Localism

Memorandum from Gateshead Council (LOCO 32)

Localism – a Gateshead approach:

1. The Council is supportive of a move towards greater localism. Many of the building blocks to respond to the localism agenda are already in place in Gateshead and the Council has developed an effective model of working which form a strong foundation for further devolution of functions and resources from Government.

2. The priority is delivering Vision 2030, Gateshead’s long term and ambitious economic and community strategy. In order to achieve this, the Council has agreed 3 main aims in its approach to areas and neighbourhoods which are:

· To provide strong, visible and accountable leadership at all levels for neighbourhoods to the whole Borough

· To engage communities and empower people

· To deliver efficient, joined up, high quality services which meet the specific needs of each neighbourhood.

3. This involves:

· Strong and effective political leadership at all levels;

· Strong consensus based partnership working models and structures, supported by an effective scrutiny process;

· Well developed mechanisms to engage the voluntary and community sector in targeting services, working together to deliver clear commissioning priorities

· A commitment to working with communities in neighbourhoods to develop a menu of engagement and support, ensuring effective local services.

4. The key messages in our response are:

· Leadership is important at all levels. In Gateshead, leadership and accountability is evident at borough wide, area and neighbourhood levels, through Cabinet members and ward councillor roles.

· Effective engagement with communities is important to deliver the priorities of Gateshead communities in Vision 2030. In order to achieve these priorities, the Council has devolved resources, responsibility and accountability to communities and organisations where appropriate (eg community asset transfer; volunteering)

· The freedom to develop multi-agency approaches at a local level can create more innovative and targeted services that better respond to local priorities

· Place based commissioning and budgeting provide the opportunity to transform services at a local level, with the flexibility to respond to local needs

· Local approaches provide the opportunity to develop more preventative and innovative responses to local need, designed with local communities, and these can generate additional efficiencies and savings through more effective targeting

· An effective model of accountability for places is one that ensures accountability for outcomes and is supported by transparency of performance and effective scrutiny

· The local authority working with its partners could be a convenor of this new model of localism.

Introduction

5. In Gateshead, we have sought to ensure greater engagement with local communities in the delivery of effective and efficient public services for which the Council and its partners are locally accountable. We see significant benefits in the development of a more localist approach, and have already put in place many of the building blocks to achieve this.

6. Gateshead’s approach to working with local communities and partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors has been underpinned by recognition of the Council’s role as place shaping through its democratic mandate. To ensure effective service delivery that meets aspirations and needs of the people of Gateshead, at all levels of working we seek to embed:

· Visionary and Strategic Leadership at all levels

· Meaningful engagement with communities

· A joined up approach to service delivery.

7. Gateshead worked with partners in South Tyneside and Sunderland to form one of the 13 Total Place pilots, which explored the benefits and opportunities for greater collaboration between public service providers, to make efficiencies and improve the experience of service users.

8. We have well developed relationships with partners through our LSP, which identify and ensure delivery of local priorities. Our LSP structures and Overview and Scrutiny arrangements provide a robust framework to ensure the accountability of local services. There is the potential to develop these further to ensure the effective delivery of the localism agenda.

9. Work has also taken place to develop area and neighbourhood working in Gateshead, to enable the creation of services and solutions that respond to the needs and expectations of residents in specific geographic areas. We are one of the few authorities to make a major commitment to area based working and coordination, through our system of Area Cabinet Portfolios and Area Forums, to better target resources based on more local needs assessments, recognising the need for effective leadership at an area level.

10. We have also developed and delivered a number of innovative approaches to local engagement and empowerment, including participatory budgeting; neighbourhood management; local asset mapping, community asset transfer and we will be exploring further opportunities through our BIG Local Trust proposals in Teams and Derwentwater.

11. This submission reflects our learning from these areas of work.

The extent to which decentralisation leads to more effective public service delivery and what the limits are, or should be, of localism;

12. Summary of our approach and response:

· Strong and accountable leadership at all levels is vital to effective public service delivery, and decisions are best taken as close to communities as possible;

· Joined up and creative solutions are required for the complex factors facing some of our communities.

