It's great to be on the other side of the Spending Review. Such are the rhythms of our Treasury-dominated system of how we do government, an enormous amount of political and policy energy goes into this set-piece event. Now we are in the ‘delivery phase' of the Parliament when the Government's challenge becomes to demonstrate progress.
Headlines are dominated by big spend numbers and political trade-offs. But of more significance for the future are the hints at moves towards a different way of doing government altogether.
There is a growing movement for more creative, grassroots-led public service reform to shift our public service paradigm towards communities and places, as demonstrated by the huge energy at our recent Stronger Things event
The three principles for public service reform outlined are important: integrate public services around people's lives; focus on prevention; and devolve power to local areas that understand community needs best. They echo the reasoning behind English devolution and the NHS 10 Year Plan and are brought to life through a series of small but mighty initiatives.
Community Help Partnerships will work locally to bring support together around adults with complex needs, indicating a Total Place-style logic will be applied to understanding how disparate funding can best be aligned for outcomes. A new social impact investment vehicle to tackle complex problems is being developed. These add to the Test, Learn and Grow programme's unique local-national partnership approach to iterative service improvement culture and practice.
This has to be just the start. There is a growing movement for more creative, grassroots-led public service reform to shift our public service paradigm towards communities and places, as demonstrated by the huge energy at our recent Stronger Things event. In this next phase of Parliament, we need to get going and use proof of concept to push the reform ambition higher and the boundaries for change wider.
Jessica Studdert is chief executive at New Local
