News Summary of Collaboration and Shared Services from 26 March 2014

It’s time to make yourself a nice coffee or tea, sit down and spend 10 minutes skimming through this report from Locality and Vanguard…

Saving money by doing the right thing

This must read paper from Locality, argues that today’s public services are not designed for “people who need help”. They are designed to batch-process fixes for predefined one-off issues and then close the books. Read more >>>

It is not saying much that you had not heard before, and there is some Vanguard propaganda, but it is evidencing, in heart-breaking stories, how badly public service users can be treated by the costly and frequently ineffective systems we create.  

Setting up a new shared service gives you an opportunity to destroy the old ways of working, focus on the people who need the service, and change the game. This is summed up in the report’s introduction:…far too many public service systems ‘assess rather than understand; transact rather than build relationships; refer on rather than take responsibility; prescribe packages of activity rather than take the time to understand what improves a life’.

Following hot on the concept of locally designed initiatives, and overshadowed by the Budget pension news, was an announcement that the Troubled Families programme is being expanded. I don’t see any mention of new additional funding though (is this a re-announcement?)…

Budget 2014: Troubled Families expansion brought forward

The expansion of the government’s Troubled Families programme is to be speeded up, the Chancellor announced in the Budget. Read more >>>

************

Delivering Differently Fund Winners

Out of the 150 local authorities across England who applied for Delivering Differently Challenge funding, the 10 winning local authorities chosen to receive support were announced yesterday…

·         Cheshire West and Chester Council (School Support)

·         Devon CC (Libraries, Youth and Day Care)

·         Dover DC (Heritage)

·         Kingston upon Hull Council (Social Care)

·         Kirklees Council Environment (Open Spaces)

·         Manchester City Council (Domestic Violence)

·         North East Lincolnshire Council (Environment)

·         Nottinghamshire CC (Children’s Disability)

·         Portsmouth City Council (Community Safety)

·         Walsall Metropolitan BC (Adult Learning)

There are some in-boundary collaborative projects included in these projects…

************

Scottish Blue Light Transformation

Blue Light Transformation in Scotland has been very radical and fire and police have gone down collaborative routes that the Scottish councils have avoided eg shared services or merger. Here are two examples in the news this week…

Fire control staff visit

DUNDEE-based fire control room staff will travel to Shetland as part of their training to familiarise themselves with the islands’ geography and place names. Read more >>>

Millions saved by forces merger

Largest public sector reform of Scotland's police forces has achieved savings of more than £72 million and force could meet main savings target two years early. Read more >>>

 

I haven’t seen any predictions on mergers or shared service working for Scottish councils if there is a “yes” vote this September. But, if the Barnet Formula is revoked as a result, local government in the fledgling nation may have to rethink its current, reluctant stance.