13. Gateshead Council considers that strong, visible leadership at a local level is key to local confidence and public trust. The Council aims to make Gateshead a better place and improve service delivery through visionary and inclusive leadership. The ability to achieve this at a local level is enhanced by decentralisation, as decisions are based upon the aspirations and needs of local communities, and local leaders are held accountable for the impact of decisions that affect their area.

14. Our past experience has shown that a number of the more entrenched problems experienced by individuals living in different communities cannot be addressed by individual services operating in isolation. Multi-agency approaches, developed at a local level can create creative solutions that better respond to local need. Our consideration of place based budgets (community budgets) through the Total Place pilot, identified the following reasons for decentralisation leading to more effective public services:

· Putting the user first. For us the starting point has been to find ways to improve outcomes for our service users and citizens, and to find efficiency gains through making the user journey better and more effective

· Focus on prevention. We explored ways to move ‘up-stream’ on the most difficult problems, focussing resources on prevention and looking at problems holistically, rather than intervening when problems become critical. We will also explore opportunities for transferring existing resources and service provision between agencies.

· Protecting valuable services to our communities. We are determined to protect the most effective frontline services through finding innovative and more effective ways of working

· Delivering through Partnership – based on clear business case and plans for leaner, efficient services.

15. The inclusion of all resources in a place-based approach to deciding how public money is spent will enable local areas to join up and take a holistic approach.

The limits of localism:

16. Centrally driven performance requirements, departmental budgets and sectoral cultures have created a hierarchy and silos that have, in the past, not been as responsive to the needs of local areas. There are significant benefits to having a less bureaucratic, centrally driven system, which will include a reduced performance management and monitoring regime and an increased role for localities (resources and responsibility). There will still remain a role for a reduced and streamlined central framework to ensure a consistent approach exists across localities of effective accountability and benchmarking.

17. Ensuring effective accountability is a challenge of localism that requires consideration to ensure appropriate structures are in place. The spatial tier at which accountability lies is an area of particular challenge, with the potential to create competing structures and mandates that can undermine the broader ambitions of localism. We feel that the most effective means of accountability will exist at local authority level, recognising the democratic mandate of elected Councillors in representing the communities they serve.

18. The establishment of democratically elected posts in areas such as Policing are likely to lead to difficulties in delivering the localisation agenda by creating confusion in the mind of the public as to who is responsible for community safety issues in their neighbourhood. This can risk undermining successful local partnership arrangements and single issue agendas. Developing democratic accountability structures across a broader spatial level can add to difficulties in delivering the localisation agenda with, for instance, in Northumbria the ratio being one person representing the views and concerns of 1.6m people.

The lessons for decentralisation from Total Place, and the potential to build on the work done under that initiative, particularly through place-based budgeting.

19. Summary of our approach and response:

· Joining up service provision across partners at a Gateshead and an area level

· Local flexibility to develop more preventative approaches to service delivery, and an increasing emphasis on the role of local agencies in changing behaviours

20. In Gateshead, we are building upon the principles and lessons from Total Place to develop an approach to community budgeting. This is taking the form of a longer term financial strategy for the Gateshead Strategic Partnership which allows more flexibility in resource allocation and priority setting. This is supported by our approach to area coordination; bringing partners together to address specific local issues at an area level (Gateshead has identified five such areas).

21. This will enable us to realise the opportunities identified through the Total Place pilot to improve outcomes and make efficiency gains, and broaden these out to other areas as appropriate. Approaches will include:

· Improving integration

· Reducing duplication

· Taking a preventative approach

· Sharing physical assets and infrastructure (including co-location of staff)

· Sharing back office functions (for example: recruitment, training, administration, communications, human resources)

· Single commissioning plan for all services in Gateshead.

22. Partners in Gateshead have begun to develop a collective understanding of the budget issues affecting all partners, to map spending proposals and commitments to enable a shared approach to budget setting, transforming services and achieving priorities. This work will inform Gateshead’s consideration of Place Based Budgets.

