Prospects: System Sense
From Future of Local Services to the Public
Contents |
Summary
This Prospect combines discussions about systems thinking, and complexity-based councils, partnership working and networks. There are a number of statutory requirements for local areas to consider their future operating environment in an holistic way, and to work in tandem with a range of partners to collectively meet the challenges of the coming decade.
Definition
This Prospect combines a range of discussions which revolve around the idea of local places as systems. A central theme of this Prospect is to explore and identify which parts of the system might be most susceptible to influence and which partners and networks will be most effective in helping to extend this influence. As local authorities adopt an enabling role and their number of potential partners grows, the challenge (and the opportunity) lies in finding new ways of harnessing the complex inter-relationships, interests and priorities of these different partners.
This is now even to be codified to some extent, in the area assessments that form part of the new Comprehensive Area Assessments, which will focus on the success of local partners working together to meet shared objectives, rather than the narrower, rather more confining approach of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment.
Consequently, as those in the sector know,, not only will local authorities be assessed in terms of whether they and their partners are fulfilling their residents’ aspirations, they will be monitored in terms of their combined effectiveness. The experience of local authorities, and the demands placed upon them will differ depending on whether they are a single/upper tier or lower tier authority, and the rurality of an area will also partly dictate the size of the challenge they face.
Therefore effective partnership working is now essential for the provision of services in local areas. Local authorities must work with local healthcare providers, the police, the voluntary sector and local businesses to deliver their local plans. The Audit Commission’s and other inspectorates’ review of local ‘places’ will review the outputs of this and its effect on the quality of life of local residents. These plans encourage local service providers, and local actors to consider the pressures that they will face in the short and long term, such as demographic change, migration, employment and skills, and housing to name a few of the larger issues. Consequently, local partners will have to work together in new ways to share data and information that will help them to understand the pressures that they will face together in the future.
Related Issues
To create an environment in which local partnership working is successful again different approaches will need to be tailored for the particular needs of a local area.
Some suggest that the most effective way to achieve effective partnership working and therefore effectively meet the needs of residents is to adopt a ‘whole-systems’ approach. This involves an attempting to break down and map at least some of the key interactions between all the parts (e.g. actors, strategies, potential assets) of the system on a particular topic (e.g. obesity) whilst retaining a view of the overall picture.
In terms of organising problem-solving it typically involves decentralising as far as possible, encouraging the growth of self-forming networks around some generally defined set of problems and challenges, which might invite a number of possible solutions. Some argue that this will be the defining approach of successful service provision over the next decade.
