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Few have realised the drive towards localism could create revenue as well as savings. But the Home Office and Brent LBC have hit on a way to achieve both. Chris Smith reports. The radical changes to how public services are delivered is both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenges are well-documented, less so the opportunities to rethink and come up with new approaches. Deciding to exit some areas of provision by going down the route of ‘less for less' is an obvious option. But what about doing more? What if councils were to start taking on new services? To go further, how about if they broke Whitehall's grip on core services – and charge for doing it? It sounds far-fetched, but that is exactly what Brent LBC has done by taking on a central Home Office service to residents. The council has created a team to run a local Nationality Checking Service (NCS) to process applications for British citizenship. And so successful has the project been that it has been rolled out by other councils, and a further pilot project will go live in October that will see 12 councils start a settlement checking service on applications for indefinite leave to remain. But it doesn't end there. The team at Brent believes councils can become nothing less than a ‘shopfront' for UK government. The NCS service is run in partnership with the UK Border Agency, which is part of the Home Office. Council staff build the application so Home Office officials can process it easily and give a quick decision. A member of the public applying direct will get a decision in around eight weeks. The Brent approach gets a verdict in four weeks or less. The applicant can retain their documents, such as passports, so they are able to travel and continue their daily lives. Staff are also able to advise if the application will be successful. If they are refused, the fee is not refunded, which is £735 for a single person. The initiative has now been taken up by more than 100 local authorities. Just this week, Blackpool Council announced it was starting the service. Cllr Ian Fowler, cabinet member for business services, explains why the council has got involved: ‘Blackpool has a high level of immigrant workers who wish to become British citizens in order to stay and work in the town. ‘Providing they are eligible to do so, the council feels it is in their best interest to help smooth out the process.' The man behind the scheme is Mark Rimmer, director of marriage registration at Brent LBC, who had the initial idea and negotiated with Whitehall to get the go ahead. He says: ‘It's not only about providing a better and more effective service for customers. It creates a new revenue stream. Councils can do more, get paid and do it better.' Mr Rimmer reveals it almost did not happen, as central government officials were initially reticent. He explains: ‘There were great murmurs of, "We haven't done this before", and, "They won't have been vetted or signed the Official Secrets Act". ‘My reaction to the last bit was, "Who gives a stuff?"' But attitudes have changed, with officials having been impressed by the can-do attitude of council staff and the spike in performance they have delivered. Border Agency caseworks have been able to cut time spent chasing up documents. Mr Rimmer says: ‘The Home Office has been hugely supportive because of the efficiency gains our staff have made. ‘They have been able to process far more applications because they can deal with them quicker. We've proved to Whitehall we can do it.' This has now led to the settlement checking service pilot, which will go live next month The go ahead did not follow months of protracted negotiations and staff training will be two days, not weeks. A UK Border Agency spokesperson said: ‘The agency works in partnership with a number of local authorities in providing a service checking applications for citizenship and copying and returning supporting documents. ‘The Nationality Checking Service provides advice to members of the public on how to fill in citizenship application forms and details of the requirements which must be met before their application can succeed. ‘This valuable partnership now assists over 50% of people who wish to become British citizens.' Mr Rimmer argues that this is the start of a new era for both central and local government. In the past, there has been protectionism by both local and central government in a determined bid to hang on to power and money. The result was artificial demarcation lines which have hindered providing modern customer services. He says: ‘The natural progression is to ask, "What else can we do?" People want to make a difference. That's exactly why I came into the public sector – and why everyone else does – in the first place. That's the ethos of public service.' As far as the team at Brent is concerned, there is much more that Whitehall can devolve. Benefits, Jobcentre Plus and driving licences could all be passed on. ‘Why is it central government thinks it needs to have a network of offices?' says Mr Rimmer. And he urges other councils to think radically. ‘Anybody who has dealings with central government departments should be starting to explore why things are done, and if there are better ways of achieving the same ends,' he says. ‘Let's break some of these barriers down.'

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WHITEHALL

The end of border control?

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