Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE)

Time to grit (no pun intended) your teeth and get on with it!

2010-01-09T15:30:00.005-01:00

Happy New Year although for many in public services it may feel as if there isn't a lot to be happy about.

Facing up to some of the largest challenges to public finances in a generation coupled with the impact of severe weather on the public image of local authority services may make many feel that they want to curl up in a ball and hide.

Unfortunately as has been proven in recent days if public servants don't deliver, the country and it's economy very quickly grind to a standstill. Over the holiday's and beyond, the fairly unique weather we have experienced, over an extended period, has meant grit stocks running low and whilst main roads have in the vast majority of cases kept functioning, minor roads and housing estates have remained snowbound.

Many schools have stayed closed after the holidays, some bins have not been emptied for weeks, as taking refuse lorries onto the streets in these conditions would be like releasing an uncontrollable lethal weapon, and many facilities such as leisure centres are unreachable except on foot.

The heroic struggle to respond to the worst weather in 30 years has been pilloried by some newspapers and yet these are the very same media organs who ignore the excellent work public servants do day in, day out all year long to keep the infrastructure of the country flowing freely. It's so much easier to criticise than be constructive. It's that thing about not knowing or appreciating what you have until it's gone.

So what has gone wrong. Well firstly the prolonged current weather front has been unparalleled in recent decades and the financial constraints local authorities operate under mean that they are unable to carry the levels of stock, staff or gritters on the off chance that something like this will happen once in a generation. If they did the same journalists would attack them for being inefficient.

Having said that I have not seen the massive levels of investment that some areas of the public sector have seen over the past decade or so flowing into some of the frontline blue collar services such as highways maintenance, indeed the opposite has often been true. With Government priorities focusing on health, education and social care some frontline services have been squeezed by the double whammy of corporate focus being on these inspected priorities and funding ringfenced to these areas.

With funding tight in these areas local authorities have whittled down the amount of stock they hold operating on a just in time supply basis. Suppliers have also geared up their operations to meet demand rather than hold massive supply levels above ground and hey presto we run into a sustained period of severe weather, rationing commences and everyone struggles to cope.

Of course it will be public servants that get the country moving again but don't hold your breath whilst waiting for any thanks.

Delivering Innovation and Efficiency!

2009-12-10T11:21:00.000-01:00

Progressive austerity appears to be the message on public finances for the foreseeable future. In local government this translates to reducing costs or cutting services in order to pay for the sins of the bankers.

For those who have been in local government over the last few decades this is not exactly a new phenomenon. From the mid-1970s onwards every few years another government financial crisis appears, often originating from another source; from the International Monetary Fund intervention to CCT and from Black Wednesday to Gershon.

And as much as we can blame others for all of this, the reality is that the public sector has rapidly become the media whipping boy once again.

There is much talk of incremental improvement being exhausted with innovation and step change being the only solution. But is this really true? Or is it a convenient truth for those who stand to prosper from alternative forms of service delivery?

My view is that creating an environment in which efficiency and continuous improvement flourish will allow a culture of innovation to develop. It will also place local authorities in pole position to lead other public sector agencies in the total place agenda. So what might this environment look like?

Firstly, there needs to be a focus on good local performance management data. Not centrally driven targets, but meaningful useful information that identifies a baseline of performance which can be scrutinised for competitiveness and challenged by both elected members and local people.

Phase two is about process benchmarking with others to identify who has outstanding performance at present then examining how to get to that standard or level of efficiency.

This can be done in a variety of ways, but the management tools and techniques associated with systems thinking approaches could prove a useful start rather than simply attempting to replicate others.

Involving staff from all levels of the organisation from the outset in this process will help spread the message and build ownership of the solutions.

Having untangled staff from the organisational straitjacket of the past, you are now into level three where innovation can flourish. Transformational service redesign can take place by eradicating waste and bureaucracy and enabling such innovations as the co-production in service delivery we have seen in recycling and waste minimisation over the past few years.

This has encouraged residents to take more responsibility for their actions while having greater input into service design and allowed more to be done for less.Of course it may prove easier to achieve the benefits created by such an environment if you have retained control of your own destiny.

For councils locked into long-term contracts, it is likely to be someone else who reaps the rewards.

Shared Ambition!

2009-11-17T13:28:00.003-01:00

Speech from the Guardian's 'Capital Ambition' conference in London.

On to the question then, ‘if getting organisations working together is an obvious and simple solution, what has prevented it happening?’

Some of my experience in this area probably dates back to the period 2002 – 04 when I sat on the Office of the Deputy Prime Ministers Strategic Partnership Taskforce and I seen at first hand the difficulties of getting the cultural, political and structural ducks in a row. We oversaw the 24 pathfinder projects identified as having the best chance of success and which in the end either experienced huge delays or disappeared into oblivion. So my starting premise would be to say an obvious solution, yes, a simple solution, no as it can become too elaborate and be over complicated by consultants and experts who make a living by generating fees.

Implementation time can be significant and shouldn’t be underestimated, the longer it takes the more likelihood there is of political, organisational or environmental change in one or more of the organisations. Large projects are also resource intensive and must be planned for properly. Consultancy and legal costs must also be built into the equation or the project could end up costing more than it saves.

However, APSE has also seen successful approaches to shared services, in the East Midlands 17 authorities undertaking joint legal services work saving £2.5m over 5 years, in Essex 15 authorities procuring energy supply together and reducing the cost by £1.7m per annum on a £12.5m turnover, the Greater Manchester authorities procuring transport fleets jointly and in Worcestershire the County and its 6 Districts combining to deliver the revenue and benefits service producing savings of £1m per annum.

