Across the world, public sector leaders are reporting that the disruption caused by COVID has prompted significant short-term changes in how their organisations operate. Many believe the pandemic offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build on these successes and what has been learned from the crisis – to rethink the way public services function.
What of the UK? What impact has the virus had on local public sector leaders' ambitions for transforming their organisations, individually and together? This is what we wanted to discover when we interviewed 10 council chief executives and their key partners as part of the RSA's Bridges to the Future reflections.
Almost everywhere the leaders we spoke to were buoyed by how their organisations had responded to the first wave of the crisis. Many described how local transformation programmes had taken gigantic leaps forward: schemes scheduled to be delivered over several years happened in days; completely new services were created at breakneck speed.
For example, in Bradford public, private and voluntary sector partners established five new central COVID support hubs and 50 linked community sites in a week. Over a weekend they created a testing facility for care staff. They brought together a COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Group of clinicians, academics and practitioners to advise on the virus' local impact.
Most public sector bodies had shared and analysed much more data together, embraced digital approaches, took bold initiatives, and fully engaged their workforces.
Councils everywhere had worked closely with voluntary organisations, community groups and volunteers as well as strengthening their sub-regional links.
Across the country relationships between public sector leaders had been strengthened, providing a solid foundation for much greater collaborative innovation. Many now intended to jointly address the critical issues exposed or exacerbated by the virus, particularly the impact of poverty, inequality, health and racial injustice.
Many are already collaborating with employers and other key stakeholders to address the economic fallout of the pandemic. For example, in Hounslow, to counter severe Heathrow job losses, a huge cross-sector effort aims to foster ‘sunrise industries' and to create a much larger green economy. In Belfast, public and private sector bodies are working together to generate more economic innovation.
Going forward, there was a strong commitment to leading systemically, developing a cross-public sector, place-based approach.
Most plan to share and analyse much more data together as the basis for agreeing long-term joint evidence-based strategies to address critical shared issues.
Most intended to fully exploit digital technology and to continue to work with and through the voluntary sector. Some are planning completely new ways of working, based on what they have learned during the first wave of the crisis.
Some were determined to achieve fundamental changes no matter what obstacles they encountered. Others were less convinced that all the opportunities would be fully realised because of the many challenges they faced. They particularly cited the unhelpful behaviour of national governments, financial pressures, fatigue and people who wanted to return to the past. Some also mentioned local issues, such as complex public sector structures and looming elections.
When asked which local leadership actions were most important to achieve their collaborative ambitions, many highlighted continuing to nurture personal relationships with partners, including setting aside sufficient time to reflect, analyse and think creatively together.
Others emphasised agreeing clear joint objectives as well as ensuring local politicians are centrally involved. Many stressed the need to be brave and bold, challenging and persuasive. A large number recommended fostering the right organisational cultures, attracting and developing the right workforces and encouraging leadership at all levels in their organisations.
Despite all the challenges, the crisis appears to have greatly heightened local public sector leaders' appetite for fundamentally transforming how their organisations operate individually and together.
National governments, particularly the UK Government, could do much more to incentivise, encourage and support this. They could devolve much greater powers to regional and local levels, adopt a cross-cutting systemic approach to major social, environmental and economic issues, provide a light-touch integrated national performance framework, and incentivise local collaborative innovation.
If both national and local leaders seize this moment, local public services could be much better placed to play their full part in addressing the COVID crisis and its repercussions and, in the longer-term, in tackling the UK's key 21st century social challenges.
Joan Munro is director of the Accelerating Innovation in Local Government research project, and an RSA fellow
Seizing The Moment is published by the RSA: www.thersa.org/blog/2020/11/transform-public-services
