Total Place sometimes seems like the best policy idea that never was. We were really on to something back in 2008: there was so much learning, so much potential. We were paving the way to something different and better, no matter how difficult. And yet it was abandoned.
But, in policy circles, gone rarely means forgotten when it comes to a good idea and place-based budgeting has remained a topic of discussion ever since.
It has been kept on the agenda by the valiant determination of former secretary of state John Denham and New Local, among many others, and buoyed by the fact that almost everyone – inside and outside of Westminster – agrees it makes sense to let local decision-makers join up money in ways that respond to local needs and support innovation.
Now it is back, at Stronger Things – New Local's annual celebration of all things community power and place-based public service reform – we will be exploring the opportunity of Total Place with local and national leaders working to join up public services around people and place.
This year's iteration of Total Place is in the form of five place-based budget pilots, announced in last year's Budget and to be stewarded by mayoral strategic authorities, working with local authorities and other partners.
The five areas will be focusing their pilots on themes ranging from special educational needs and disabilities to preventing youth unemployment, offending and adolescent mental health – issues that cut across agencies and services and are closely linked to the experiences and opportunities of people where they live.
Yet the policy landscape in which these new pilots take place is very different to that of 20 years ago.
First, the governance map has changed. Mayoral strategic authorities are working with councils and other partners to build their new and important role in supporting place-based collaboration and public service reform. They also hold many helpful levers over policy areas, such as transport and health, and working alongside local government, are bringing additional tools and enhanced regional accountability to the task of tackling entrenched policy challenges.
Second, the ways that the public and voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors work together locally has also matured. Back in 2008, we were in the foothills of Local Strategic Partnerships but, arguably, were without the partnership infrastructure, relationships or ways of working needed to make the most of financial flexibilities. Today, although uneven, collaboration is far more embedded, with councils and their partners – agencies such as the NHS, employment support, education and policing – used to thinking about and working on complex issues together.
When it comes to tackling the complex and very human challenges the pilots will be seeking to address, having ‘good services' in a traditional sense will not be enough.
Finally, our thinking about what public services are and how they work has changed a great deal, with relational, person-centred and asset-based approaches now central.
When it comes to tackling the complex and very human challenges the pilots will be seeking to address, having ‘good services' in a traditional sense will not be enough.
We also need to focus on how those services – and the people who work in them – relate to the people they are trying to help and how they understand their lives, aspirations and strengths, and pay attention to social networks and participation, confidence and agency – the bigger picture of people's lives.
With greater emphasis on prevention through a whole-system approach, ideas like these are moving from the field of social care into the mainstream, alongside an increased focus on community power and strong, connected communities as the basis for good lives and resilience.
Today, fiscal flexibility remains an important ingredient of public service reform and local innovation but is, arguably, not sufficient. Taken alone, it leaves unanswered the question of what people's experience of public services should be, how organisations should work together to enable that experience to be qualitatively better and how to make the most of the opportunities afforded by growing regional devolution.
The opportunity of place-based budgets this time around is to help bring about wider public service reform – focusing not just on the what and where of money, decision-making and accountability.
These are, of course, hugely important enablers of change – but we must not lose sight of that ultimate goal: the how of ensuring people feel supported, understood and heard.
Let's seize the opportunity of Total Place 2.0 to help bring about the public services we want and need today – and this time, let's stay the course.
Anna Randle is chief executive of New Local
