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Heather Jameson meets John Ransford, the newly-appointed, third chief executive of the LGA John Ransford: admits the last few months have been tough for the LGA John Ransford's appointment as third chief executive of the Local Government Association was something of a surprise move. Poised for retirement, John had vowed to stay on for as long as the association needed him – but no-one expected that to extend for two years – including John. Until the first week in January, he was sure his duties would be limited to merely ‘helping out' until the summer, while a replacement chief executive was found. But, after a difficult first week of 2009, he realised how invigorated he was by the challenge ahead – and agreed to stay on until December 2010. John is the first to admit the last few months have been challenging for both the LGA – and local government as a whole. In particular, the sector's reputation has taken a hammering. Part of his role will be to rebuild it. His first priority is to stabilise the LGA – and hopefully, the reputation of local government too. Internally, the development strategy – the plans to amalgamate the local government ‘family' – has caused much uncertainty. John denies local government minister, John Healey, ‘vetoed' the strategy. ‘Mr Healey has said we didn't engage with the Government quickly enough, and any organisational change must be defined by improved outcomes. And that's obviously sensible.' The strategy has been rebranded as ‘Getting closer' – true to John Ransford's straight-talking demeanour. He says the plan is to move the groups closer together and provide better services for the members. He is concentrating less on the ‘strategy' and more on the reality of delivering what the membership wants. Value for money will be key – as it will for the member councils. Membership fees have been frozen, and some councils have even had their fees cut, so he is determined to give more service for less cash. An interim arrangement will have to be made for the IDeA, since its chief executive, Lucy de Groot, is leaving, and plans for the deputy chief executive to cover that role have been ruled out. But, otherwise, it will be a case of joint evolution, rather than a revolution. The start of the external problems came with the collapse of the Icelandic banks – but he says local authorities' losses should be viewed ‘in context'. He admits the episode has damaged council reputations, but adds it is ‘unprecedented in my time, and I go back to the 1970s'. He says no-one was predicting banks would crash at the start of the credit crunch, yet somehow, people expected councils should somehow have foretold it and put their cash elsewhere. And then there was the reaction of the Government. ‘Banks which have been proven to be inefficient and risky have been bailed out. Local government – which is the most regulated part of the public sector and is proven to be improving – hasn't.' The next sledgehammer to come down on the reputation of local government was the Baby P case. As a former social worker who worked his way up the ranks, this is obviously something close to John's heart. He joined the LGA 10 years ago, and was brought in to sort out child protection issues. ‘I've dealt with these things as a practitioner and as a manager. It's the most harrowing thing one can do, and I don't blame anyone for being angry and outraged.' He admits Haringey made some mistakes – the first and most crucial of which was that it didn't apologise. ‘The child was let down by the system,' he says. But the media frenzy which ensued is something that no other council department – other than social services – usually faces. ‘I learned during the fire dispute – probably my defining moment in the whole thing – that 24-hour news is relentless. Every word one says and every facial expression is scrutinised.' He says the only way to deal with that is to be honest and open – and to say sorry – but Haringey took too long to come to that conclusion. ‘The reputation of local government will recover if people think we are making an effort to make things better.' For councils, though, much of the inspection and central government priorities have been based on education. ‘If one judges Haringey on its education services, rather than child protection, it has improved dramatically.' That focus – on the aspect of children's services which most people come into contact with – is understandable, but not enough. Anger was also levelled at the LGA for its failure to defend local government against inspection – both Ofsted in light of the Baby P case and the Audit Commission's switch to CAA. John acknowledges there are ‘lessons we need to learn' over the Ofsted debacle, ‘and we will learn them'. He explains: ‘When things go wrong, there is sometimes the tendency to blame the referee – and Ofsted was the referee. If we would have come out strongly against Ofsted, then we would have looked as though we were trying to get out of it. It was a judgment call.' But the judgment was not always right. ‘The biggest lesson I learned was the letter that Christine Gilbert [head of Ofsted] sent out. I thought that was disgraceful, and we should have said so publicly.' In terms of CAA, John believes the LGA has done the right thing in largely supporting the new proposals. He says: ‘We surveyed leaders of councils – primarily we are a political organisation. A lot of leaders saw CAA as a good thing.' Chief executives are a completely different matter. ‘We haven't got the same sort of survey with chief executives.' But he knows it would not be as supportive. ‘Some were almost on the point of non-compliance,' he says. No-one wants to see an inspection regime which appeals to the ‘lowest common denominator' in local government, and it has to provide some value. ‘The last round of CPA is going to see some dips in ratings. Some very big authorities – and a few of the big counties – are going to be marked down on their APAs [Ofsted's annual performance assessments]. ‘We shouldn't be perceived as liking CPA when it's marking us as good, and criticising the Audit Commissio

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WHITEHALL

Not so retiring John stays on

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