Someone who has influenced my thinking on local government greatly over the past couple of decades has this week published a new book, 'A Guide to Solar PV Projects - in Local Government and the Public Sector'. The first books of Stephen Cirell's that I read were thick local government law encyclopaedias around Compulsory Competitive Tendering, followed by similar tomes on Best Value, then the Private Finance Initiative and Charging and Trading. So how does someone go from this background into the arena of climate change, renewable energy and energy efficiency? And do they know anything about the topic?

For the past three or four years Steve has been studying this area extensively and following a year working for Cornwall Council as Director of Green Peninsula, he came 'back up North' and begun working on a range of renewable energy projects, mainly for APSE, around Solar, Wind, Biomass and Electric Fleet. When most stood back and prevaricated around Solar, Steve was shouting about 'early mover advantage' and evangelising that local authorities should 'fill their boots' before the Feed In Tariff's were inevitably cut. Some did, but many hesitated and lost the initial opportunity. Steve's book now revisits the proposition of Solar PV for Local Government and the Public Sector and finds that due to the drop in price on PV panels it stacks up financially once again. However, if it was only about money then it would be a fairly shallow proposition. It's also about community leadership, energy security, carbon benefits, effectiveness and efficiency, and wider economic benefits.

Steve is someone who has always been slightly ahead of the local government curve and I believe that his new book and the subsequent ones on other forms of renewable energy, will prove to be a sound investment for those who believe that local government has a key role to play in micro generation of energy, energy efficiency and tackling issues such as fuel poverty, which blights many of the poorest families in our communities.

To the workforce in local government this is your day.

Getting up at the crack of dawn to grit and maintain the roads infrastructure, sweep the streets, clean the schools and public buildings, this is your day.

Maintaining the parks, picking up the bins, feeding school kids and looking after those who need care, this is your day.

Managing and repairing homes, tackling fuel poverty, promoting physical activity and educating our children, this is your day.

Ensuring food hygiene and environmental health, trading standards and burying our deceased loved ones, this is your day.

Bringing us culture and libraries, planning our infrastructure and working with communities, this is your day.

Tackling floods, licensing premises, transporting those who need it, ensuring the streets are well lit, this is your day.

To the staff of local government thanks for making our day run smoothly, enjoy your day.

Connaught, Rok, Southern Cross, Mouchel, IBM in local government, not to mention wider public sector outsourcing problems with A4E and G4S- there really is a lengthening list of problems with outsourced contracts.

And then there are those contracts that are quietly ended ‘by mutual agreement’ to avoid costly legal action, saving reputations, but often masking serious problems.

APSE's latest research reveals that innovation and entrepreneurship is alive and well in local authorities the length and breadth of the UK.

APSE's new report, Municipal Entrepreneurship, challenges the myth that local government is monolithic, bureaucratic and incapable of change. It demonstrates that commercial skills and business acumen are flourishing in local government and that elected members and entrepreneurial managers are fostering a commercial culture among council staff. 

The research report has been produced by APSE in partnership with De Montfort University as part of a knowledge transfer programme. It highlights lessons, challenges and opportunities for local authorities taking an entrepreneurial approach to delivering services.

My view is that local authorities have been unfairly characterised as lacking the spirit of innovation by those with alternative agendas. This report challenges such preconceptions by providing clear evidence that municipal entrepreneurship is alive and well in councils across the UK. This is increasingly important in delivering high quality public services as budget cuts bite. Hopefully the examples from local authorities, highlighted in our study, will inspire others to take managed risks that will benefit their local communities and economies.

Case studies in the publication show what is being achieved by municipal entrepreneurs, including:

·             In West Lindsey, transformation of the local authority into an ‘Entrepreneurial Council’ has sustained frontline services, delivering efficiency savings of £2.13m.

·             In Tayside, sharing services across boundaries through a local authority contracting organisation has led to £14.5m surpluses being returned to the three Tayside local authorities.

·             In Wrexham, the council has implemented a renewable energy scheme, which will reduce CO2 emissions by three thousand tonnes pa and generate up to £1m pa for 25 years.

·             In Shropshire, Shire Services delivers catering and cleaning across the county and beyond, generating an annual turnover of £10.2m across Shropshire and £3m in external contracts.

·             In Hertsmere, Elstree Studios generates £1.1m pa rental income for the council, which is reinvested in local services.   

·             In Hull, Kingstown Works Limited delivers building maintenance and repairs services across Hull and East Riding and has returned over £3m in surpluses to Hull City Council.

·             In Swansea, redesign of the council parks and open spaces service has saved £155k pa.

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?  

There was a real feel of local government being at a crossroads around the LGA conference in Birmingham this week, particularly as the LGA launched its report into future financing to coincide with the start of the event. What it showed was that based on current projections there will be a £16.5b shortfall on 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 disposal also creating significant cost pressures, services such as roads 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 council’s staring into a financial abyss. 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 a highest priority.

Conference week is always a great chance to catch up with some of the key players in the local government family in its widest sense and capture the mood music. On the way into the venue I stopped to chat with 4 very different council leaders in the first 20 minutes and there was over 200 visitors to the APSE stand over the course of the 3 days. The topic of finance wasn’t far from most peoples lips.

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.

APSE has welcomed the debate about school meals that has been opened up as a result of schoolgirl Martha Payne's blog.

The 'Never Seconds' blog by the nine-year-old from Lochgilphead, Argyll has put school food under the media spotlight. We have campaigned for the highest standards in school food and believes that opening up debate will give school meals the importance they deserve politically.

Martha's blog takes a balanced view and her experience of food at school is positive overall. Though some meals appear less appetising than others, her latest ‘food-o-meter’ score rated her school lunch 10/10.

APSE's data shows that nutritional standards and uptake of primary school meals have risen over the past five years despite the fact that funding has not kept pace with food costs and pressure on education caters' budgets has increased.

Every day, school catering staff freshly prepare, cook and serve thousands of meals for children. The meals are delivered to strict nutritional standards, within a very limited budget and a short timeframe. For some children, school lunch may be the only hot cooked meal they get each day. Whilst there may be variation and caterers don't get everything right all the time, we should applaud their hard work and dedication in delivering school meals to high standards with decreasing budgets. Martha's blog has highlighted that school meals really do matter. Getting children to take an interest in their meals can have positive effects and Martha's blog has given us an opportunity to keep school meals firmly on the political menu.'

Scotland has been in the vanguard of implementing positive school food policies. The Hungry for Success initiative introduced a radically different school meals service that is envied by many other countries. This allocated £137m Government funding between 2003 and 2009 and was backed with robust legislation for food and nutrient standards. This commitment was recently reinforced by its ‘National Food and Drink Policy’. Linking school meals to Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence is at the heart of the drive to tackle the nation's health challenges. School caterers who are sourcing locally are also opening up the supply chain to hard pressed Scottish food producers and suppliers.'

APSE’s data shows that in Scotland's school meals are of a high standard. We continually collect data on good practice and measure performance throughout the UK, so we know that the quality is there and services provided are both innovative and highly rated.

School meals should be fully supported by Ministers and headteachers. Heads need to consider the impact on school food when timetables are condensed leaving less time to serve pupils and for pupils to eat their meals, as this can impact on presentation. Political parties need to understand that school meals should be integrated into school improvement and health measures.