Prime minister in waiting, Gordon Brown, will be anxious not to be tarnished by Tony Blair's brush of public service reform, which has sometimes been accused of being more sound bite than having actual bite. The truth is, there was always going to be an invisible lid holding down the success of Mr Blair's reform agenda because of the traditional single-sector approach to solving society's ills. It was hoped south London gun crime would be curtailed by increasing numbers of police on the streets. But no-one in central government thought about the complex social interplay between factors such as housing and education, often the breeding ground for the sort of social anomie which might spawn such crimes, or the licensing of betting shops, where much of the trouble takes place. Meanwhile, the prime minister is surprised and frustrated that gun crime has not reduced. Mr Brown will doubtless want to tread another path. Equally, the new and more flexible Local Area Agreements which are getting ready to swing back into action are such complex arrangements of multi-sector bodies, service delivery agencies and central and local government, that a tweak or readjustment in one part of the complicated jigsaw is bound to result in an ill-fitting puzzle with a distorted picture. In other words, a particular problem of gun crime might have reduced thanks to the greater presence of police on the streets, but this could simmer and boil over into a riot which draws in the health sector, social services, housing, planning, regeneration, development agencies, learning and skills councils and the voluntary and private sectors – not to mention the media and central government. The ubiquitous local government place-shaping agenda, I contend, is the solution to this very modern malaise, and would serve our new prime minister well. The beauty of this agenda is that it relies on bringing together everyone connected to gun crime across all sectors – the entire public sector, the increasingly-visible service-delivering voluntary sector, local wealth-creating private business, and the much-neglected citizen – often the most affected by these issues. Councils have the responsibility to shape their place by leading beyond their authority – literally – assembling all the relevant players around the same table, ensuring those deemed to be part of the proverbial problem are necessarily part of the solution. Clearly, place shaping allows the issue to be tackled from every angle. Common sense tells us this must be a more far-reaching and sustainable approach than a single-sector response. To pull off this ambitious role, council leaders and chief executives – expected to be the guardians of place shaping, since they hold our precious electoral mandate – are very well aware they need to improve on the fundamental and elusive art of negotiating, mediating and influencing a set of people who not only have their own drivers but – worse – don't recognise the council mandate, deferring to their own central government remits. Council leaders and chief executives are, however, gearing themselves up for the challenge, and have the will and determination to make place shaping work for the good of everyone – the effects of which will reverberate across sectors, communities and everyday lives with the demonstrable potential to reform the public sector in the way that Mr Blair craved. So, if Mr Brown wants real and lasting change in public services, the means with which to achieve it are now in place. What we need from him is his personal seal of approval on the place shaping agenda so we can commit ourselves wholly to it, without fear the goalposts might be moved. And if we promise to deliver the skills within local government to shape place, then in return, we would like him to give us the visible support we'll need from Whitehall to truly reform public services. We know the way to public service reform. And if Mr Brown clears the path, we'll be right behind him. n John Atkinson is director of operations at the Leadership Centre for Local Government
