The case for deeper and more structured collaboration between local authorities is well made by Eddie Copeland and needed more than ever.
I run a large local authority in London. In the capital, councils have a mature way of working where issues that matter deeply to Londoners or indeed our sector are led collectively. That might be about developing the public service leaders we need in the future or the challenges of meeting the needs of those who seek asylum in the capital. Through institutions like the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI), we also have the chance to share what works and spread good practice.
There is both an opportunity and a requirement to go further and move this work into new areas. For instance, collaboration provides an entry point into deploying some of the newest technologies which can seem daunting to councils individually. In Ealing, we were able to use the methods and policies that LOTI has developed when introducing AI tools to our services. We adapted these for our purposes, but much of the heavily lifting had already been done with capabilities that we would not employ directly – such as an AI ethicist. The collaboration allowed for a more informed and effective use of AI, and we have reaped significant benefits.
If collaboration is important for achieving what we do now, it's essential for shaping our organisations and services for the future. We know that the way in which services are set up right now does not always address the root causes of issues driving demand, meaning that many services will rapidly become financially unsustainable if demand and the way we meet demand remains the same.
Collaboration and the spread of good practice can make the money go further, but the fact there are good councils in exceptional financial support shows the problems in the system are structural.
There is also a more fundamental question: if our services were fully funded for the long term, would they meet the needs and aspirations of our communities as they are today? The consistent social problems we see suggest not. And if not, then we need to think seriously about what we want to change and why. That involves asking ourselves hard questions and thinking clearly about what we can do differently or stop in order to genuinely meet the needs of citizens.
To move into this space, we need new methods, new ways of thinking, and opportunities to take measured risks that we wouldn't have the capacity to do alone. Furthermore, innovation benefits from multiple perspectives and diversity of thought. This is a space we need to expand and protect.
I know from my own organisation the challenges of trying to focus on the reform of services while tackling the daily challenges of delivery. The latter easily consumes bandwidth for the former.
The LOTI adult social care workshop, which I dropped into, is a great example of a space that encourages different ways of thinking. It brought councils, the voluntary and community sector, NHS and private providers together as they watched the experiences of real people played out by actors. One attendee said that for the first time they saw how the whole system was working for people or not, and where what they were doing made it better or worse.
We're never going to fix adult social care in a day, but we need to be creating new conditions for different ideas to emerge on our communities' biggest issues. Rarely will we achieve that individually, but collectively we can.
Tony Clements is chief executive of Ealing LBC
Best practice: Reaping the benefits of collaboration on technology and innovation piece by piece
