Eight steps to becoming a greener council

Firstly, there needs to be political buy in at the highest level. This is about the Council leading on tackling one of the biggest public policy issues of our time; it requires political vision, commitment and leadership.

Secondly, you need to do an audit of the local area, what natural assets are at your disposal will depend which strands of renewables or energy efficiency measures are most appropriate.

Thirdly, you need to develop an all encompassing climate change strategy, which should spell out the Councils intentions for the next ten or twenty years. This should seek to balance energy efficiency and renewables, with the financial returns generated by the latter helping to fund work on the former.

Fourthly, get corporate management team buy in for this by making an economic case rather than an environmental one. This can be built around the economic cost of doing nothing and the financial, social, economic and environmental benefits of being proactive on this agenda.  The green strategy must link with the mid to long term corporate financial strategy of the Council.

Fifthly, it is important that the Leader of the Council and Chief Executive communicate their commitment to this and announce their intentions in a vision statement.

Sixthly, get early win green projects by focusing on areas that are less complex and where visible benefits will emerge early. An example of this would be solar, once this has proven successful more complex projects such as wind will achieve a better hearing.

Seventhly, implement quickly once a direction has been agreed, rather than continuously over analysing, like any strategy success will breed success.

Finally, communication is key at every stage of this, a compelling case can be made for a greener council, the public deserve to be made aware of this and continually informed on progress.

My latest column from MJ

The recent LGA report into future financing signalled that the very role and shape of local government in the UK is hurtling towards a significant crossroads. What it showed was that based on current projections there will be a £16.5bn shortfall in council budgets by 2020.

It predicted that 45% of budgets will be spent on social services by the end of the decade due to increased need and with waste collection also creating significant cost pressures, services such as road maintenance, libraries and leisure could see their budgets eroded by 90% compared to present comparative levels.

The 28% cuts between 2010/11 and 2014/15 have impacted heavily on council finances and combined with growing demand it really does leave councils staring into a financial abyss.

Some of the very services that the public value the most will come under serious threat if this funding chasm is not bridged. Local government could be left denuded of any capacity to be the main catalyst for the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of the local area. The ability to join up partnerships through place leadership would be nothing but a distant memory.

Without reform of adult social care funding soon, this financial Armageddon scenario is likely to become a reality. That is why, in APSE, we are calling for an all-party parliamentary commission to consider this issue as an urgent priority. This needs to not only consider how additional revenue can be raised but also if earlier preventative spending on public health, through local government, can reduce the cost of NHS treatment in later life. If this is the case then a realignment of funding needs to take place.  

At a time when local economies are suffering it is more important than ever for local government to provide local leverage, as well as provide community leadership on major socio-economic issues such as tackling youth unemployment, climate change, housing need and public health.

For those who believe in local government as a force for good in wider society it really is a scary thought that its role could be no more than that of an insignificant bystander within the local community, unable to have influence over the major public policy issues of the day, due to its lack of any meaningful involvement in the services that the public consume on a daily basis.

The local authority caterer’s association conference (laca) was a chance to reflect on how much change has taken place in school meals over the past few years.

A video link to Jamie Oliver allowed the audience to hear his views on how much progress has been made on embedding nutritional standards into everyday school life and some of the threats that may exist to what has been achieved to date.

He highlighted that Britain is the unhealthiest country in Europe and that levels of childhood obesity are scandalously high, with 1 in 4 kids going to primary school already obese and this figure rising to 1 in 3 by the time they go onto secondary education. With 3m kids eating school lunch daily this is a great opportunity for society to intervene at an early age to improve public health and educational attainment. It’s the ultimate invest to save scheme as it costs so much more to deal with the problems of ill health in later life than it does to address these issues in early life. Of course this requires joined up thinking at central government level between the Education and Health Ministers.

As well as strategic policy matters Jamie gave advice on more operational issues like improving school meal uptake. His view was that those involved in the delivery of school meals should be trying every trick in the book to communicate with parents and attempting to build partnerships with Head teachers.

Jamie expressed concerns around the exclusion of free schools and academies from compliance with nutritional standards and Michael Gove’s recent announcement of a new review into school meals. His view was that we already know what the issues are and are making progress on resolving them so why waste time with another review.

Toby Young gave a talk on how he has established the West London free school, whilst he was an interesting speaker his story left me wondering how fair and equitable a fragmented system would be if replicated on a large scale across the country.

The latest funding crisis report has brought into even sharper focus the debate on what future role and shape local government should have.

Should it play a meaningful role in acting as a catalyst for local society and the local economy or should it play a passive role emasculated of any real capacity to influence and shape with regard to the dominant public policy and social issues of the day?

This is a debate that is often played out in the offices of a handful of think-tank’s congregated in a small but powerful area of the country but what do those elected members and officers who are actually involved at the coalface of local government across the country think?

APSE’s latest research through its knowledge transfer partnership with De Montfort University aimed to find this out. The Ensuring Council: An alternative vision for local government is the report that emerged from this work.

What it found was that despite concepts such as the ‘enabling council’ or ‘commissioning council’, which would strip away much of local government’s service delivery role, being heavily promoted, many in local government do not share this vision. There view was that there is very little evidence to support assumptions that strategic objectives can be achieved by merely acting as an ‘enabler’ or ‘commissioner’.

Our researchers found the majority in local government do not wish to divest themselves of capacity to deliver for their communities. The ensuring council model starts to articulate an alternative vision for the future of local government. This is built on the principles of democratic accountability, stewardship, public value, social justice, civic entrepreneurship, financial capacity and empowering local communities, underpinned by a core capacity of in-house services delivered in collaboration, not competition, with other providers.

My view is that the ensuring council model resonates with those who are passionate about local government because it means councils are ‘doers’ locally, rather than handing over responsibility to others. This enables them to join up strategic thinking with operational efficiency and gives greater flexibility in responding to ever increasing demands.

So what’s it to be, local government playing an active role in local communities or stepping aside passively to let others fill the void?