A number of authorities in South Yorkshire also got together to procure necessary supplies for their decent homes programmes and advertised in OJEU their intention to hold an e-auction for £100m of heating systems, bathroom suites and vinyl flooring.

In Scotland Highways and FM services are delivered by Tayside Contracts to 3 local authorities, Dundee, Angus and Perth and Kinross who have worked successfully together for 13 years despite the fact that political control between the authorities has never been aligned and has changed many times.

Again however, I have also seen numerous examples of protracted discussions taking place over a number of years with a lot of time, resources and energy being expended prior to reaching an impasse and the project being abandoned.

With any partnership arrangement trust is always key and this is particularly relevant when operating in the goldfish bowl of local government where everyone appears to know everyone else and the baggage they carry. Co-operation is also one of the attributes required and managing egos in terms of who gets the credit will involve the greatest of diplomacy tests. Grasping the opportunity, however difficult discussions become, could be the critical factor for success and surely the potential efficiency rewards make it worth the pain.

The best advice available on governance structures for shared services is not to over complicate them. The more complex they become the more they are likely to invoke the European procurement directives or run up huge consultancy fees, which then erode the potential savings. Joint working arrangements, joint committees or consortia are often adequate to do the job. Limited Liability Partnerships or Joint Venture Companies, however fashionable they may appear, are only necessary in specific circumstances or when third parties from the private sector are involved, which changes the procurement dynamics significantly.

Potentially the largest savings can be made in I.T. based services where new technology can improve delivery across authorities and where geographic distances between the lead authority becomes less relevant than with more front line based services. Clearly savings can also be achieved from specialist service units or assets which are currently underutilised that can provide good opportunities for both shared services and service co-locations. With regard to labour intensive services the savings will mainly come from a reduction in senior and middle management and although this is politically sexy it will produce limited results. The use of buying consortia can also contribute significantly to achieving efficiencies through economies of scale particularly where heavy capital investment is required for large projects such as incinerators.

So in summary, keep it simple! Ensure there are adequate arrangements for scrutiny, transparency and democratic accountability. Remember if you go down the company route any elected member appointed to the company board will be required to act in the best interests of the company under U.K. law rather than the Council they represent. It is important to have senior officer involvement in the arrangements and to ensure that any conflicts of interest are identified by those involved. Consideration must also be given to asset transfer and ownership as well as anything jointly created by the shared approach such as intellectual property rights. One final point on governance is that exit arrangements should be agreed at the outset with financial penalties in place for those who voluntarily leave.

In the current financial climate local authorities cannot ignore this agenda, they need to examine their portfolio of services and assess which ones are most suitable for sharing. The shared services approach creates an opportunity to reinvent public services; the key to achieving this sits within the issues of trust, co-operation and grasping the opportunity. Don’t over complicate it!

Thanks

Speech at House of Commons on a new generation of council housing

2009-11-11T11:29:00.000-01:00

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to come along today and speak to you about the highly topical research APSE has recently completed for UNISON – A new generation of council housing, an analysis of need, opportunity, vision and skills.

Looking firstly at need, the origins of social housing in this country can be traced to a desperate need for quality, affordable, secure housing at the end of the 19th century. Just over 100 years later social housing is back at the forefront of public policy debate for the same reasons.

In 1997 the incoming Government inherited a £22b backlog of repairs in council housing and set out with vigour to address what was the dominant need at that time, to bring the standard of council housing up to a decent level. With almost 2m names on council house waiting lists and many more living in overcrowded conditions the pressure on Government to deliver more affordable housing has been intense. With Government looking for 3m additional new homes by 2020, the recent failure of the private housing market has only cranked up the need for social housing further.

With registered social landlords and arms length management organizations failing to deliver new housing in any significant numbers Ministers have once again turned to local government to deliver a new generation of council housing in order to meet this need. John Healey as Housing Minister has made more progress in this area in a few months than his predecessors have in 12 years. Whilst some may argue that it’s only a few thousand houses it’s a significant start and a signal of intent.

It’s no secret that council housing has had its doubters over the years and many have questioned whether local government will have the ability to rise to the challenge created by this new agenda after such a long time. That’s what we attempted to assess in undertaking this research amongst 50 councils, main stakeholders and case study work. Can local government really deliver on this agenda?

What we identified was a variable state of readiness within local authorities. We categorized this in 3 broad groupings the ‘trailblazers’, the ‘interested’ and the ‘unaware’.

The ‘trailblazers’ are those who have been pushing for the opportunity to build for a number of years and indeed 49 authorities in England, along with 14 in Scotland, are already engaged in the first phase of building new homes.

The ‘interested’ are those where elected member and officers have seen demand grow significantly over the past few years and have recently become aware of new opportunities created to finance new build council housing but a lack of knowledge after decades of not building has hampered confidence.

The ‘unaware’ are those who are not interested in this agenda politically or who feel that as a result of transferring their housing stock they no longer have a direct role to play in housing provision.

So what are the critical factors in pursuing this agenda? The research identifies the importance of political and strategic vision, clear leadership and a positive culture towards council housing within the local authority; a growing mood for the importance of direct provision; the impact of new central Government policies around financing council new build; the scope of developments, many are looking to build small infill sites in the first instance, but aspire to larger scale later. It also identifies some difficulties with the HCA bidding process and factors such as land availability, maximizing community benefit in the local supply chain and employment. With regard to quality of build, this is not about recreating the sixties high rises.

