WRITTEN EVIDENCE
SUBMITTED BY
CORNWALL COUNCIL
(LOCO 061)
SUMMARY
Cornwall Council welcomes the opportunity to provide
evidence to the Select Committee on Localism. In summary the key
points we would raise are:
¾ Cornwall
Council is prepared for swift and decisive action now.
¾ Cornwall
Council wants to transform itself and become a regional authority
playing a more active role in all elements of public service.
¾ As a
regional authority it would act as a commissioner and not a direct
service provider.
¾ Cornwall
Council is ready to innovate and take on radical new powers such
as control of the A30 and A38 in Cornwall, and control of local
housing.
¾ Cornwall
Councils sees a much great role for both Town and Parish Councils
and the Voluntary and Community sectors in terms of both engagement
and service delivery.
¾ Cornwall
Council considers that Town and Parish Councils need greater recognition
from Whitehall. More support is required at a national and local
level to build their capacity.
¾ Public
sector needs to manage it's resources in particular finance, people,
property and ICT collectively.
¾ Cornwall
already has a number of vanguard projects that can demonstrate
that it has the appetite and ability to transform places and public
services eg launch of super-fast broadband, Active Partnering,
Newquay Safe.
BACKGROUND
The Coalition Government is clear on the principles
guiding its legislative programme:
¾ reform
and change today for social mobility and prosperity tomorrow;
¾ devolution
and decentralisation;
¾ a shift
in power and responsibility from the state to the individual;
and
¾ above
all, a determination to tackle the public spending deficit.
Cornwall Council recognizes that despite all the
current challenges it faces, there are lots of opportunities too.
The public sector is undergoing radical and exciting reform.
We feel that the opportunities put forward by the Government's
Big Society and Localism agendas could mean real changes in the
balance of power in Cornwall and in the way services are delivered.
As well as lobbying for more powers for Cornwall in turn we want
to devolve more control and responsibility to local communities.
Additionally Cornwall is a natural community with
a proud and strong identity, with natural administrative boundaries
for many statutory agencies. It also has the advantage of being
fully parished and has a vibrant third sector.
It is within this context that we provided evidence
to the select Committee and the questions raised.
The extent to which decentralisation leads to
more effective public service delivery; and what the limits are,
or should be, of localism;
Cornwall Council as a new Unitary Council covering
a County with a strong identity is in a unique position to act
swiftly and decisively in response to the opportunities being
made available by the Government in terms of decentralisation
and localism.
The Council is radically transforming itself, and
working closely with public sector partners to act as a regional
authority for Cornwall. The Council and public sector partners
recognise that Town and Parish Councils along with voluntary and
community sector groups and the values they represent, are the
building blocks of the Big Society
The Council is already taking early and decisive
action by setting an emergency budget (October 2010) to protect
the long term future of services and of local jobs. It is committed
to becoming a leaner Council delivering services through arms
length companies, local councils (Town and Parish Councils), social
enterprise, communities, businesses, partnerships and the voluntary
sector rather than doing everything in-house.
We consider that this is exactly in line with the
policy direction and Big Society vision of the Coalition Government.
Our direction is not changing; the pace, however, is accelerating.
It is particularly important in this time of radical
change and public sector recession that Cornwall Council shows
strong leadership to tackle immediate problems and grasp the opportunities
that undoubtedly exist. Over the next five years we will rebalance
our local economy which is currently far too dependent on the
public sector.
Effective devolution from central government to local
government and from local government to the communities it serves
can lead to significantly more effective policy development, decision
making and service delivery.
We think it is right and proper that within the spirit
of Localism, that Cornwall has a greater control over its own
destiny. We are keen to draw more powers down to Cornwall from
the national and regional level. We want to control decisions
about planning, housing and transport. We know Cornwall and we
know the present and future pressures and demands we face through
changing demographics and patterns of inequality. We want to make
the big decisions ourselves so we welcome decentralisation. We
would add:
¾ The
principle of empowerment (of organisations and individuals) and
subsidiarity are critical to successful decentralisation and allow
decisions to be made at appropriate levels via appropriate local
mechanisms.
¾ Service
standards can be agreed locally within an overall policy context
and delivery can be shaped to meet the local context and need.
This principle applies at all scales—whether considering
a Local Enterprise Partnership for Cornwall and the Isle of Scilly
or the management of a local park (http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=24697).
¾ We recognise
that in relation to the delivery of services different communities/client
groups exist. We have identified 3 different types.
