Expert interview: Civil Servant
From Future of Local Services to the Public
This is the summary of an in-depth interview conducted by Ipsos MORI with a civil servant 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.
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Overview
The interviewee was a senior civil servant working with a wide range of partners at local, regional and national levels on policy to develop and share best practise for improved public services.
Current challenges for local services
In many local authorities their work is characterised as building on success. Michael Barber's work on the central-local relationship characterises the developments. The challenge now for local authorities is how to adapt their position as service providers and develop useful partnerships with local service providers. Local government is characterised by stability. Money has been available for local authorities to develop their service provision. Local government has also been marked by success, 5 years ago there were too many poor and weak authorities, whereas now local authorities are being encouraged to think beyond achieving just competence and how they might move from good to great. The London Chief Executives are particularly good at peer review and challenge, they meet in a regular forum and discuss each other's work. There is no obvious need for a different culture of local government across the country.
Formative events that shaped the current context
Incremental change has characterised the change in local government, and there has been continuous improvement in CPA ratings. However, there doesn't seem to be great change from the introduction of the new Executives introduced by the LGA 2000. It would be interesting to see whether there is a correlation between regional identity and performance, if those areas with a strong regional identity where the authorities work well together at a regional level, leads to high performing local authorities on an individual basis. Shropshire and Kent are particularly good authorities, and they have strong managerial and political leadership. You need someone to drive forward a good authority.
Other future opportunities and challenges
The future sense of place is an intersting question for all providing local services. However, a focus on what local government provides, or economic prospects is less important than a focus on partnerships
As local government is characterised by stability, issues are likely to remain the same, although predictions are not useful. For the future the issues that should be focused on include economic development, the need for more expertise in local government at working with RDAs, regional working and partnerships will be very important.
If you could look into the future what would be most interesting to know:
1. How is local authority X performing compared to its peers: in terms of economic growth, is it a better place to live, what is the crime rate? 2. What has been the impact of migration and has this area coped better or worse than others? 3. What is the sense of direction? As a citizen you would want to know what your leaders are doing.
What type of events would be shocks to the status quo:
Events such as Bird Flu, flooding, terrorism would be shocks to the system, but how local authorities manage their reaction to these issues is key.
Changes that would provide satisfaction:
If crime was down, skills were up, education standards were high, residents were happy with their area as a place to live and work, and society is at ease. However, there is only so much that local government can do on its own, successful partnership working is key. Overarching joy would be if partnership working has been a success. Would like the headlines to read that X is a fantastic place to live. In 2018 if people are talking about public service as a complete concept it would reveal the success of partnership working. A strong place needs strong local government. Jim Collins work 'Good to Great' is relevant here.
Local authorities need to share epxertise, the efficiency agenda is not going to go away, and there will need to be imaginative use of budgets. There needs to be a focus on officers sharing expertise. If Cllrs create resitence change will be slow. Members need to be convinced of the merits of change.
Key innovators and innovations
- The Front of Office Shared Service Agenda (I&DeA).
- There is a need for more sharing of planning and emergency planning expertise.
- City Regions, some support for them from government but they are not the only way, Multi-Area Agreements are part of the process as should be cross-party working. It would be bad if the growth of power in a region created a trophy region.
- The 2006 White Paper on Strong Leadership, the London Chief Executives Forum and the London Councils organisation, the Chief Executives and Kensigton and Chelsea, and Westminster are to be celebrated.
- The Tavistock Institute Beyond Competence Report is also a useful document to consider.
- The London Chief Executives Forum is good as are those authorities with a front of office shared service agenda.
- Sunderland is good, Wocester hub, Kent gateway initiative is also working well.
- Chorley and Tameside have a good online customer response programme.
- Kirklees MBC is the Council of the Year and has a particularly good Green Agenda.
- At Shropshire CC the Chief Executive has a great education agenda. Good things are heard about the two-tier wokring relationship between Derbyshire County Council and Derby City.
