Innovation is the key to success
Author: James Morris, The MJ |
Hard times call for hard choices. Councils are being faced with a tricky dilemma – just how should they cope, faced with a situation of shrinking revenues, but ever-increasing demand for services?
This issue goes to the heart of how local authorities should manage their future role. It is a debate which needs to focus both on the way that particular councils decide how best to serve the needs of their local residents in a tough economic environment, together with wider questions about the longer-term financing of local government, the powers which need to be devolved from the centre, and the urgent need for innovation in the delivery of local services
Local government needs to be set free. Local authorities must be given the freedom to innovate and make the best use of available resources. Not every council is the same – there is a myriad of different councils throughout the country, and it is preferable that each is able to develop the ideas which best cater for the particular needs of their own area.
At the same time, there is also a need for good ideas tried in one place to be tested in others. There is plenty of innovation in local government but, arguably, not enough diffusion of innovation between different authorities.
There are some very novel ideas out there. Three councils – Slough Council, Northamptonshire CC, and Cambridgeshire CC – are joining forces to tender for a partner in the private sector to run some of their services, including payroll and personnel.
The interesting point here is that although Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire may be neighbours – Slough is not in close proximity to either. Technology now allows for councils everywhere to collaborate with each other, and this is a very important step in securing further efficiency savings within local authorities.
Barnet LBC is also seeking new solutions to old problems, with innovative approaches to behavioural change. In the case of littering, this means that rather than clearing up the same areas over and over again, it now provides individuals with a platform to discuss and sort out the underlying annoyances which their community face, and hopefully, find long-term solutions which will resolve the litter problem for good.
It is important for local authorities to take a strategic, long-term perspective. For example, both Essex and Barnet are moving ahead with plans to transform the way in which they deliver services by outsourcing operations and developing innovative relationships with the private and voluntary sectors.
Lord Hanningfield, leader of Essex CC, recently commented that ‘transforming how this organisation operates will deliver significant savings’ – savings which can be re-invested in the provision of frontline services, or in new initiatives which meet the demands of local residents.
This is likely to be something which many more councils will start taking forward. It is not a completely new idea, indeed, many councils have been outsourcing areas such as human resources and IT for a while, but these new plans are likely to take this to the next level.
The challenge for local authorities will be to continue to deliver the essential services their local residents expect, while at the same time, delivering the value for money which the hard-pressed council taxpayers increasingly demand.
The next few years will be challenging ones for local government. Yet they will also present opportunity.
More than ever, local councils need to make the case that, in order to serve the needs of local residents, they must be given the financial autonomy to make their own decisions about how to meet those needs, without heavy-handed direction from the centre.
The last 10 to 15 years have been the years of top-down performance management and control. The next wave needs to be about local innovation.
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