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As the IDeA celebrates its 10th anniversary, it is, once more, at a time of change.

Its launch, a decade ago, saw a small but frenetic team, running excitedly around the country helping councils move themselves forward, with founder – and former South Somerset DC chief executive – Mel Usher chief cheerleader for local government improvement.

It must have been doing something right as, 10 years on, councils have improved massively. We have moved from an era of central government intervention to a time of sector-led improvement.

And, as we say goodbye to CPA, more councils than ever hit the top of the league tables, and there were no zero-star authorities.
Peer review – the IDeA's innovative attempt at benchmarking and spreading good practice – is probably the highlight of the IDeA's policy.

It has been so successful it was taken on by the Audit Commission as an inspection tool, and Beacon councils and best practice information have also moved the sector forward.

The next incarnation of the agency, prompted by the retirement of Mel due to ill health, saw former Treasury mandarin and Bristol chief executive, Lucy de Groot, take the helm.

Under Lucy, the IDeA calmed down and consolidated, then took on a range of new tasks in a bid to spread good practice in the sector.

Former LGA chief executive, Paul Coen – with one eye on the top-slice cash – was keen to amalgamate the agency with the rest of the LGA family, a plan which would eventually lead to his downfall, rather than that of the IDeA.

After six years, Lucy has also departed, leaving the two organisations to carve out the plans for their future together – as part of the LGA group, but still separate entities in their own right.

Now it's the turn of new managing director, Paul Roberts, to take on the leadership of the agency. He is determined to move the improvement agenda further forward, and is convinced that we have to move from best practice to ‘next practice'.

After a decade of the IDeA, he has plans for the future of the agency, including making the Beacons scheme  ‘more fleet of foot'.
Paul is optimistic about the future. He says: ‘We currently have what I think is the most successful set of programmes we have ever had,' but realistic, when he adds, ‘we have to consider what context we will be working in, in 12-15 years time.'

He hopes to ‘redefine the core functions of the IDeA and suggests the organisation may not be the same shape and size in the future.

‘There's no doubt the IDeA could be a much smaller organisation,' he says.

‘There's a really interesting debate to be had in working out the most appropriate roles for the different players in the improvement architecture for local government.

Councils will be very intolerant if we are not seen to be providing value for money.'

That will have to include a debate about what is done at a national, and a local level.

What is set in stone is his core beliefs about the sector and the agency's role in that: 

*  the sector has the ability to improve itself

* political peers are ‘absolutely at the heart of that'.

* the idea is of the sector, with the sector and for the sector.

‘We are clearly facing such huge challenges over the next decade, we need to move beyond incremental change to step change.'

But one of Paul's key concerns is the problem with ‘the degree to which local government can innovate'. He says: ‘It's impossible to innovate without taking any risks', and for local government, there is a limit to the risks we can take with taxpayers' money.'

For councils, he says, we must take ‘managed risk and risk which is supported.

‘I think we are much clearer that there's now  a role for the Idea to be a separate organisation in its own right, but a strong contributor to the local government family.

‘I'm confident that there's a good future for the IDeA, working inside the umbrella of the LGA.'

Paul Roberts Biography

Paul began his local government career as a teacher, before working for Nottingham education department as director of education and then Capita.

As part of his work at Capita, he was at Haringey LBC as director of education during government intervention in 2001-03.

It was run as a partnership rather than an outsourced service.

‘I don't want to sound immodest, but it was considered one of the more effective interventions at that time,' he explains.

At university, he had studied maths and philosophy, a seemingly-odd combination, but he becomes passionate when talking about this, explaining that the beauty of mathematics at a higher level makes the two subjects perfect bedfellows.

Paul joined the IDeA in 2004, as an expert un education but with one eye on strategy. Creativity is one of his main interests, and how to nurture and harness that creativity to the benefit of local government.

As a result of his efforts, he was made an OBE for services to ‘creativity and education'.

Paul has never been a council chief executive – something which might have been a stumbling block to his appointment to the top job at the IDeA in previous recruitment rounds – but that doesn't phase him.

‘What is needed is a close understanding and respect for the job [of chief executive]. Clearly, I wouldn't have taken the job if I thought I didn't have the experience to do it. It's more about bringing to the post a range of experience.'