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With the pilots submitting their final reports this month John Denham says their findings show Total Place is here to stay. One of the biggest questions facing us today is how we deliver high quality public services despite the tighter financial climate – not only protecting, but also improving local services. Strong, accountable, decisive local government is going to be crucial to delivering that. "Total Place is now clearly not just a direction of travel, but the future of local government and local public services. " To properly fulfil this role, councils must be fully equipped with the powers they need to act decisively and effectively on behalf of local residents: the powers to scrutinise, influence and shape other services. This is a much stronger and more expansive role for local government than ever before: placing it firmly at the centre of decision making not just on their own services, but of all local public service spending. It means that local government will not just be overseeing their own services; but that councillors will be able to challenge how all local services are delivered, regardless of the provider. That is exemplified in the Total Place approach, which cuts out duplication and waste; saving professionals' time and services' money as well as improving the experience for the service user. This is sparking a much more open debate about the best way to provide local services and about switching resources between different parts of the public sector to achieve better outcomes. For our part, the Smarter Government White Paper sets out how we will free up councils and frontline services to determine what works best, with greater flexibility to innovate and collaborate. That includes cutting the red tape burden on local government by reducing the number of revenue streams, ring-fencing, targets and inspections – all of which will save councils time and money: resulting in better services delivered more efficiently. Because we have led and championed this very different approach; we are now seeing a major shift in the mood. Total Place is now clearly not just a direction of travel, but the future of local government and local public services. Our political leadership and will to drive this change forward has been crucial: but so too has the willingness of local partners to fully engage; to think differently and to win colleagues over. The pilot authorities have recently handed in the first drafts of their findings, and the ideas and implications are now being discussed across Whitehall. Already, we are getting an idea of the sheer scale of both the spending and the possible savings. For example, Birmingham has found that for every pound spent on drug treatment, they could save £9 in the criminal justice system. Meanwhile, Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset believe they can save £12 million by refocusing resources from acute care for older people to supporting them to live at home and thereby reducing hospital admissions. We are also seeing a much sharper focus on the needs of service users: with many pilots using customer insight techniques to overcome preconceptions and really focus on what people actually want and need. This has meant taking a hard look at local practices and procedures. For example, Bradford has found that much of the assessment done of prisoners is for administrative purposes. In fact, only around half fulfils a statutory function or helps deliver a duty of care. It is a comforting myth that all such inefficiencies are required by central Government. In truth, many come from local failures to ensure that such bureaucracy is minimised. Other pilots are coming up with a variety of truly innovative proposals which fundamentally rethink how their local services are delivered. The challenge will, of course, be for all councils to consider how these lessons can be used and applied more widely. There is real momentum to realise the potential inherent within Total Place and we will continue to drive forward the necessary changes, based on the hard evidence that the pilots are coming up with. John Denham is secretary of state for communities and local government

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WHITEHALL

Why Total Place is the future for public service delivery across the sectors

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