The research also identifies environmental considerations around carbon reduction, sustainable construction and energy use as significant issues.

Of course any decent size new build programme can provide a huge boost to local economies in difficult times. APSE’s previous research in mapping the economic footprint of local authority spend, which showed that for every £1 Swindon Council spent on their services a further 64p circulates in the local economy through the multiplier effect of local expenditure backs this up. Some of you may also have seen our report for the TUC trailed in the press over the last few days which looks at the impact of the recession on public services. This also demonstrates the importance of continued investment in local services in the current climate.

An important point to emerge from APSEs research for UNISON was that those councils who have retained their ownership and management of housing appear more eager and well placed to pursue house building and therefore help government address what is becoming a huge social need.

However some barriers remain with regards to legislation, finance and technical matters although John is deliberating on the findings of his consultation exercise into some of these issues at present. However, skills and capacity do not appear to be an overwhelming blockage to local councils building housing directly again in significant numbers.

Skills required are split into four sets generic, professional, technical and trades. These are linked to the various stages of building; pre-development; pre and during and on-site.

Whilst not every authority maintains significant capacity in these skill sets at this stage the vast majority believed that this would grow and expand as house building programmes progressed.

Having considered all of the above, the huge need for new homes that has built up, the failure of the housing market to deliver generally, the falling numbers of homes available in the social housing sector over the past decade, the economic necessity and benefit and local governments capacity and capability to deliver in this area, the report calls for the government to place a clear duty on councils to provide homes in the areas they serve, either directly, or in partnerships with RSLs or other bodies.

The report identifies that we have begun the first steps to build a new generation of council housing one that must be constructed with the needs of tenants in mind, to the highest standards of energy efficiency, built in the right places and in communities that are mixed and sustainable.

In closing, John I applaud the progress you have made over the last few months in reintroducing house building amongst councils on a significant scale and I hope that as we progress towards a general election all of the political parties will be attempting to outdo each other on their manifesto commitments on the size and scale of their programme of new build council housing in the future.
Hopefully this will allow council housing to become once again, a quality affordable option for all not just a safety net for some.
Thanks for listening.

Creating the ‘Ensuring Council’

2009-11-02T17:53:00.000-01:00

In his recent book on the politics of climate change Lord Anthony Giddens called for the creation of an ‘ensuring state’ with the capacity to achieve political and economic convergence across policy sub-systems to tackle what is becoming a global phenomenon.

With Copenhagen only weeks away the need to work strategically at national government level has never been clearer. However, this notion of the ‘ensuring state’ may also have a place at a more local level in terms of the creation of an ‘ensuring council’ - and not just for the purposes of climate change. An ‘ensuring council’ is one that has to balance the macro imperatives against the micro dynamics which exist in local neighbourhoods.

Since the White Paper ‘Strong and Prosperous Communities’ was first published there has been a Government drive towards community engagement and empowerment, which manifested itself in initiatives such as devolvement to neighbourhood management, community kitties and asset transfers, however has the recession now resulted in the application of the brakes to this particular bandwagon? Has the need for financial constraint focused authorities’ minds on the need to act as strategic place shapers? Do councils now fear the breakdown of their capacity to influence the local economy in tackling difficult issues such as unemployment and climate change? Has the agenda moved on from local communities to local economies?

Local authorities need to find the right balance between devolving political systems to a neighbourhood level and the overarching economic and environmental necessity that exists at present and is also likely to worsen in the not too distant future. This tightrope walking act is one that falls nicely within the notion of the ‘ensuring council’.

Whilst devolution to neighbourhoods will remain a dominant policy theme there are challenges and limitations to the role they can fulfil. Firstly, you need to be clear about why you are establishing such governance arrangements in the first place, you also need to decide what levels of autonomy neighbourhood models have and how they will be supported. Can local councillors manage the tensions between strategic and local issues and what relationship should the neighbourhood have with the wider role of the council. APSE’s forthcoming research paper addresses these matters.

The costs of such models must be managed and the creation of political fiefdoms avoided. Capacity to deal with wider issues needs to be retained; this should not just be about perceived improvements in service delivery, neighbourhood working must also contribute to social, economic and environmental well-being of the whole area.
In these difficult times local communities need an ‘ensuring council’ that can balance the tensions between local engagement and strategic need.

Manchester Blues!

2009-10-08T12:20:00.005-01:00

The Conservative Party conference has been in Manchester the past few days and I managed to attend a few fringe meetings on APSEs behalf.

Shadow Treasury Minister Greg Hands and leader of Hammersmith and Fulham Stephen Greenhalgh spoke at the first event on regeneration. Stephen linked successful regeneration to the return of business rates to local government and improving local housing and infrastructure.

At a separate event on localism and economic resilience Leader of Westminster City Council, Colin Barrow spoke along with Mike Whitby, Leader of Birmingham City Council. Mike makes a very impressive case for Birmingham as a global city and understands the need to ensure community benefits from both public and inward investment. He suggested that the ingredients for local economic success were around keeping council tax rises small, streets clean, a decent housing stock in place, communities safe and educational attainment high.

George Osborne's pay freeze on public servants on salaries above £18,000 in 2011 was a bold move. With inflation likely to be on the rise again by this point it could prove a significant cut in real terms for those who are just above this benchmark.

Value added services

2009-10-06T12:14:00.000-01:00

Claire Fox succeeded in fulfilling the brief to do her usual thing and ‘stir it up’ when she spoke at our annual conference in Cardiff. She also took the opportunity to make her usual rallying cry for less state nannying.

