The UK Experience by Malcolm Morley*
The depth of the recession in the UK has had a major impact on the private sector and undermined the ability of councils to provide the full range of Local Government services. Councils have had to rethink which services they really want to maintain, how they are to be funded and the roles that they can fulfil.
Metaphorically in such times of crisis there are two general approaches: either cling to the wreckage and hope for rescue or swim to the nearest bit of land and make the best of it. Given the state of the public finances it is unlikely that the rescue party will be arriving anytime soon.
Many councils are seeking to swim and in doing so forcing a debate about, and change in, the local governance model. Increasingly councils are becoming less passive and rejecting the need for detailed guidance from Central Government.
Increasingly the Central Government is seeing Local Government as part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Councils have outperformed other parts of the public sector in efficiency gains and in responding to the recession. They have illustrated that they have the ability to connect to local communities and to work in partnership to support their communities.
They have also illustrated that they have the competence and confidence to play an even bigger role in holding others to account.
The recession has forced councils to realign the balance they strike between service commissioning and service provision with a much greater emphasis on the former resulting in the aggregation of purchasing power, partnership working for service provision and service provision re-engineering to deliver efficiency gains. It has also provided a stimulus for them to look to improve and extend their community leadership role.
In previous articles I have identified how the focus of local governance has been diffused by the creation of a plethora of different public sector bodies. Now is the time to review this approach and to once again create a clear focus for local governance, with councils at its heart leading their communities and truly holding others to account.
Being the local governance for their communities, however, provides a real challenge for councils. This challenge arises from the potential conflict in seeking to hold others to account for services in which they might themselves be a service provision partner. Similarly it is difficult for councils to hold themselves to account for the services that they themselves provide.
A key issue for councils as they swim towards the future will be whether they are prepared to lose their service provision roles to enable them to become the local governance for their communities.
Many councils with strong political and organisational cultural links to their service provision will find this difficult. Others will see it as a real opportunity to improve the wellbeing and success of their communities.
Having just celebrated the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, it is pertinent to reflect that the survival and success of species requires adaptation to changed environments. The environment for the public sector has certainly changed; will the role of councils?
*Malcolm Morley is Chief Executive of Harlow District Council and can be contacted via the Editor, email info@lgfocus.com.au The views expressed in
this article are not necessarily those of
his employer.
