities. This may require LSPs to develop new models of governance.
At a time of financial restraint – and whenever agencies are seeking to maximise the return on investment and expenditure – it is important to build in de-commissioning as well as commissioning of services.
Strategic commissioning helps move resources around to better reflect changing needs and priorities.
This is a challenging agenda for managers, professionals and politicians alike, as well as for service-users and the wider community. However, leadership of place has to include the willingness to say ‘no’ and/or ‘no more’, and to account for this.
Given that decisions taken by one agency might have implications for others, and the political nature of many de-commissioning decisions, it is vital that strategic commissioning is built on cross-agency understanding and, potentially, agreement.
The Birmingham workshop may not have found all the answers – indeed, it raised many questions, which the centre plans to address. But the workshop did expose the fact that there are many examples of innovative and interesting practice across the country.
More importantly, there is a genuine will in Whitehall and in town and county halls for strategic commissioning to become a key tool of place-shaping and leadership of place. w
John Tizard is director, and Robert Hill an associate, at the Centre for Public Service Partnerships, University of Birmingham
The challenges of economic recession, tighter public finances, climate change, and the social and political demands of the community, are requiring agencies to work more closely together.
Every public body is seeking to secure more outcomes with fewer resources. Logically, this should accelerate the pace of partnership working and strengthen the role of local strategic partnerships.
One way of doing this is to strengthen the capacity of LSPs to use strategic commissioning to achieve partnership objectives and address the needs of their place.
To test this, and explore what strategic ‘commissioning for place’ might look like and how it can best be achieved, the Centre for Public Service Partnerships recently brought together senior practitioners and some of their local partners from Brighton and Hove City Council and Tower Hamlets LBC.
They were joined by senior officials from Whitehall, the Government Office for London, academics, policy and practice specialists, and advisers.
During a 24-hour – with time off for sleep – workshop, the aim was to draw on practical experience while, at the same time, being visionary about what could/should be achieved through commissioning for place.
There was a strong consensus that strategic commissioning was primarily about agencies collaborating to secure improved outcomes for their place. The outcomes should be rooted in a shared vision for the place, people and communities who live, work and play there – now and in the future.
However, as the chart below shows, strategic commissioning also involves process and skills. For example, making sure all local partners have a shared rather than a sector-based understanding of the needs of an area is vital. Brighton and Hove has carried out an equalities survey across the city which now informs decision-making by all local public agencies.
But just as important as the needs of local people, businesses and communities are their aspirations. Leadership of place, especially for elected politicians, should be about raising expectations and aspirations, and encouraging their senior officers to think imaginatively and creatively about pushing their powers of wellbeing to the limit. Strategic commissioning then provides the means for leaders and partners to use available resources effectively to realise those aspirations.
As Brighton and Hove, Tower Hamlets and other authorities are starting to do, this will involve both pooling and aligning public sector budgets on a scale previously not attempted nor achieved. It will also require leaders within organisations to be prepared to let go; to trust others; and to recognise that securing their objectives might be best achieved through others.
It requires neutrality about who delivers and delivery models. What matters is what will make the greatest impact and deliver value for money. It may involve the type of joint procurement arrangements that are being developed in Tower Hamlets through its recently-established procurement board – which is intended to support the partnership as well as the council.
The potential benefits from re-profiling total public expenditure across the agencies in any locality or place, and using this to leverage in contributions from the business and third sectors, is potentially enormous. The barriers – real and perceived – to making a reality of strategic commissioning are significant: self-interest; inward silo-based professionalism; complexity – for example, the concept is not easy to explain, different agencies use different terms and language and the processes vary; and there are different performance-management and inspection regimes, accountability mechanisms and funding arrangements.
Aspirations and expectations among the public and professionals may also be low, and/or there may be a high degree of cynicism. These barriers do not encourage an integrated culture.
Success, therefore, requires bold political and managerial local leadership. Central government must also play its part, in terms of better aligning performance-management systems; introducing easier rules on resource sharing and pooling for both local and Whitehall-managed agencies; and operating local area agreements and Comprehensive Area Assessments innovatively and flexibly.
Public sector partnership working can be risky. So any move towards strategic commissioning for place has to be underpinned by comprehensive risk-management strategies, effective performance management and clear accountabilities. This may require LSPs to develop new models of governance.
At a time of financial restraint – and whenever agencies are seeking to maximise the return on investment and expenditure – it is important to build in de-commissioning as well as commissioning of services.
Strategic commissioning helps move resources around to better reflect changing needs and priorities.
This is a challenging agenda for managers, professionals and politicians alike, as well as for service-users and the wider community. However, leadership of place has to include the willingness to say ‘no’ and/or ‘no more’, and to account for this.
Given that decisions taken by one agency might have implications for others, and the political nature of many de-commissioning decisions, it is vital that strategic commissioning is built on cross-agency understanding and, potentially, agreement.
The Birmingham workshop may not have found all the answers – indeed, it raised many questions, which the centre plans to address. But the workshop did expose the fact that there are many examples of innovative and interesting practice across the country.
More importantly, there is a genuine will in Whitehall and in town and county halls for strategic commissioning to become a key tool of place-shaping and leadership of place. w
John Tizard is director, and Robert Hill an associate, at the Centre for Public Service Partnerships, University of Birmingham
