5 The next steps
The future for integrated public
services
92. We conclude by examining the Government's
plans to continue rolling out Community Budgets with further pilots
and through information sharing networks rather than rolling out
the Community Budgets nationally.
93. Support from central government for the principle
of Community Budgets has been forthcoming with the Prime Minister
expressing his support in a foreword to the Local Government Association's
guide to Whole Place Community Budgets (WPCB).[221]
On the future for Community Budgets, the Secretary of State was:
pretty certain [...] that this is the future and
this is the way it is going to go. It is going to go this way
not only in terms of the way services are put together, much more
on a community and probably neighbourhood basis.[222]
94. Given this high-level support for the principle
of Community Budgets we asked how they would be taken forward
now that the four WPCB and 10 NCB pilots were showing progress
and whether new pilots were needed. Essex County Council said
that, though there was still work to be done to demonstrate the
effects of Community Budgets, especially in health, on the basis
of evidence and business cases they should be rolled out nationally,
adding that "we do not need more pilots".[223]
The Government, however, has announced that piloting of Community
Budgets will continue and following the 2013 Spending Round in
June a further nine areas were approved by DCLG as community budget
pilots.[224] Piloting
is not, however, the only way forward. Local Government Minister,
Brandon Lewis, expected that, while new pilots were being introduced,
other areas would continue to move towards community budget-style
working on their own initiative with work being driven and delivered
locally.[225] As the
Prime Minister has said:
Community Budgets have been shown to work[...] So
if you're thinking about using a Community Budget, go for it and
get involved. After years of top-down targets and centralised
plans, we're finally giving you the chance to take control of
your area and change it for the better: seize it.[226]
95. Community Budgets should
proceed in the form of further pilots with a view to rolling out
the initiative nationally as soon as possible. Central government
should, during this process, be supportive of local areas, outside
pilots, wishing to begin their own work on Community Budgets.
Government must give Community Budget areas a clear indication
of the specific support it will provide them with. The continuation
of pilots must not be allowed to slow momentum towards wider change.
The pilot programme should therefore have a clear timetable and
measurable outcomes. We expect further pilots to build on the
work already done to demonstrate to central departments the merits
of giving financial flexibility and flexibility over policy implementation
to Community Budget areas.
The consequences of not going
ahead nationally
96. We asked our witnesses what would be the
impact on local authorities within the next five to 10 years if
Community Budgets were not rolled out. In response there was consensus
that local services would undoubtedly suffer. Cllr Halliday from
Tendring Borough Council said that there would be "unnecessary
cuts and reductions in services",[227]
while Ian Davidson, Chief Executive of Tendring Borough Council,
said that without Community Budgets "costs will escalate"
and that:
We may play around the edges—we may have different
schemes and they will be forgotten and we will move on to the
next pilot and people will ask, "What was the last shiny
thing?"—but the cost will escalate as a core.[228]
Birmingham City Council explained that:
The public sector faces considerable challenges to
deliver radically new ways of service delivery in the light of
extremely constrained resources. Traditional ways of operating
will not lead to the scale of change needed, and therefore a new
approach is required.[229]
97. Manchester City Council told us that simply
cutting spending on public services would not solve the problem
of increasing demand and reducing budgets.[230]
It said that over the last three years total public spending in
Manchester had remained constant despite cuts to public services:
Decreases in spending by local authorities, the police
and others have been offset by increases in the welfare bill,
and to a lesser extent, acute care. Despite the cuts, demand and
dependency has not reduced so the costs to the public purse have
just been shunted round the system.[231]
98. The Government should by
no means underestimate the challenge for itself and for local
authorities of introducing Community Budgets nationally. There
will be some failures from which the Government must learn as
well as from the successes. All parts of Government, central and
local, need to work together towards the implementation of Community
Budgets. Some areas such as the health sector currently have a
golden opportunity to introduce Community Budgets. In other areas
continuing silo mentalities will have to be broken down for Community
Budgets to be effective. Without quickly and fundamentally
changing the way in which services are delivered by increasing
local autonomy and integrating services so as to reduce demand
and dependency, the reductions that are made to public spending
on local services may simply result in more spending in the future
on welfare, and judicial and emergency health interventions.
221 Local Government Association and HM Government,
Local Public Service Transformation: A Guide to Whole Place
Community Budgets, March 2013, foreword by the Prime Minister Back
222
Q 217 Back
223
Q 101 [Richard Puleston] Back
224
"Second Wave of Community Budgets announced", Local
Government Chronicle, 4 July 2013; the new pilot areas were
announced as: Bath & North East Somerset, Bournemouth and
Poole, Hampshire, Lewisham, Lambeth & Southwark, Sheffield,
Surrey, Swindon, The West London Alliance and Wirral. Back
225
Q 251 Back
226
Local Government Association and HM Government, Local Public
Service Transformation: A Guide to Whole Place Community Budgets,
March 2013, foreword by the Prime Minister Back
227
Q 150 Back
228
As above. Back
229
Ev 65 Back
230
Ev 79 Back
231
Ev 79, para 1.4 Back
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