Communities and Local Government CommitteeWritten submission from Lincolnshire County Council
Introduction
Lincolnshire was selected as one of 16 pilot areas nationally. Pilot developments have focused on the establishment of a team of 14 Key Workers who deliver intensive support to families with complex needs (FCN). There is good partnership engagement with over 30 partners engaged and eight partners who have pooled funding. In Lincolnshire this service is being developed as part of a broader early intervention approach to prevent movement into acute and specialist support.
Lincolnshire County Council welcomes the latest announcement from the Prime Minister about working with families with complex needs (15 December 2011) and looks forward to receiving further details early in the New Year.
Summary of all Key Points
A more joined up approach to support from central government is needed including sharing good practice across community Budget (CB) pilot areas. It is hoped that the new unit in DCLG headed up by Louise Casey will achieve this.
A definition of a “complex family” and the outcomes expected are essential if this is going to be measured by central government. Consistent terminology would be helpful ie current terminology is “troubled”.
Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) and its partners have a consensus that the Key Worker intensive approach to working with families is cost effective and any identified savings should be reinvested into preventative work.
ESF funding for Families with Complex Needs should have been pooled or aligned to CB:FCN.
There is a concern that any identified savings will form part of a reduced budget from central government in future years.
Pooled budgets take a significant amount of time to negotiate and sustain. This could be avoided through a single budget from Whitehall.
There is a clear multi agency governance structure which is accountable for the pooled budget and service delivery.
1. The administrative arrangements for operating a Community Budget and the support that has been provided by central government departments?
It was unclear in the initial stages of developments who was leading on CB with regular communication and requests for information from DCLG, DfE, Interface (DfE commissioned organisation) and Local Government Group This has now been confirmed as DCLG but information and requests for information continue to be received from all four departments/agencies. It would be helpful from a local perspective to have a more joined up approach to information requests and the distribution of information.
DCLG should now work closely with the pilot areas to share good practice and avoid duplication. Whilst local areas should create their own local solutions, there is a commonality of approach that an overarching government department is well placed to share and disseminate.
There has been no definition from central government departments on what is meant by the term “complex family”. In addition, there is no consistency in the way these families are referred to, at other times they are termed “troubled families”; consistency of terminology is needed.
In Lincolnshire we are developing a standard definition, working with partners but if there is some measurement of success that will be applied from central government, it is essential to have clarification about the definition being applied and the expected outcomes.
DWP are in regular contact with Local Authority areas regarding the ESF funding for families with complex needs. The East Midlands provider is in the process of working with a sub contracted organisation to further sub contract with other organisations to deliver work with families with complex needs with progress measures on movement towards and into employment. The proposed ESF funded teams are very similar to the Lincolnshire Community Budget intensive support team. It would have supported local developments to have pooled or aligned this funding.
2. What are the most significant barriers that have been overcome, and what barriers remain to put in place the desired services?
Lincolnshire have been successful in establishing a consensus across partners involved in CB that there is currently duplication of agency involvement with FCNs. There is also an agreement that the correct model to address this is a Key Worker who works in a holistic way with all the family and co-ordinates agency involvement, in the longer term this reduces agency input; both approaches save agencies money. There is also a consensus that any cashable savings should be reinvested in prevention work with FCN at earlier and earlier stages making it more cost effective. There is a concern that any savings identified will form part of a reduced budget from central government in future years.
Whilst LCC has an excellent track record in partnership engagement, the time taken to engage partners in the concept of pooled funding has been extremely significant. LCC has had real success in the pooling of funding, with eight pooling partners to date with others due to join. However, a single pot of funding from Whitehall would avoid the need for time consuming negotiations and ongoing requests for funding.
3. What are the emerging implications for local governance of services and who is accountable for the money spent though Community Budgets?
LCC holds the pooled budget on behalf of all partners. LCC and partners have created a robust governance structure to fully involve all agencies. This consists of a multi-agency project group to advise on developments, a multi-agency steering group to provide strategic direction with accountability ultimately resting with the multi-agency Shadow Health & Well Being Board.
4. What lessons have been identified for operating more comprehensive community budgets and what lessons the troubled families pilots will have for Community Budgets in other policy areas, and the “Whole Place” Community Budget pilots?
There should be sufficient capacity to develop Community Based Budgets pilots at an early stage. This should include a significant amount of time to carry out negotiations with partners on pooled budgets.
The starting point should be developing partnership working and the implementation of a robust governance structure that ensures multi agency engagement at all levels.
Gain an early consensus on the definition of families with complex needs and the methodology for the identification of families across partner agencies.
Robust performance management systems and evaluation are vital to demonstrate outcomes for continued investment.
Keep cost models simple and transparent.
December 2011