01/03/2010 – Ten ways councils can protect local services
The Department of Communities and Local Government published a new report today – ‘Putting the frontline first: meeting the local government challenge’. It sets out ten steps that all councils should take to protect vital frontline services in response to tightening local authority budgets. The report also suggests that there is a role for the third sector in co-designing services around the needs of hard to reach and vulnerable individuals.
The Secretary of State asked Sir Richard Leese and Sir Steve Bullock to lead a Task Force to develop proposals highlighting how councils can be made more efficient without affecting the quality of frontline services.
Chair of the taskforce Sir Steve Bullock, the Mayor of Lewisham, and Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council, reviewed the best ways to share resources, invest in frontline services, make frontline innovation a reality and how to restructure councils so they can deliver more efficiently.
The report challenges local authorities to take a more strategic approach to managing their budgets and urges them to radically act on transforming services. It sets out strategic questions for local authorities to evaluate themselves against, and a framework of actions, tools and resources to help councils protect frontline services. Ten steps, recommended by the taskforce, include sharing back office roles like HR and IT, creating customer focused 'Total Place' councils cutting out waste and duplication, having a Chief Executive that manages more than one public body and reducing the number of municipal buildings.
The report concludes that the usual 'salami slicing' of budgets damages services and in the process fails residents.
The ten recommendations for councils to do to protect frontline services are:
1. Council services must be focused on the customer. They come first
2. Take a Total Place approach to frontline services
3. Make services more efficient - cutting out waste and unnecessary duplication. Especially in two tier areas
4. Check performance against others and learn from who is doing it better
5. Buy goods and services in groups and use that buying power to create local benefits and involve the third sector
6. Reduce the number of council buildings by locating more services together
7. Motivate staff to help to perform to the best of their ability
8. Make managers leaders of innovation to improve services
9. Streamline management. Consider splitting senior posts with other councils or PCTs
10. Share professional expertise and ensure council staff are able to be flexibly deployed
Full details of the Putting the Frontline First: Meeting the Local Government Challenge report can be found at: www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/puttingfrontlinefirst