Embracing wider partnerships
Author: Alex Thomson, the MJ |
In his Plugged In column for the MJ, Alex Thomson reflects on the essentiality of public sector collaborative leadership over the next few years.
Isolationism is not an option in international affairs, as recent events illustrate. From addressing ISIS to the threat of climate change, supranational problems require international co-operation.
Even the most fervent UKIPers stress that if we do vote to leave, it would be imperative to maintain engagement with the countries that remain in the EU and the rest of the world, for trade, security and other purposes.
There are many ways in which the UK public sector does not mirror international affairs ? probably most obviously in terms of glamour ? but perhaps the biggest is the long-term absence of collaboration. For years, different parts of the state have stood proudly apart, engaging with each other in only the most perfunctory fashion.
Some of this is due to the way our system of government was constructed and funded, with each Whitehall department historically designed to ‘own’ and address particular ‘standalone’ policy issues, and crosscutting collaboration rare.
While at a local level councils all too often saw neighbours as competitors ? for residents, attention, power and perhaps most importantly, money from government ? rather than very similar organisations facing very similar problems.
For reasons predominantly driven by money and capacity, the last few years have seen this isolationism across geographical and public sector boundaries reducing, with local public sector bodies across the country increasingly working in partnership.
For local authorities this has been most institutionally explicit through the creation of combined authorities and recent devolution deals, but less visible initiatives such as sharing back office facilities have been expanding for years. Even organisations across and within regions with intense differences in terms of identity and politics are coming together. That isn’t to say these differences aren’t still simmering away ? but that there now seems to be a general acceptance that running separate empires is no longer viable or even desirable.
This push towards collaborative leadership and a greater sense of partnership across the public sector has been a strong theme across all Localis’s recent research.
As our report, Commercial Councils highlighted, the story for local government in the era of austerity has been one of astounding innovation and entrepreneurialism, and this has often been predicated on partnership.
For instance, we found that majority of local authorities (57%) operate a joint venture with the private sector and that 94% share some services with another.
Collaborative leadership involves more than promoting integration within the state ? it also means co-operating more with partners from outside it ? be they from the private, voluntary or community sector. Often these initiatives contribute substantially to the local public purse, giving local government a fighting chance financially. As we found in our report on public land, there are substantial long-term revenue streams to be gained from realising the value of unused or under used assets owned by the local authority (and other public sector bodies).
Despite what the Treasury might suggest, selling public assets is not always the best answer. Some sites can be redeveloped with so as to deliver not just much needed new housing and perhaps valuable new public amenities, but also commercial and retail development to generate rents which can support local authority services for decades to come. Councils cannot do this on their own; they need partners with the right expertise.
However, there are less promising precedents. Our recent report with Grant Thornton found that devolution proposals that didn’t have meaningful buy-in from key local stakeholders such as Local Enterprise Partnerships, Clinical Commissioning Groups and universities were more likely to flounder. Several Whitehall insiders also suggested that many of the proposals they had received failed to demonstrate trust and unity of purpose between local authority partners, which they saw as vital. If you are going to devolve control over significant capital budgets, it is fundamentally important that you believe that decisions will be taken on impartial economic grounds, not according to political whim.
Another challenging area is health and social care. We are currently working with KPMG to research what a more local health and care system could and should look like and I’ve lost count of the number of experts who have told us about the deep cultural and organisational chasm within the system. Integration has long been a buzzword without much by way of concrete progress. Now there seems to be a recognition that it has to be made to work, or the consequences will be grim. As to how to achieve integration, the words mentioned most frequently in our research have been ‘relationships’ and ‘trust’ ? the two things which together underpin collaborative leadership.
Greater Manchester is a case in point. As a pioneer of getting everyone to work together towards common goals, the Government has trusted the region with total responsibility for its 6bn worth of healthcare funding. While it is early days, the early evidence suggests that local leaders are wisely engaging with all parts of the system as much as possible, be they providers, commissioners or users.
The region’s attention to targeting cohorts who find themselves ‘bumping up against’ departments without ever receiving proper joined- up care is also welcome. It will deliver better outcomes, free resources save money.
Leaders in local government are probably sick to death of being told to look up to Greater Manchester, but there will be some fascinating approaches to learn from ? successful and unsuccessful. More broadly, there is no doubt that collaborative leadership will be an absolutely crucial element if areas are to navigate the financial circumstances of the next five years. I see collaborative leadership as a mindset, a way of doing things, rather than a set of policy prescriptions. And it is a mindset which can ? and I hope will ? be adopted by local public sector stakeholders across the country.
Local government will face an almost existential challenge over the coming Parliament ? entrusted with more responsibility, but less money, and expected to improve outcomes for residents. Collaborative leadership will be essential.