"Improved service delivery is at the centre of the Government's agenda. Our aim must be not only to deliver excellent services, but to make them far more responsive to the needs of individual and local communities - giving local people a choice of where, when and how they are accessed. Local authorities and their partners have a real role to play here in considering the needs of their communities, and a real opportunity to engage in new ways of working and using the greater freedoms that are being delivered by government to raise standards and improve the quality of the services they deliver.
Integrated services are not just a theoretical concept - they can and are being delivered on the ground now. And they respond to a very real public concern - they wish to see joined up public services which allow people to receive what in the jargon we call a seamless service rather than being shunted from pillar to post. Sunderland's People First Initiative is an excellent example of this - I recently visited their new Hetton Centre and was impressed to see a police station, job centre, youth service, GP surgery, housing office, community centre and library services - all under one roof. This is real customer focussed service delivery, supported by a well integrated IT system, and driven by the needs and demands of the local community.
I am sure we will hear today of other examples of successful joined up services. Of course what works well in one area may not meet the needs of another. But it is important to learn from the groundbreaking work going on around us. There are many examples of excellent practice which need to be shared more widely. We mustn't be ashamed to consider learning from others good practice, and we must resist the " not invented here" syndrome. There is so much to gain from sharing experience of excellence in local government and today's event is an important tool in spreading new ideas and best practice.
You will, I guess, all be aware that this is an 'Innovation Forum' event. But for some of you the role of the innovations forum may be a bit of a mystery. So I think I should spell out its purpose. - The Forum was set up last year to bring together excellent councils and the Government in a creative partnership designed to develop and test new ways of working that will improve the quality of service delivery. It explores the scope for new relationships with government agencies and scope for joint working with other partners at a local level.
Its work is part of the wider government commitment to free up authorities to give their communities effective leadership and to deliver in ways that suit local circumstances. It fits very well with the Government's 4 principles of public service reform. Its work is also focussing on shared priorities agreed between central and local government during the last spending review.
Innovation Forum Projects
There are a number of initiatives underway under the umbrella of the Forum. Today's event focuses on the work carried out by the Group working on the theme of Integrating Public Services, - led by Sunderland with their four partner authorities - Kent and Derbyshire County Councils, Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council & Blackburn with Darwen Unitary Council. This project focuses on delivering models of integrated public services - going beyond simple co-location, to structural and organisational integration. It is in my view a very exciting project, but I won't say more about it now - as Colin Sinclair will be setting out the detailed thinking shortly, and I have no intention of stealing his thunder.
Other Forum projects cover new initiatives in a range of service areas. Blackburn with Darwen Council are working with partners on a project looking at school improvement and early years development.
Kent County Council are leading a group looking at reducing the need for hospital admissions of older people - the Department of Health are very interested in its potential to make real advances in the way local partners work together to meet the needs of older people.
The Creating Safer Communities Group, led by Camden, is working with the Home Office to develop initiatives which will help local crime and disorder partnerships to deliver more effectively on local priorities. The project is examining the scope to reduce the burdens of bureaucracy on local partnerships and develop shared data resources, such as the Crime and Disorder Data Information Exchange, or CADDIE. This is a new Internet site being developed to combat fear of crime by giving the public access to accurate and up to date information about actual crime levels in their area - plus information about local crime reduction policies and initiatives.
The Forum is also taking forward work in a number of cross cutting areas. Work is underway with Treasury on rationalising targets - the aim is to reduce the number of targets and focus on those which are genuinely supportive of local partnerships. There is also a great deal of work going on looking at how Local Strategic Partnerships can be strengthened - and in particular how public sector bodies can work together more effectively to deliver local services. This is important work not unrelated to today's theme.
Future of the Innovation Forum
I see the Innovation Forum as very much a process rather than a series of events. We recently reviewed with local authority partners how it has been operating and suggested some changes. We want more authorities to become involved and we want more of their partners to be fully engaged. We hope there will be more frequent, targeted events such as this which let people know what is happening and allow them to participate. We want more ideas feeding in from central government. We are also working to involve excellent districts, as they emerge, from the Comprehensive Performance Assessment Process, engaging them in new areas of work - for example on partnership working, and working between tiers.
