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Innovative new partnerships are helping transform the way local services are delivered across London, explains Steve Johnson. ‘Capital ambition' is the Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnership for London. It is part of London Councils, and supports London's local authorities and their partners in the drive to constantly improve services, deliver significant efficiencies, and explore innovative ways of working to meet the needs of a truly world-class city of more than 7.5 million diverse residents. The partnership is actively led by members, borough chief executives, and leading partners, to push the boundaries of first-class performance, collaborating in areas such as reducing worklessness, improving energy management and combating climate change, connecting and empowering citizens, sharing services and developing London's future leadership. A major work programme of at least 80 projects, totalling £36m in investment, is organised across four main themes – Connected London (joining frontline services and empowering communities); Delivering together (shared services and wider collaboration); Raising the bar (increasing performance and sharing data); and Developing capability (supporting members and staff to lead and manage in challenging times). Jane West, director of finance and corporate services at Hammersmith & Fulham LBC, says: ‘It is essential that Capital ambition invests its funding wisely to ensure real value for money is delivered. All projects have to prove they add value to the work of the London local government family, and can achieve real, bottom-line improvements.' Recent developments include the ‘London efficiency challenge' – a peer review of all authorities, led by experienced finance directors, to identify greater opportunities for further significant efficiencies. Reviews currently being piloted in Camden and Richmond LBCs are supported by external expertise to help authorities not only identify potential areas, but truly implement them, and share the experience with others. The ‘Supplier relationship development' pilot is working with 14 London local authorities and their partners to improve London's ability to act as a collaborative client with its multi-authority suppliers. This will drive out significant efficiencies in London's £9bn supply chain, improve services, and demonstrate real value for money to residents. The ‘London energy project' is revitalising the way energy management and procurement is carried out, improving the approach to purchasing energy and managing its impacts. It also leads the way for all local authorities across England in combating the impact of the carbon-reduction commitment in 2010. For Michael White, leader of Havering LBC and deputy leader of London Councils: ‘These projects are just three examples of how Capital ambition is at the forefront of helping London find greater value for money for residents. ‘We are also exploring innovative ways of joining up London's customer services to provide genuine, "one time-one touch" services.' This capability to join up key areas of the capital's service delivery is one of the key challenges for the partnership. It is at the heart of the Connected London strategy. Using approaches already available with Internet sites Amazon and Google, the idea is to provide residents with the capability to personalise their services, receive information relevant to their interests, solve problems and engage in community-to-community conversations and self-help that will both reduce service demand, costs and improve satisfaction. If residents are to be truly empowered. they need to be able to deal with authorities which are accessible and easy to do business with on a daily basis. David Wilde, Westminster City Council's chief information officer, says: ‘Connected London will help make joint-working, focused on seamless services for residents, businesses and visitors, a reality.' The partnership also needs to respond to the impacts of the credit crunch, by which London is particularly hard hit. New projects have been developed to help councils manage the further squeeze on costs and ease the new burdens on service demand. These include developing pools of professional skills such as planners. Capital ambition enjoys a world-wide reputation, frequently advising other countries' local governments on improvement, but its continued success depends on its continued ethos of mutual support and interdependence, and enhanced partnership working across London to ensure delivery. Most of all, it depends on delivery. Steve Johnson is corporate director of Capital ambition

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WHITEHALL

Investing in partnerships for success

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