23. It is recognised that some of our interventions will take longer for benefits to be fully realised, whilst the need to make efficiencies presents the need for a more immediate response. It will therefore be necessary to develop a staged approach, which identifies actions and impact in the short, medium and longer term.

24. The Council’s Corporate Vitality and Scrutiny Committee has investigated how the Council and its partners can create a ‘thriving third sector’. The Committee identified 5 Strategic Actions to increase the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector in Gateshead. One of these actions included the development of a commissioning framework to help develop the sector and its role in supporting communities and delivering services.

The role of local government in a decentralised model of local public service delivery, and the extent to which localism can and should extend to other local agents;

25. Summary of our approach and response:

· The central role of local authorities as the accountable organisation for service outcomes and resource allocation;

· The need for more wholesale commissioning approaches from local government, and the development of a community budget and planning approach across all partners, led by the local authority

26. Local Government has a key role in the decentralisation of local public service delivery. As a strategic leader of place, and the democratically accountable body, local authorities are best place to co-ordinate an area wide approach with other partners.

27. As noted above, the progression of community budgeting will involve the Council leading the development of a local commissioning strategy. This will require Councils to work with partners to ensure robust research and intelligence functions to begin the commissioning process. An understanding of existing market activity within the area will also be necessary.

28. If the benefits of decentralisation are to be fully realised within an area, then it is essential that localism should extend to other local service providers, to remove existing barriers in relation to silo-ed approaches working and individual organisational cultures.

29. The voluntary and community sector (VCS) will be key to enabling a more decentralised and locally driven approach, building upon its ability to engage with communities and deliver services. This approach is being taken forward in Gateshead through our process for engaging the sector in the major decisions on choices and options for the Council’s future model of service delivery

30. Decentralisation will require renewed approaches to governance arrangements, ensuring accountability to local people. There is further discussion of this below with regards to Overview and Scrutiny and Partnership arrangements. This will also extend to publication and communication of performance data, which enables local people to make informed judgements about local decision making and the provision of local services.

31. Our LSP – the Gateshead Strategic Partnership – comprises a Steering Group and four themed partnerships to deliver Vision 2030. Cabinet Members with responsibility for the relevant theme portfolios chair the themed partnerships, though the vice chairs come from partner organisations to ensure an effective partnership approach is maintained. We believe that this provides the necessary clarity, consistency and accountability for our partnership work across the borough.

32. Our approach to area working also demonstrates effective accountability for the delivery of local services. We restructured our Cabinet Portfolios resulting in five Area Portfolios and five Themed Portfolios. Area Forums have been established in each of the five areas of the borough. Chaired by the Cabinet Member with responsibility for the relevant area portfolio, these enable public sector partners to re-design their services and pool resources in their area to meet local need. The work of the Area Forums is supported by a number of new area management structures and associated arrangements such as shadow youth forums.

The action which will be necessary on the part of Whitehall departments to achieve effective decentralised public service delivery;

33. Summary of our approach and response:

· A constructive and positive partnership between central and local government is essential;

· A continued relaxation of project and service specific funding, monitoring and accountability requirements;

· A commitment to the recognition of the role of local authorities as the accountability hub for decentralised local public service delivery

34. The Total Place pilot highlighted a number of actions on the part of Whitehall that will support effective decentralised public services. In the main, these related to the need for Whitehall to act in a more joined up way, which could be filtered to sectors and organisations at a local level, and the need for increased freedoms and flexibilities in the use of funding.

35. A well established relationship with Whitehall will be necessary so that colleagues at both central and local levels can share experiences of local issues and challenges, and develop mutually agreed approaches. This will enable national programmes to be brought together at a local level and practical solutions found to strip away costs and bureaucracy.

Actions that were identified through our Total Place pilot work were:

· empower local areas without being restrictive in terms of funding, reporting, data sharing

· reduce short term funding and remove ring fenced funding to enable a longer term and more sustainable approach that can respond to changing local circumstances

· provide flexibility to break from national campaigns, recognising that some have less relevance at local levels than others, and it would be more effective if resources (e.g.knife crime) could be allocated to locally defined priorities.

