There may be a few council chief executives and finance directors out on the window ledge after this week's Budget, but what they should really do is take a deep breath and maintain a close scrutiny of that wartime poster ‘Keep calm and carry on'. Unlike many private firms, councils will not go out of business, even taking into account some districts' precarious state. And the existing CSR is some cushion against the economic storms. However, after 2011, the bets are off, and the Budget, to no-one's surprise, has earmarked some hefty efficiency savings of £9bn, although on what the figures are based is another matter. What is certain, however, is that the present silo-system of public funding is both inefficient and failing in its task of matching public money with local need. Sir Michael Bichard talks of the ‘total place' programme linking up funding across institutional boundaries. The Leadership Centre's study in Cumbria also found scope for savings, if public sector bodies could pool resources. The Birmingham LSP is finalising its own pioneering study into the £7.5bn public spending pot in the city, and concluding that this vast sum is not actually meeting its own local targets (see p3). This is not just an efficiency issue, although the budget crisis has brought it to a head. It is about sensible use of resources by ignoring institutional boundaries. The provision of sports facilities for young people is a health, leisure and crime-reduction issue. Reducing health inequalities concerns councils and the NHS. Ideally, public funds flowing into a given area should be allocated to need, or to meet LAA or other local targets before, not after, being diffused through the various public agencies. But, achieving this goal is problematic, not least because it involves ministers and Whitehall having to reduce their obsession with short-term funding and endless initiatives with fancy names and allowing local partners to make the decisions on allocation. A start, though, will have to be made, since £9bn savings from 2011 will take more than cutting out members' tea and biscuits and saving on stationery, and the alternative, cuts in services, is not an option. Michael Burton, Editor, The MJ