The underlying tenet that what once constituted the public sphere is being eroded while the state delves further into the private lives of citizens warrants consideration. But is perhaps lost amid her evocation of some sort of municipal Dystopia; complete with spying helicopters and a moratorium on anything remotely resembling fun (Stop monitoring the public, The MJ, 1st October 2009).

We welcome debate on how scarce resources can be best targeted to achieve public value, which was, indeed, the theme of our conference. I think Claire is being slightly mischievous in her interpretation of this point. For us ¬– and for service users – front-line means collecting the waste, cleaning the streets, providing affordable housing, caring for elderly and vulnerable people, feeding school kids, repairing the roads, cutting the grass in parks and a whole host of highly tangible services upon which people rely day in day out.

These local services have a huge bearing on the health and well-being of local communities. They are also important economically; with our research showing every local authority pound spent can generate £1.64 in the local economy. Promoting behavioural change that will reduce the longer-term economic and social costs of ill health and create a better environment actually means more effective use of public resources.

‘Co-production’ was a term used by speakers at our conference with first hand experience of making service improvements and multi-million pound savings by finding effective local service solutions from within their own in-house teams and communities. And doing things ‘with’ residents, rather ‘to’ or even ‘for’ them is surely the intention of all of us in local government. The reality is that the majority of people are happy to recycle and don’t want their taxes used to clean up after the few who drop cigarette butts or beer bottles. Is Claire suggesting that, instead of encouraging healthier lifestyles, school meals and high quality public spaces, councils should instead be promoting deprivation, misery and a return to the dark days of public squalor?

Since way, way before the recession began, APSE has been supporting the delivery of excellent front-line services and fighting against bureaucracy and waste. But focusing on the front-line does not mean councils should stop taking a wider approach to the health and well-being of residents; it goes hand in hand.

And yes, service users will defend against cuts that affect not only their lives, but also their life-chances.

Brighton rock!

2009-10-02T11:35:00.000-01:00

Spent a few days at the Labour Party conference in Brighton and found the fringe a useful opportunity to get close to and interact with key Ministers.

Local Government Minister John Denham gave a barnstorming speech at the Compass fringe where he rounded on critics and showed a passionate and fiery side to him that I hadn't witnessed before. I got a quick word with him the following evening where he modedestly laughed off his performance.

Housing Minister John Healey was another who was blanket booked on the fringe programme and he also made platform annnouncements about the second tranche of bidding for council housing new build and linkages on apprenticeships to Government housing new build investment whatever the sector. I managed to speak to John on two or three occasions and he was vociverous on the reform of housing finance. He is a man on a mission and has made execllent progress in his 4 or 5 months in the job, I really hope he has the opportunity to make further advances prior to the general election.

I also had passing chats with Rosie Winterton once or twice and I am sure her ears will still be ringing from myself and colleagues asking her questions on equal pay and protecting frontline services from cuts, on the fringe. The last time was at the CLES / LOCALIS fringe where the excellent Neil McInroy spoke about creating resillent local economies.

Also did fringes on Housing, planning, international aid, public sector reform, the economy and climate change. Some of the notable speakers at these included Douglas Alexander, Ed Milliband, Michael Bichard and Steve Bundred.

Payback time for Bob the cowboy!

2009-09-23T13:42:00.007-01:00

Having been criticised previously for writing and expressing my views widely on the on-going investigation by the Office of Fair Trading into Construction Sector Cartels I must admit to a degree of smugness when news broke of the 103 companies having £129m of fines imposed on them having been found guilty of cover pricing.

It was humorous watching and listening to well paid industry representatives (some of whom had sent me threatening letters in the past) trying to justify why the public purse had been robbed of millions of pounds. It was everyone else's fault apparently, if the public sector procurers leave their window open can they really blame a passing stranger who climbs in and helps themselves. Alternatively public servants should really be sharper at spotting people exchanging envelopes in underground car parks hundreds of miles away or in golf club locker rooms.

I honestly hope that the Construction Sector has learned its lessons from this and we move on to a new era where every penny of the public purse is used to build badly needed public sector infrastructure. Now more than ever it is vital that we achieve as much public value for our buck as possible. Taxpayers don't deserve anything less.

From recession to progression?

2009-09-11T12:54:00.005-01:00

Just arrived back from our annual seminar and awards at Cardiff and it was a great success.

The event opened with a bit of scene setting from the Welsh Local Government Minister, Dr Brian Gibbons and Emeritus Professor of Local Governance at LSE, George Jones. This could have been a 'we're all doomed session', however the quality of contributions by both speakers enabled delegates to keep the financial pressures faced in perspective.

Another day one highlight was World Champion Hurdler Colin Jackson who spoke about overcoming challenges to ultimately become the best in the world at his sport.

Our annual general meeting went smoothly with delegates entertained by former British Lion great, Phil Bennett.

A major debate took place around future models of service delivery with contributions from Professor John Tizard, Brian Devlin of AMEY PLC, Nic Cox of Solutions SK, Kath Moore of Newcastle City Council, Byron Davies Chief Executive of Cardiff City Council and myself. With so many speakers and overruns it was difficult to get beyond views expressed into real debate but it was a worthwhile exercise.

Onto APSE's annual service awards in the evening with 700 people present and it all went well despite one or two minor hiccups. We had the usual mixture of elated winners, sporting runners up and bad losers - who appear unable to accept that an independent panel of judges decided someone else was better.

