Title

The new community budgets pilots present both councils and Government with an opportunity should not to be missed says Michael Lockwood, winner of The MJ Best Achieving Council of the Year, in an open letter to decentralisation minister Greg Clark. Dear minister Following the MJ roundtable discussion with yourself (see The MJ, 30 June) about the future of community budgets I was delighted to hear Nick Clegg's announcement at the LGA conference last week that community budgets would be piloted local authority wide. Joined up public services is something we have been striving to achieve in Harrow for a while now, but the lack of ambition for community budgets from Government and the inconsistent approach to localism from Whitehall has been hampering us. In Harrow the public sector spends £2bn year and we operate from 147 different buildings, surely we can spend that money better together. Just a 1% saving would realise £20m and more importantly enable us to improve the services that matter most for local people. The scale of the financial challenge means we must think more innovatively about service transformation and it is only by looking horizontally to our partners rather than vertically, in silos, up to Government that we are going to be able to meet that challenge. This is why I am keen to see Community Budgets actually deliver. However, for this to be a success, local government and partners must be involved in devising the scheme. And you need more than two pilots, so they cover two-tier areas, unitaries, London boroughs, urban and rural areas for example, for any meaningful learning to be gleaned. It is also important that the pilots get up and running quickly and for that to happen Government must listen to the learning coming from the current pilots and the CLG select Committee on localism about needing full government buy-in and a consistent definition of localism. This is not the first time government has been criticised for siloed working and inconsistency, but now more than ever is the time to do something about it. If we are to really maximise the potential from these new community budget pilots it is essential that we do not enter into this pilot with one hand tied behind our back. All government departments must be on board and open and willing to engage. It is also vital that there is a single unifying vision for local public services, which enables all public sector partners to pull in the same direction. This would require someone in central government to hold the ring and ensure some consistency of approach and yourself, as the Minister for Decentralisation seems to be in the ideal position to do this. The prize if we get this right is significant, not just in terms of the savings that could be made, which would not be achievable on our own, but in terms of the difference we can make to people's lives by joined-up public services, which is why Harrow is particularly up for this challenge. However, transformation decisions are already being made by ourselves and partners, so if we don't act soon the opportunity will be missed. Michael Lockwood is chief executive of Harrow LBC, winner of the best achieving council in the annual awards organised by The MJ

Title

The prize is right

SUBSCRIBE TO CONTINUE READING