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In 2010 the Government announced its intention to pilot Community Budgets as a method of integrating public services and giving "local public service partners the freedom to work together to redesign services around the needs of citizens, improving outcomes, reducing duplication and waste and so saving significant sums of public money".[1] Our report focuses on the work of the latest pilots. Launched in 2011 these were four 'Whole Place' Community Budgets and ten 'Neighbourhood' Community Budget areas. Separately, our report looks at the progress of the Troubled Families Programme, the priorities of which—turning around "troubled families" by integrating public services and tailoring them to families—came out of the Government's work with Community Budgets.
We found that the pilot Community Budgets are already demonstrating, through joint working between agencies and local and central government, the clear potential to facilitate cheaper and more integrated public services. They can also be used to make public services more effective by focusing on the specific needs of local areas and individual service users. However, achieving their full potential will require strong leadership at a local level as well as a commitment from central government to facilitate local partnerships and the flexibilities needed to develop local strategies and solutions to specific local issues.
Embedding the joint working necessary for Community Budgets will not happen immediately. There are cultural barriers to overcome across all levels of government and their agencies as well as new systems to put in place. The challenge of doing this, especially in the current financial conditions should not be underestimated. We were encouraged by the progress being made towards joint working between some central departments and pilot areas. We expect further significant progress by central government towards joint working with local areas over the next six months. The use in particular of secondees to the pilots from Whitehall has proved a successful means of challenging existing silo cultures. While we believe that it would be unrealistic to expect central government departments to provide high-level secondees to all community budget areas, their deployment should be encouraged where possible. Community Budget areas should also have one clear point of contact within each central department.
Key issues remain to be resolved before Community Budgets will achieve their full potential. Public service partners and local government must see that investment in Community Budgets will benefit them. To achieve this local authorities, their partners and central government will need to work together to develop a framework for agreements on sharing the benefits of investment. In addition sound arrangements to provide financial accountability will need to be developed further.
Turning to the Troubled Families Programme. While we fully support the work being done through the programme, there needs to be greater focus on how work with these families will continue after the programme ends in 2016. We also note that the new resources available to the programme have not increased in proportion to the number of families added to the programme in June. This will represent a challenge in terms of resources and capacity for local authorities and progress should be carefully monitored. In addition it is vital that the focus on a limited cohort of "troubled" families does not detract from the support available to the considerably wider pool of families with complex needs and the work being done using Community Budgets.
Support for Community Budgets from central government has been forthcoming but the Government must continue to send a clear message that it will assist every authority wishing to introduce them, and set out what level and type of assistance it will provide. This will be essential in persuading local authorities as well as public agencies that Community Budgets are the future of public service provision. In addition, the programme of pilots should have a clear timetable and measurable outcomes as they must not be allowed to slow momentum towards wider implementation. Getting Community Budgets right will be challenging and there will be some failures. The Government must learn from these as well as the successes. If the Government proceeds in the way we recommend, Community Budgets have shown the potential to provide for the future development of public services. If not they may simply become the latest 'shiny new idea' at risk of being replaced within a few years.
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