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David Parsons says the next step now must be to deliver evidence of what can be achieved. The ‘Smarter Government' white paper last week gives us in local government the sign that we have been waiting for – that central government is taking Total Place, and the groundbreaking work councils are leading on, seriously. "In particular we are now better placed to tackle the cross-cutting problems such as worklessness, reducing crime and dealing with drug and alcohol abuse." The fact that the white paper draws so heavily on the Total Place learning and methodology is vindication of the LGA Group's commitment to Total Place from the outset. We know that the future of public services in an uncertain financial context lies with the bold work councils and local agencies are currently doing in the pilots and in the numerous parallel places across the country. We have long been telling Westminster and Whitehall that local places need the freedom and trust to find their own solutions to their own problems. In a short space of time Total Place is showing that when government engages with councils and other local organisations – including police, health, education, jobcentres and the commercial and voluntary sectors - to address problems collectively, things move forward further and better than we have achieved before. In particular we are now better placed to tackle the cross-cutting problems such as worklessness, reducing crime and dealing with drug and alcohol abuse. This gives real potential for fundamentally better local and national services for people while at the same time still addressing the issues of cost. In Leicestershire we are developing the concept of public service boards to provide a more streamlined and effective means of local governance to deliver this. The Total Place approach clearly has the backing and belief from government, and it also has cross-party support. Our challenge now is to produce the tangible evidence of what we can achieve, for the Budget. We have a real momentum and we need to work together to make sure Total Place does not just become another project with good intentions and huge potential that is not realised. Cllr David Parsons is chairman of the LGA Improvement Board

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Now for the evidence

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