Looking beyond the sound bites

2009-09-03T18:31:00.001-01:00

The recent debate around the role of the Audit Commission, brought into sharp focus by John Seddon’s call to scrap it, has rather overshadowed the more important discussion around how best to improve service delivery. Is this best achieved under central direction? Or by creating a culture locally where members and officers work together to ensure they continuously improve local services by building upwards from citizens’ needs?

First up, I would like to say that the Comprehensive Performance Assessment served a purpose by proving to central government that local government could deliver. However, my own view has always been that the targets it set were more focused on where the money was spent; rather than aligned to the services the public cares about most.

With regard to the role of the Audit Commission itself, the accountability and transparency an independent auditing body brings to local government is vital. But any World class inspection service, by definition, should work itself out of a job – or at least to an optimum minimum level. It should certainly not continually expand by virtue of ‘mission creep.’

Getting back to the real debate around systems thinking and value management, this is something that has been around for a long time. The impact of the recession and the need for efficiency has generated a real interest in redesigning services to eradicate waste, reduce steps in the supply chain and most importantly make them more user-friendly. I have come across numerous authorities that are investing heavily in this approach – and it’s not just the usual ‘conference luvvies’ fixating on the latest passing fad.

Many of those authorities whose last major structural overhaul was removing the unnecessary client / contractor splits created by CCT to achieve integrated service delivery are now assessing how to reduce the steps in the supply chain still further. Some are using commissioning as an opportunity to do this. Thankfully most have learnt the lessons of history and are not using it to build bureaucracy and waste into the system by recreating procurement functions divorced from actual delivery.

World class services are delivered by organisations that promote a culture of everyone working together for a common purpose. Now, more than ever, the scarce financial resources at local authorities’ disposal must be spent on the bit that actually matters most to the punters. This means highly visible service delivery, clearly targeted at local needs. And the Audit Commission must be a World class inspection body helping make sure they achieve that.

A first real test for localism

2009-07-23T10:59:00.001-01:00

One of the first tests of David Cameron’s localist credentials, should he be elected as the country’s next Prime Minister, could be to see whether he completes the legislative process Housing Minister John Healey has started by announcing the dismantling of the national housing revenue account system.

With a consultation paper due any day on the matter, the detail of the proposals that many have called for should become clear. However the Minister clearly stated his intention to equalize the existing £17b of overhanging debt across England’s 202 housing authorities in order to allow them to be self financing from that point onwards.

Due to the ongoing failure of the private sector housing market the Government’s aims of building 3m new homes by 2020 look further adrift than ever. Even when economic recovery commences affordability will remain a massive dilemma, unless we see a dramatic increase in supply. Council house waiting lists are sitting at 1.8m, a figure which almost matches the units lost by right to buy and demolition, which have never been replaced by wider social housing providers. With many more living in overcrowded conditions, local authorities are chomping at the bit to aid their communities; the only thing stopping them is the constraints placed upon them by the outdated housing finance system that currently exists.

Government has woken up to the huge public need for affordable housing with the initial £100m new build council housing announcement in the budget, quickly followed by an expansion of this pot to £400m in John Healey’s statement. However it is predicted that this funding will only support some 3,900 units in total. Whilst it is a drop in the ocean, it is at least a start and will see local authorities commence new build council housing for the first time in a generation.

In the late fifties and early sixties 245,000 council houses were being built on average in England per annum, last year it was no more than a few hundred. The LGA estimates that if the primary legislation required to dismantle the national housing revenue account is started by the current government and the process is completed by the next government, whoever that may be, then local housing authorities would be in a position to build an additional 139,000 council houses over the next decade.

Having shared a dinner table with Conservative Shadow Minister Bob Neill recently, I got the impression that this was an agenda the Conservatives were warming towards.

Leave politics to the politicians!

2009-07-06T15:19:00.004-01:00

I was quite surprised in more ways than one at the weekend to read the Chief Executive of the Audit Commission, Steve Bundred's comments suggesting a pay freeze for public sector workers as an answer to the current gap in public sector finances.

Firstly it seems a bit strange that in a week where we have the Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, praising local government for its record breaking efficiency savings we have the Chief Executive of the Audit Commission suggesting that as a reward for this the staff should receive a real terms cut in their pay.

My second observation is that as an independent watchdog the Audit Commission is getting into debates that are beyond its brief. I think the Commission has a key role to play in ensuring transparency and accountability in public services, it's politicisation would be a real shame.

Sunny Harrogate with the LGA

2009-07-03T13:40:00.000-01:00

Busy time at the LGA conference this week in Harrogate. Not only is APSE exhibiting at the conference but we also have two strategic forum dinners in the evening and I am also down to speak at one of the lunchtime housing fringes.

The start of the conference is shrouded in speculation as to what announcements the Housing Minister John Healey will make on the review of the National Housing Revenue Account. When he does make his views known at a fringe event they are broadly welcomed by those at the conference but caveat ed by most people wanting to see 'the devil in the detail.' Basically he has suggested a one off equalisation of existing debt across all local authorities with responsibility for housing. He has also announced additional funding for local authority new build.

Our first forum on citizen engagement goes well with a speaker from the Citizen's Advice Bureau explaining how they interact with local government and the crucial role they play in the current climate. They receive £67m in funding from local authorities, dealing with 1.93m clients per annum which leads to 6m problems being dealt with. 2m of these have been debt related in the last year which is an increase of 11%, benefits inquiries have also risen by 13%, with redundancy queries by 17% making an overall rise of 9%.