¾ Communities
of place eg a market town.
¾ Community
of identity eg travellers.
¾ Communities
of need eg older people.
And that different these communities require different
service delivery models and therefore different decentralisation
and devolution models
¾ Principle
of co-production can maximise the use of the skills and resources
available. It allows local people to take ownership of local issues
and moves away from a culture of dependency on the state and on
others.
¾ Concepts
such as Participatory Budgeting where citizens and/or local organisations
play an active role in the decision making process are a form
of local devolution and a concept that is just as important in
a time of famine as a time of plenty. It is a concept that has
been widely used in countries such as Brazil, and is a process
in which Cornwall has been recognised as an exemplar of best practice
for participatory budgeting in rural communities.
¾ Local
government can use its skills, experience and knowledge to build
local capacity and confidence to encourage and support devolution.
Cornwall Council, working closely with the Cornwall Association
of Local Councils has already put in place an "active partnering"
scheme with local Councils. At the first level local Councils
have a more active role in monitoring service delivery whilst
the highest level the local Council has full responsibility for
the delivery of local services. The Council is also encouraging
smaller local Councils to work together (http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=24697).
Should a local community want a higher standard for a devolved
service, it has the ability to raise its own income locally to
cover this.
¾ We fully
recognise the vital role that the voluntary and community sector
play and their role within the local economy. The Council is committed
to helping transform the voluntary and community sector, to build
its capacity and to increase its ability to compete within a commissioning
landscape. We are developing a Commissioning Board and will encourage
collaboration so as not to loose the local skills and knowledge
that voluntary and community sector and SMEs can offer.
¾ In respect
of council housing, decentralisation of the national housing subsidy
system and putting it under local authority control would be very
beneficial. This would create a new financially responsible
system that is transparent to tenants, hands control of an essential
local asset back to local communities and removes the need for
a bureaucratic inflexible system of national controls. It will
allow long term asset management, better repair and maintenance
planning and open up greater opportunities to deal with local
needs housing.
¾ Developing
a mixed, and community oriented, market for service delivery also
builds in greater capacity to deal with peaks and troughs but
also increases local resilience.
¾ We are
committed to moving forward in a balanced and integrated way where
"bottom-up" needs and desires are considered as part
of strategic decision making. We are encouraging all Town and
Parish Councils to develop an appropriate and realistic local
Parish/Community Plan that articulates local needs and local aspirations
¾ In relation
to school academies the Council has a neutral viewpoint but will
work to support all schools whatever their status
¾ Some
service such as planning have already devolved some decision making
powers to local Councils.
Clearly the details of decentralisation will need
to be carefully thought through to ensure appropriate accountability
mechanisms are in place, that risk is managed and the chance of
service failure is minimised. Cornwall Council and the communities
it serves are not perturbed by this and there is a real appetite
for the challenge ahead. We believe that with the Unitary Council
now fully functional that we have a once in a lifetime opportunity
to grasp the mettle and give Cornwall a much greater say in its
destiny and deliver public services that the community really
value.
We do not consider that the government should try
to set the limits of localism. True localism is dependent on local
communities and the organisations that serve it having the appetite,
skills, confidence and capacity to take the opportunities being
made available. This will change with time and local context.
Therefore it would be difficult to place limits on it.
The lessons for decentralisation from Total Place,
and the potential to build on the work done under that initiative,
particularly through place-based budgeting
Cornwall has limited experience of formal "Total
Place" working. However because of its peripherality, common
administrative public sector boundaries and innovative spirit
has been working within the principles of Total Place for a considerable
time.
The Government is looking for local leadership and
Cornwall Council is stepping up to the mark and to build on this
existing strong base of partnership working. As well as taking
on more powers ourselves we will devolve more powers and responsibilities
and ask town and parish councils and community groups to take
over some assets and activities. This is true double devolution.
We will also work with our public sector partners to encourage
them to seek more autonomy and to be able to take a greater role
in determining Cornwall's destiny. To us this is making Big Society
real.
But we aim to go beyond Big Society. We want to create
BIG CORNWALL.
In our leadership role, we will encourage public sector agencies
to work together to deliver efficiencies over and beyond those
required by Government. In this way we can create our own place-based
budget and our own Cornish investment programme. This is BIG
CORNWALL.
For Cornwall this means that service providers will
avoid overlap and duplication leading to an improvement in efficiency,
better local services tailored to local need resulting in better
value for money.
