Prospects: Innovative Autonomies
From Future of Local Services to the Public
Contents |
Summary
Many stakeholders consulted by Ipsos MORI and the LGA bemoaned the lack of freedom afforded to local authorities to choose their own path; to explore and experiment more often. They hope for local places to become thriving independent hubs for social and political innovation.
Definition
A consistent theme in consultation was the idea that whilst there is a lot of innovation and forward thinking in the local government community, the default mode of many local leaders and their workforces is to adopt a passive, rather than active stance towards change, uncertainty and the future. The emphasis tends to be on reaction, crisis-management and “repair” rather than anticipation, early intervention and prevention.
The 'Prospect' therefore is to offset this bias by adopting, under the right circumstances, a more radical and entrepreneurial mindset. This “active mode” is thought to require a more innovative and independent way of working, to which many in local government seem to aspire, but which our participants seldom seem to witness, for a number of suggested reasons.
A key stated reason for this is the perceived failure of central government to loosen the reins and allow sufficient freedom to local authorities and their communities to truly experiment at a local level, despite a flow of encouraging rhetoric over the years.
Related Issues
Many are passionate about encouraging innovation across local areas, through new relationships with Government, partners, leaders and the public, as well as the adoption of new technological tools and a combination of cultural and structural changes and a number of experts have argued that local people in most cases find solutions to their issues themselves, with little/no support, and that the challenge is simply to “enable” this. A key priority to ensure autonomy is resilience and, where it was submitted, of successful local contingency planning in places where future environmental change is likely to have a real impact: e.g. flood defences
Collaboration and partnership working has been central to the fulfilment of other Prospects (e.g. Powershare, Systems Sense), and it is no different in the case of innovation and achieving the right measure of local autonomy. Creative work with partners to solve problems and create room to manoeuvre is seen as key to success.
However, cultural barriers stand in the way of this. For example, as some see it, there can be major problems with the middle management of local authorities being resistant to change on any real scale. Appropriate leadership and management styles need to be developed throughout the workforces delivering public services, including the empowerment of the front line.