The impact of decentralisation on the achievement of savings in the cost of local public services and the effective targeting of cuts to those services;

36. Summary of our approach and response:

· Ensuring that changes in public service delivery are based on intelligence, involvement of local communities and assessments of local need;

· Freedom to innovate locally will also enable local partners to work together more innovatively in joining up services and delivery, and being held to account locally for performance and efficiency

37. Locally relevant and tailored solutions will enable more effective targeting of service provision in a time of reduced budgets. This will help to ensure that available funding is used in the most effective way, and that the commissioning, and decommissioning of services can focus on the areas of greatest need.

38. Local governance arrangements will ensure that all relevant stakeholders are engaged to inform priority setting and decisions effecting service provision, and ensure those decisions are fully accountable to local people. In Gateshead, partners have identified a shared vision and priorities for the future in our Sustainable Community Strategy, Vision 2030. Through our existing partnership structures, we are beginning to develop a collective understanding of the budget issues affecting all partners, to map spending proposals and commitments to enable a shared approach to budget setting, transforming services and achieving priorities which will help realise the savings needed across all partner organisations.

What, if any, arrangements for the oversight of local authority performance will be necessary to ensure effective local public service delivery.

39. Summary of our approach and response:

· Accountability to citizens, backed by increasing transparency of data on performance is more effective than accountability to Whitehall;

· There should be more emphasis on the role of scrutiny in holding all partners to account but that this should be focused on the principles of consensus and shared accountability for outcomes

40. Oversight of performance will differ between service areas. Closer working with Government can enable local areas and central government to build a better understanding of potential long term savings so that the right measures of performance can be jointly agreed.

41. A reduction in the inspection regime is welcomed, and Gateshead is supportive of an approach that diverts resources to the process of identifying need, planning and targeting resources effectively and being held accountable locally for performance management and effective delivery of local public services.

42. Reduced inspection and reporting requirements should be accompanied by greater freedom to innovate to address local needs and deliver local objectives. There is a need for a more ‘service led’ improvement process, driven by a focus on outcomes.

How effective and appropriate accountability can be achieved for expenditure on the delivery of local services, especially for that voted by Parliament rather than raised locally.

43. Summary of our approach and response:

· A strong emphasis on partners holding each other to account for delivery and outcomes;

· The role of scrutiny and the extent to which this role can be enhanced as a place based approach to outcomes for example scrutiny of the proposed Health and Wellbeing Board

· An increasing emphasis on outcomes and place based accountability, with strong citizen involvement

44. Ensuring effective accountability is a key challenge associated with decentralisation.

45. In Gateshead, partners currently hold one another to account for the delivery of the priorities within our Sustainable Community Strategy (Vision 2030) and our LSP structures. This is strengthened by the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny arrangements.

46. Current approaches to Overview and Scrutiny provide clear advantages in terms of accountability and decision making. There has been considerable effort to ensure that scrutiny committees are an integral part of the process of holding the Council to account, and as a key part of the policy development and service improvement process. Our approach also extends to our work with partners, providing a more holistic accountability for place. Partners and the Council jointly set the Scrutiny Committees’ work programmes and jointly agree to participate in scrutiny as required.

47. There is scope to extend scrutiny’s powers to cover the range of partners’ activities, including those public services determined at a national level. This will enhance the Council’s place shaping role, ensure greater democratic accountability and enable Overview and Scrutiny to drive improvement. We would also support this extending to scrutinise all public expenditure in local areas, where appropriate extending to private investment, for example transport utilities.

48. The Northumbria Police Authority model provides an independent, fair and transparent means of local accountability, which provide scope to be built upon. The mix of democratically elected Councillors and independent members allows the police authority to have a strategic overview and secure an effective and efficient police service with a mandate from local communities. We feel that the key to improved local accountability is to further enhance the relationship between the local authority and the police authority, which could be lost by the appointment of a PCC at a broader spatial level.

49. To further ensure effective local accountability, we involve local people in setting the Scrutiny Committees’ work programmes and informally co-op local community groups onto Committees where appropriate.

October 2010