Specifically the Council will:
¾ Accommodate
the 30% reduction in Government funding within the Council itself
through further efficiencies and unitary savings.
¾ Exceed
the 30% Government savings target by working innovatively with
public sector agencies to share facilities and integrate services.
The excess savings will create a public sector "profit"
for Cornwall.
¾ Use
that profit to re-invest in Cornwall. This money together with
any associated match funding can finance a capital programme.
Our dream is to have a £1 billion investment programme for
Cornwall funded by the public sector without any of the red tape
of European funding.
¾ Deliver
double devolution. In line with Government policy we will draw
down more regional powers to Cornwall. For example, we want control
of the A30 and A38 so that we decide locally on growth and development
along these arterial routes.
¾ We will
also devolve more power and responsibility to communities so that,
for example, our larger towns control more of their own destiny
and deliver more of their own services.
¾ Cornwall
Council will fundamentally change. To deliver these radical reforms
we can no longer operate like a large district council—we
need to see the Council as a fully fledged regional authority
in its own right. Using robust data and intelligence about Cornwall
and its people, we will determine the services needed and establish
commercial arrangements with businesses, social enterprise, the
voluntary sector and communities to deliver services on our behalf.
We will devolve services rather than centralise them based on
robust data and intelligence and informed by our service users.
¾ Across
the public sector in Cornwall we have a vast property portfolio
and we are committed to rationalising and making optimum use of
this portfolio. By sharing office facilities and through efficiencies
in the front and back office, across the public sector we can
deliver significant savings for Cornwall. Where appropriate
we will look to realise asset potential to add maximum value.
This will be done in a mature, realistic and non-sentimentalist
way. It will include sales on the open market but will also
include releasing land for affordable housing and for asset transfer
of community assets to Town and Parish Councils or local community
groups. Each case will be assessed against an individual business
case.
We have real experience of making this work. Newquay
Safe a multi-agency project that includes public sector partners
including the Town Council, private sector partners and local
communities was set up following the tragic events of 2009 linked
to under-age drinking and anti-social behaviour (http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=20130).
It has been recognised nationally as an exemplar. It embeds principles
of collocation, coproduction, shared intelligence and joined-up
enforcement. We also recognise that there is a role for Cornwall
Council to commit time and effort to facilitate the joining up
at a local level.
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
Within a decentralised model Cornwall Council would
look to become a regional authority and look to commission services
rather than deliver services. This should and would lead to a
leaner authority but would also provide a mechanism for clearer
accountability at a local level.
At the same time, to make this work it is important
that any decentralised models covers as many possible public services
as is practical. Previous work by Sir David Varney has demonstrated
that when faced with life changing situations (known as "life
events"), such as a family birth an individual family may
be in contact with over 30 separate local and national agencies.
It makes paramount sense for these agencies wherever possible
to share information and fit within the same decentralisation
framework. Not only would this be more effective and less burden
but would increase efficiencies and release savings.
At present many parts of the public sector work to
differing public accountancy models and the pooling/transfer of
funds between different agency is difficult, as is year end closure
and the treatment of debt and year end over/underspend. Move towards
more complimentary short and long term accountancy models would
help.
The opportunities for the public sector are huge
and local government has a clear leadership role in bringing the
parties together and delivering effective programmes of change.
By setting up an arms length council-owned company to deliver
shared services we would have the commercial freedom to deliver
these services on behalf of partner agencies within and outside
our borders
A fluid and flexible model of service delivery alongside
and integrated with partners can accommodate many other agencies
so that citizens benefit from truly joined up services brought
together in a sensible way to make things far more convenient.
The action which will be necessary on the part
of Whitehall departments to achieve effective decentralised public
service delivery
To facilitate effect devolution and decentralisation
the following will be needed;
¾ Whitehall
will need to be joined up, particularly in relation to the services
provided by local government, police and health and
¾ Whitehall
needs to fully recognise Town and Parish Councils and give it
an appropriate recognition at Ministerial level. The voluntary
and community sector are recognised through the Office for Civil
Society, yet Town and Parish Councils have no similar recognition.
To some they have become the "Forgotten Sector". At
present capacity building of the third sector is partly financed
by the government—a similar package should be introduced
via NALC (National Association of Local Councils) to be distributed
through the existing framework of County Associations.
¾ Encourage
simple methods to provide local democratic accountability for
the delivery of all public services. Current concepts being floated,
such as elected Police Commissioners and Health Watch, on the
face of it complicate rather than simplify local democratic accountability
and could become a burden as opposed to adding value and accountability.