Why this a good time to be involved in this work
This is a very good time for local and central government to be involved in such work. There is a great deal of innovative work going on which is likely to shape the future pattern of local government activity. There is also considerable scope for local authorities to explore the greater freedoms now coming on stream to tackle local priorities.
We are continuing to deliver our White Paper commitments of more freedom for local authorities. The Local Government Act 2003 most of those provisions will have come into effect by April this year, provides authorities with a raft of financial freedoms - including the freedom to borrow, freedoms to charge and trade, and the freedom to retain income from fixed penalties. Business improvement districts provide an innovative way to make a real difference - enabling authorities to work with local businesses to improve town centres and other commercial districts. Work is also continuing on reducing bureaucracy by relieving the burden of plan and consent requirements.
There are also a number of important Government reviews underway. The Devolved Decision Making Review is examining how best to achieve decentralised delivery and more responsive local and regional services. And the Spending Review will be looking at how we can make better use of our resources in the delivery of local services.
Work is also progressing on the Comprehensive Performance Assessment Redesign for 2005/6 to tie CPA more closely to the aims of the community strategy and more clearly assess the influence and impact of Local Authorities on their localities. Pilots for the 2nd Generation of Local Public Service Agreements are also underway. This builds on the success of the first generation and will give greater scope for councils to focus on local priorities. It will also offer a means by which councils can take forward some of the initiatives discussed through the Innovation Forum.
I would encourage all authorities to take advantage of the groundbreaking work going at the moment to develop new and better ways of working. Improved, customer focussed service delivery is an issue for all central government department and local authorities - not just 'excellent' authorities. Almost all authorities, whatever their CPA category, have some 'excellent' services and examples of best practice to share. Through the Beacon Council Scheme we aim to recognise and promote such practice. The Beacon Council Scheme is just one of the ways in which we are seeking to support new developments in local authority excellence. We recognise that there are a number of big issues with which central Government must engage to help facilitate joined up services.
We are looking at issues surrounding privacy and data sharing. The Department for Constitutional Affairs has recently produced guidance that provides public sector bodies with a route map through data sharing law. It demonstrates that it is possible for organisations to share data across traditional boundaries while respecting the privacy and confidentiality of personal information. We are supporting local partnership working in a variety of ways. We are evaluating achievements of Local Strategic Partnerships - We are also providing support though our Government Offices and in the form of a model performance management framework and a delivery toolkit to help monitor and improve LSPs performance.
Our Strategic Partnering Taskforce has developed a range of models for partnerships with organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors and has produced valuable guidance for authorities and partner organisations. Such partnerships can provide a very attractive option for local authorities in exploring new ways of responding to the needs of their community and delivering innovative and high quality services.
Best practice is also being supported through the Private Finance Initiative joint service centre programme. The 4Ps is producing a pack containing detailed procurement guidance and more general advice. We hope a draft will be available on the 4Ps website within the next few months.
Improved e-government is central to our plans for modernising public services and building them around customer needs. The National Projects Programme, involving councils, central government, the private sector and other partners is providing all councils with tools to deliver Integrated electronically accessible services.
But, as with so many other fields of work, it is ultimately down to the people who deal face to face with the public. That is why we are working to help ensure local government has the right numbers of people with the right skills to deliver better and more efficient public services. The Pay and Workforce strategy agreed with the LGA, Employers' Organisation and the Cabinet Office includes some exciting new initiatives around leadership development, performance management and training. It is no accident that the good and excellent authorities that are now enjoying greater freedoms tend to be those that have invested in staff development and put their staff at the heart of their improvement initiatives."
In conclusion, Nick Raynsford said there are real gains to be achieved by getting better at communicating and sharing good practice and joining up learning across Government.
He exhorted his audience to "be inspired to raise the standards of performance and quality of service that we deliver to people in communities all over the country. That is, after all, what excellent local government is all about."
Quelle: PublicTechnology, 24.02.2004
