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The Government's post-Budget report on Total Place has failed to build on the potential of local area agreements and local strategic partnerships in which local authorities have a leadership role, says Adam Fineberg. While there is much to welcome in the Government's Total Place report, there are also significant factors missing which would drive and determine the realisation of improved public services, thereby making things work better for local people. "To a certain degree, Total Place, as with preceding initiatives, has been a piecemeal redevelopment of past working practices..." Certainly, by addressing the totality of local public funding, as per the ‘growth coalitions' and ‘smart local government' project, services will be improved. The new ‘single offer' provides an opportunity for ‘the strongest-performing places' to consider how to bring together funding to best effect on what can be termed a ‘macro' basis. The remaining authorities with ‘strong partnerships and strengths in particular themes' have the ‘innovative policy offer' to ‘develop new and better ways of working'. Generally, these proposals do not, however, encourage the breakdown of silo working and a 360-degree reappraisal of existing working practices nationally. As with other such programmes from the last several years, the strong localities, in terms of current practice – or those identified as being strong, will continue to take the limelight and take up the opportunities presented – and rewards. The remaining areas will feel left behind, with confidence levels diminished. What the Total Place report does not address, however, is the role of the local authority as the ‘first among equals' in local strategic partnerships (LSPs), being the source and conduit for the totality of local public expenditure – working to the local area agreement (LAAs) as the jointly-devised needs assessment, strategy, action plan, funding document and performance management framework. This is the only way in which the work of local public service providers can be truly integrated though leadership, with resultant improved end-user outcomes and efficiencies. The remodelling of the existing architecture around LSPs and LAAs is so necessary to address the wellbeing of local communities. By acting as a conduit for local public funding, the LSP is the portal for these agencies to access funds, with the resultant requirement for them to integrate their services. To a certain degree, Total Place, as with preceding initiatives, has been a piecemeal redevelopment of past working practices. Those, like me, with a background in community regeneration, will see that talk of ‘customer insight', is really about talking with local people about the issues and their experiences of public services in local areas, and working with them to develop a strategy and services which stem from this conversation. So, in ‘better performing' areas we will see efforts to bring about a change in the way services are designed and developed, to a lesser extent elsewhere. Much work around Total Place has promoted a professionalised approach, calling for significant external support – and resources – around and across a range of methodologies (leading, engaging, mapping, costing, partnering, etc) in order to realise ‘service redesign'. The consequences are to undervalue the excellent work of local public service professionals throughout the country, working, for example, to already nationally-rolled out good practice models around the prevention, early identification and intervention principles universally practised with the integrated working initiative of the Department for Children, Schools and Families. So, the Total Place report and the work of the related government initiative, Smart Government, misses the great opportunity to build on and add value to the architecture of LSPs, LAAs, CAA, etc, built up around the developed role of local authorities over the last several years. The current approach also misses the opportunity to value and build on excellent local public service professional practice, and rekindle the spirit which led many of us to embark on a career in public service in the first place – to make things work better for local people. Adam Fineberg is a local improvement adviser for Total Place in Yorkshire and the Humber

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WHITEHALL

Why LSPs are core to Total Place

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