Expert interview: Chief Executive
From Future of Local Services to the Public
Contents |
Overview
This is the summary of an in-depth interview conducted by Ipsos MORI with a leading Chief Executive (of an unitary authority outwith London) about the future of local services as part of the LGA/HSC futures project, 2008. As all interviews and workshops for this project were conducted under Chatham House rules, the respondent's identity is not disclosed and some references have been anonymised or omitted to preserve confidentiality.
Current challenges for local services
Delivery of services is variable depending on the service being delivered. Also variable is the involvement of stakeholders and representatives of the community. For certain services, such as Streetscape, development of the services around involvement is better than more strategic issues such as antisocial behaviour or procurement of care for the elderly. Local governmment is moving in the direction of inclusion, involvement, empowerment and a very different commissioning model.
Frontline services that users experience everyday, such as parks or street cleaning, remain consistent and will increase in the consistency of involvement. Innovation is the big change - this is crucial to tackling local government issues in the future. The use of best practice from other authorities is a consistent method of improving services.
Future opportunities and challenges
- Ageing Population: "the person who will live to be 150 has already been born". This puts huge pressure on the economy and for local governemnt presents a problem around the allocation of resources. Simply increasing the eligibility criteria doesn't work.
- Looked after children/chaotic families: increasing numbers of children in social care. What happens when they reach 16? There are no services for them at this age, they just leave the system. They then repeat the problems their parents experienced (unemployment, unhealthy lifestyles, poor health and education), have children themselves and the whole process is repeated. The challenge is to break this cycle.
- The economy, stupid: for xxx, a traditionally working class industrial area, the problem is attracting new business to the area in the face of competition from the South East, whilst dealing with the gaps in skills and knowledge amongst the workforce. Challenge is to attract inward investment.
Good Headline for 2020: People in xxx lead happy, prosperous and healthy lives.
Bad headline for 2020: xxx, deprivation, statistics and unemployment have not moved on since 2008, residents are very unhappy.
Signs of the Future
- Involvement of the private and third sectors in local decision-making and therefore service provision. For example, South Tyneside's bid for Local Enterprise Growth Initiative Funding from the DTI was led by Geoff Ford, a man who runs a helicopter parts manufacturer. The bid drew on expertise from a range of sources from all sectors and, unlike every other local authority, the authority itself didn't take the lead. Part of the concept of Total Partnership (like total football but not as exciting to watch).