We strongly feel that improved local accountability can be achieved
by building on existing democratic processes rather than by creating
new ones.
¾ Minimise
national target setting/and inspection within overall national
framework of service standards to avoid a potential "post
code lottery" in the delivery of key services.
¾ Encourage
joined-up "Local" Strategic organisational business
planning within similar time-frames and longer term budget envelopes.
At present each public sector partner needs to produce its own
annual business plan and has its own budget setting process.
¾ Encourage
the open sharing of key data between public sector agencies, but
at the same time make the rules on the selling of public data
more accountable.
¾ Promote
the co-terminosity of public service delivery administrative areas.
Not only will this make day to day service delivery easier but
will reduce public confusion and therefore increase local satisfaction.
¾ More
complimentary public sector accountancy models. Ideally these
should be based on a five year package of committed government
funding. Not only does this provide the opportunity to plan ahead,
but gives massive opportunities to deliver large procurement savings.
It also moves away from the 'funny money' grant culture of the
last ten years but gives all players in the market, particularly
those in the voluntary and community sector to build for the future
and invest in their staff.
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
Public services will only deliver their (individual)
savings if they work together and share resources/challenges.
Cornwall Council is already looking to
¾ Deliver
a 30% reduction in procurement costs and double the local supply
chain. This means using more local suppliers and encouraging the
growth of local enterprises to deliver the services and products
we need. We want more of our business going to local companies
so more of our spend remains in Cornwall.
¾ Achieve
the lowest waste collection costs and the best recycling rates
in the UK.
¾ Be carbon
neutral and self sufficient in energy. Deliver £20 million
of annual revenue through selling green energy to other organisations.
¾ Have
top class neighbourhood services. This will include environment,
highways, waste, police and community services and will strive
for high levels of customer satisfaction. Through efficiencies,
reduce costs by £10 million a year. This will build on the
Neighbourhood Pathfinder in Newquay which is jointly sponsored
by the Home Office and CLG.
¾ Integrate
health and social care and create new organisations focused on
health and wellbeing, becoming 30% more efficient.
¾ Integrate
benefits services across agencies with a 30% productivity gain
as well as providing a more customer oriented system.
¾ De-trunk
the A30 and A38 and in the process generate 20,000 jobs and £20
million of annual extra revenue for the council. This would come
from increasing the council tax base and the economic activity
generated by development along the main roads.
¾ Re-profile
and re-think the capital investment programme to focus on big
economic projects that provide financial benefits through savings
or income. This could deliver 50,000 jobs and £200 million
annual revenue.
¾ Property—move
to a three-hub model and from 78 to 18 offices. This would deliver
a £10 million annual saving, generate £50 million in
capital receipts and at the same time reduce our carbon footprint.
¾ Recent
announcements about the introduction of super-fast broadband will
increase opportunities for remote working reducing the need to
travel whilst at the same time adding value to and boosting the
local economy.
What, if any, arrangements for the oversight of
local authority performance will be necessary to ensure effective
local public service delivery
Cornwall Council considers that its performance should
be judged by the people of Cornwall and by demonstrating accountability
between public sector partners at a strategic countywide level
through and appropriate democratic process as a regional authority.
Sensible key performance indicators should be reported
nationally to enable meaningful comparison between different parts
of the country. The concept of a simple "power of competency"
is welcomed.
Cornwall Council has already delivered increase local
accountability through Community Networks and is working closely
with Police and Health to expand this platform to provide increased
local accountability for many of the local services they provide.
Cornwall Council and local partners strongly advocate
for a minimalistic approach with a significantly reduced burden
of inspection.
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
Cornwall Council feels that there should be a minimalistic
overall national framework of service standards to avoid a potential
"post code lottery" in the delivery of key services
but this must not be too onerous and pose a greater burden than
external inspection. We also feel that there should be a fair
and transparent allocation of resources from Parliament that take
full account of the difficulties of providing services to rural
and dispersed communities.
As Cornwall Council is responsible for the expenditure
of funds voted for by parliament it is keen to explore options
whereby local MPs have a more active role in the operation of
the Council and in the operation of other public sector partners.
This is of course dependent on their being common electoral boundaries
at appropriate geographies. The introduction of a parliamentary
constituency that covers Cornwall and parts of Devon/Plymouth
would make this difficult and impractical.
October 2010
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