Government adopts Localis community-based proposals
Author: Localis |
A press release from the Department of Communities and Local Government following the Comprehensive Spending Review announcement has confirmed that the government are to adopt proposals which Localis has backed in recent publications. The press release states: “From April next year this first phase of 16 areas covering 28 councils and their partners will be put in charge of ‘Community Budgets’ that pool various strands of Whitehall funding into a single ‘local bank account’ for tackling social problems around families with complex needs.” It goes on to confirm DCLG’s intention to make community budgets available to all places from April 2013. Localis’ recent report, ‘Total Neighbourhood’, released at the Conservative Party conference, called for place-based budgeting and provided firm evidence of how it might be implemented effectively, and we are delighted that government has committed to developing this initiative.
In addition, the press release revealed that central government departments will work with “20 innovative areas to help push forward local flexibility and to address barriers,” and affirmed government’s commitment to encouraging trials of “community-designed and delivered services.” This is another approach which we have consistently advocated, most recently in ‘Total Neighbourhood’.