The next evening we host a debate around the housing announcements in an attempt to get our heads around what it all means in practice.

On the final day I get into the hall to see economic visionary Vince Cable. It's not good news. Vince uses the analogy of most people thinking that the economy has caught a cold when really it has had a heart attack. Like all heart attack victims it's a long and painful road to recovery and one that can suffer serious relapses at any given moment in time.

Next up is David Cameron who gives an honest assessment of the impact the global recession will have on our own public finances in the coming years. He doesn't pull any punches and talks about giving more power to local authorities but with less money. He talks about a post bureaucratic age and raises the spectre of google government, where people will be able to go online and view any item of expenditure a local authority has made of above £500 in value. Running through his speech is a thread of doing more for less and achieving value for money.

All in all a successful few days for APSE having plenty of visits to our stand, meeting a lot of our key people and picking up some pieces of work whilst there.

Knives, Forks and Awards!

2009-06-26T13:28:00.000-01:00

Attend MJ awards dinner this evening at the Hilton Park Lane and it's a real pleasure to see some of the hardest working staff in local government get the recognition their achievements deserve.

The room is packed with around 1,000 people present. I am fortunate to be seated front centre at Deputy Editor of the MJ, Heather Jameson's table. To my right is Efficiency Guru and Chief Executive of Lewisham, Barry Quirk and to my left is Chief Executive of the LGIU, Andy Sawford.

New Communities Minister John Denham gives some opening comments, which are well received by the audience. Huw Edwards of the BBC presents the awards.

Needless to say a good time is had by all, but most importantly is the celebrations that hopefully take place at authorities all over the UK when news filters back of the success of all those recognised at the awards.

Pressure building

2009-06-18T13:10:00.000-01:00

Speak at a Housing conference organised by Unite in London today. The event is opened by new Housing Minister John Healey, who is followed by Unite Deputy General Secretary Jack Dromey. Gail Cartmel of Unite then Chairs a debate with Sir Jeremy Beecham representing the LGA, Unite Head of Research John Earls and myself representing APSE.

There is a real mood of change about with the recent funding announcements on new build for councils and the imminent report back of the findings of the review of the national housing revenue account.

Despite only being in the job a week or two there is a real expectation that a respected Minister such as John Healey will deliver in this area.

It's a generation since local authorities built council housing to any significant scale but given the current need for affordable housing it really is bubbling up as one of the great public policy debates of today.

Waking up to carbon reality

2009-06-15T16:28:00.000-01:00

Up until recently climate change has often been described as the greatest challenge of our time although perhaps the world wide recession and the state of the UKs public finances has started to contest that notion.

Now with the commencement of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) looming large for local government these twin phenomena’s may converge to create a perfect financial storm. For authorities who are not at an advanced stage of planning in their response to CRC the monetary consequences maybe about as welcome as a sneezing pig wearing a poncho and sombrero.

The CRC is a mandatory carbon trading scheme and will cover both public and private sector organisations. It is designed to encourage large non-energy intensive organisations in the UK to reduce their CO2 emissions. The aim of the carbon reduction commitment is to reduce the level of carbon emissions by approximately 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2020. As a Climate Change Bill commitment, the scheme is aiming for an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050.

Even though the scheme doesn’t officially start until April 2010, local authorities will need to make preparations before that date to ensure that they comply with the requirements. This is something that will require cooperation and coordination across all services within every Council.

By now authorities should have a plan for the coming five years. It is anticipated that low hanging fruit can be gathered in years one and two by turning down heating controls and dimming streetlights however by year three targets will start to dictate that larger energy reduction projects require to come on-stream. Therefore if you are not seriously considering energy from waste initiatives, major insulation programmes or district heating schemes now you really should be.

Once the trading scheme moves to the free market on tonnage costs and government allowances are reduced beyond 2013, the cost implications could be significant for those who have paid lip service to this issue. Emerging strategies and tactics for CRC should make for compulsive viewing.

The vast majority of authorities will commence from the same starting point on CRC and therefore a legacy of excellent performance under CPA will not necessarily act as a guarantee for success on this agenda. Lasting reputations can be made and lost very easily, just look at David Carradine, he was once best known for his role in Kung Fu, well not anymore he isn’t.

To efficiency and beyond!

2009-05-20T13:18:00.006-01:00

My speech from the Guardian Conference – Northern Ireland 09

Delivering in the downturn: driving efficiency, securing cost savings and expanding services through the innovative use of ICT – A big topic for someone to cover in 5 minutes but for someone originally from the West of Scotland it should allow for about 10,000 words.

The challenge we face: With public borrowing reaching £175b this year and due to slowly fall over the next 4 years to £97b then it is inevitable that public sector spending is going to fall. In real terms this could mean budget cuts of anything between 6% and 15% over this period. If we are going to continue to deliver effective public services then it means changing the way we do things.

The good news is the Government see the sector you work in as the answer to this huge economic problem. All things electronic and digital are now in vogue when it comes to transformation and efficiency. The day before this year’s budget the chancellor received a report from 5 gurus, called the Operational Efficiency Programme, which places the responsibility of saving the U.K. economy from financial Armageddon in the hands of I.T. managers. I looked out of my office window at Joe, APSEs 24 year old I.T. manager, with his hair flowing beyond his shoulders, glasses and motorhead t-shirt and thought an unlikely hero – but I am willing to believe.

The OEP suggests back office cuts of £4b in 3 years or 20 to 25% of current expenditure. Plus a further £3b by benchmarking and reviews. Then a further £7.7b of savings by joint procurement of I.T., goods and services by 2013/14.

Now some of you may be starting to think of me as a cynic by this point but this is not the case. I have seen the massive progress made by introducing technology in the sector I work in, local government, over the past 5 or 10 years as a result of APSEs annual service awards and our work generally.

I have seen one stop shops introduced to make services more accessible and more co-ordinated for citizens.

I have seen housing repairs improved by using handheld technology to cut the steps in the service delivery chain from 13 to 4 or 5.

I have seen refuse collection and recycling services improved dramatically by the use of handhelds, mobile tracking and monitoring aids and this has helped achieve 50%recycling in some areas.

And in this particular area it points to another great challenge that I.C.T. can help meet, climate change. I believe that the impact of the carbon reduction commitment will focus many people’s minds on service redesign or they will face the financial consequences.

It is not only in my sector that I see the electronic transformation taking place. I recently read some figures about the Department of Work and Pensions where they are claiming £50m of savings already, rising to £100m.

13m people are now buying car tax online.

2.7m have now booked a driving test online.

15m people per month are using Directgov online.

And 10 people per second are filing a tax return online – you would think somebody should have told our MPs that it’s not that difficult.

Before I get too carried away, one plea please, to not forget those who are technologically excluded. I was at a recent dinner with the Chair of Consumerwatch Scotland who pointed out that 40% of citizens don’t own computers. So let’s not exclude unintentionally some of those who need public services the most.

Some of the answers must lie in joined up and better co-ordinated public services. The Total Place project in England at present identified that Cumbria spends £7b across its public services and I believe that the boundaries within the sector will disappear and shared services will become the norm.

The 32 London Boroughs are also working on an ongoing basis on a 5 year plan to share services and procure supplies more effectively. They aim to this by redeploying staff and using natural wastage to avoid any unnecessary redundancies.

In conclusion, I guess the future depends on whether you are a glass half full or a glass half empty type of person. Of course we face massive financial and economic challenges but we also have an opportunity to revolutionise public service delivery. In my view it’s a challenge those of us in public services must embrace from within. Personally the alternative of mass outsourcing and swingeing cuts to services isn’t that palatable to me for one.

Thanks for listening.

A half hour debate then followed between a panel of four of us and the 170 strong audience.

Mixing with the London set!

2009-05-15T15:43:00.002-01:00

Spend a couple of days in London at a variety of events and meetings.

Attend a Fabian event on the future of local government at parliament where local government Minister John Healey speaks along with Simon Jenkins from the Guardian. It quickly turns into a debate about localism and whilst it's all interesting I started to think that I have been hearing the same arguments over and over again for the last 15 years. And I think some progress has been made with devolution to Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and London. However my mind starts to drift to the fact that there may be some more urgent priorities facing local government at present.

I go over to the MJ and meet the Editor and Deputy Editor, Michael and Heather for a catch up. This weeks edition has already gone so we exit to the pub for a chat, where I wax lyrical about how local authorities can deliver business process reengineering themselves without bringing in external help. I should have known better the next day I receive an email from Heather asking for 700 words on the subject for the next edition.

The following day I attend a rountable discussion with the Centre for Public Service Partnerships and Unison on 'Public Service Partnerships and the Workforce'. It was Chatam house rules so I can't really say to much but I put forward points about a lack of uniformity of approach to the workforce by contractors, how we need joint monitoring on agreements that are in place, that we need research in this area and that we need to understand local economic value rather than just looking at cost.

The event was chaired by John Tizzard and Dave Prentis of Unison made an opening contribution. It was good to have such heavy hitting representatives of the private and public sector together and it brought an interesting dynamic to the discussion.

It was a lively discussion and I think it is one which will run for a bit.

Planes, trains and vans!

2009-05-08T14:17:00.000-01:00

Attend APSEs annual transport and refuse seminar at Aviemore for a few days this week. It's always a great opportunity to get together with this sector of local government in Scotland. We run a massive exhibition along side the conference and it's always well attended.

Despite the 6 hour train journey each way the event was enjoyable and it was good to meet up with colleagues who I have known for many years.

Colin Mair the Chief Executive of the Scottish Improvement Agency did a useful talk outlining some of the huge financial challenges faced by public services in the coming years with a demand for £32b of services in a few years time with likely funding of £26 to £28b available meaning up to a 15% real terms budget cut.

I have got to say that I disagreed with Colin's conclusion that we should progress with pursuing alternative service delivery mechanisms despite the fact that they are untested and unproven. He agrees with me however that a job of work is required to examine any available tangible evidence of performance of different models.

Performance management in the round!

2009-04-24T13:53:00.000-01:00

Attend a public finance magazine roundtable in London today on performance management. Coming just after the budget it is a great opportunity to debate the economic and financial mess the country is in and what the likely impact will be on public services.

There are some really useful contributions from people like Tony Travers of LSE, John Seddon from Vanguard, Tony Wright MP the Chair of Parliaments Public Administration Committee and John Kirkpatrick from the Audit Commission. Although I am not really allowed to report what people said until it appears in the magazine.

However, I had a go about Central Government trying to use performance management as a stick to beat people with and how top down target setting would not improve public services or generate real efficiency. In my view the answers come from the bottom upwards, those who are closest to the public engaging with them and designing services around their needs. Someone sitting in an office in Whitehall designing a once size fits all approach to service provision and then trying to impose this from afar will just not work.

We need national minimum standards combined with local flexibility and strong local performance management systems if we want to generate the necessary continuous improvement.

Budget response - is that it?

2009-04-22T16:34:00.003-01:00

Being one of those who had hoped to see a second fiscal stimulus that invested heavily in local government in particular and public services in general in an attempt to spend our way out of the current recession I have got to admit to being slightly underwhelmed by the Chancellors offering today.

However, having examined the detail it is fairly obvious that with public borrowing reaching £175b this year and then slowly falling over the next four years to £97b his room for manoeuvrability was extremely limited. And indeed additional expenditure today may have resulted in much harsher cuts to public finances in coming years.

So what does it mean for local government overall. Well the overall increase in public sector efficiency savings next year to £15b equates to an increase of £600m for local government, this is a 12% rise from the target of £4.9b to £5.5. Whilst this will present challenges I suspect that local government may have been bracing itself for something worse. And with the final year of the 3 year grant settlement remaining unchanged and not up for renegotiation then financial Armageddon may have been avoided in the short term. However with economic circumstances creating a higher demand for public services during these tough times then perhaps the real strain could be somewhere just over the horizon.

Looking then to specific measures for local government, the £100m of funding for local authorities to invest in new environmentally friendly council housing is welcome, however the impact is likely to result in authorities building a couple of thousand units a year rather than the couple of hundred at present.

For the 1.8m people on council house waiting lists and hundreds of thousands more living in overcrowded conditions with friends and families this is hardly going to change the world for them. With the maximum mortgages available being 90% most are looking at a £15,000 deposit on an average house price and this is therefore way beyond their means. Perhaps Ministers will now fast track the review of the national housing revenue account system, which could really make a difference to local authority’s ability to supply new housing units at meaningful levels.

The Chancellor made some interesting noises about investing in green technology and perhaps this along with the energy saving schemes mentioned will encourage local authorities to really push the boat out on carbon reduction and give a lead to not only the public sector but the rest of the economy. For those authorities who have been plagued by abandoned cars and the problems of having to dispose of them, I am sure the £2,000 trade-in scrappage scheme announced will also be welcome.

Exciting times also for the North of England with the announcement that Leeds will join Manchester as the second city region pilot scheme.

Overall, for one of the most anticipated budgets in decades it all felt a bit subdued to me.

Putting a roof over peoples heads!

2009-03-27T17:10:00.000-01:00

Chaired an APSE / ARCH debate today at Parliament on Councils being allowed to once again build a significant level of council housing directly themselves.

It is amazing how quickly political theory changes, if you had talked about Councils being able to build council housing a year or two back you would have been laughed at and branded a Neanderthal. Now everyone recognises that it would make a good start to getting the economy moving again and provide much needed affordable housing.

With over 60 senior elected members and officers from local authorities present along with MPs, ministerial advisers and the press it was an interesting debate.

What we all agreed on was that Government would need to make some or all of the following changes if progress is to be made on this agenda.

• Secure receipts from Right to Buy sales for investment in new homes
• Enable borrowing against future rental income to take place outside of the public sector borrowing regime, within a robust fiscal framework, in line with other European countries
• Apply a broader scope, less bureaucracy and greater freedoms to current proposals for changes to revenue and capital rules
• Provide pump-priming resources from the Homes and Communities Agency
• Provide a level playing filed with other social landlords in terms of access to Social Housing Grant
• Reform the Housing Revenue Account subsidy system, which is currently under review, to enable council building to take place
• Allow historic debts – which have been repaid several times over – to be kept separate from new debts incurred to build new homes
• Enable councils to own and manage developments directly rather than having to use complex special purpose vehicles

It should be interesting to see what the Chancellor announces in the budget in a couple of weeks time.

Feeding the nation!

2009-03-26T16:47:00.000-01:00

At the Queen Elizabeth II centre opposite Parliament today for a Local Authority Caterers Event debating school meals. It's a good turnout and a lot of friends and colleagues are present at the high profile event.

Basically the thrust of the issue is that new nutrient standards are due to be implemented in secondary schools in England in September this year and it is anticipated that this will result in a significant reduction in school meal take up.

The debate receives quite a lot of press coverage but I can't help but wonder if it could end up a slight own goal - it could be spun as caterers putting their own interests before the health of the nations kids - when really it should be invest in our service and work with us and we will improve kids health.

Hopefully the Ladies and Gentlemen of the press will put their moral obligations before an easy target!

Stick to the plan!

2009-03-17T16:27:00.001-01:00

'Streamlining the Public Sector' is the title of the Guardian Seminar I have been asked to speak at today. They have asked me to speak in a section of the conference billed as a debate on 'insourcing versus outsourcing'.

I am asked to speak first and give my views as to why market failures have demonstrated that the private sector doesn't always deliver effectively in public sector markets. I also give a summary of the recently announced CPA results which shows that local government has improved rapidly between 2002 and 2008. I use APSE's insourcing research to show the benefits of inhouse provision and suggest that an approach built around continuous performance improvement is the only guaranteed way to deliver excellent public services more efficiently. I conclude by pointing to public sector partnerships as a strong option for allowing innovation within such a framework.

Two other speakers then give their viewpoints and we get into a debate with the audience. The audience are broadly supportive of the position I have taken, in my view this is because my case is built on the tangible rather than anecdotal evidence.

Enfield Chief Executive, Rob Leak, then gives a really thought provoking presentation on how Local Government and Public Services in London are looking at joint working. Rob says that it takes five years to get the type of changes they are proposing correct and it's definitely this type of thinking we need if we are going to deal with the issues we are facing at present, as opposed to the knee jerk reactions proposed by some.