APPENDIX - BACKGROUND
The context for change in Local Government
Local government has no independent powers or existence outside of national laws laid by Parliament. Traditionally it has delivered a series of public services which it is more effective to deliver locally. However the scope of these, and much of the funding, is determined by central government. Over the past twenty years the powers of local government to act independently in response to local demand have been diminishing as the funding available is squeezed and more tightly defined, some powers are taken away and given to non-elected "quangos" or taken on by central government itself, and other work is prescribed in more detail.
The response to this from within local government, but which has found favour in other areas as well, is to change the nature of what a local council is. They are no longer seen purely as providers of specific services, but as providing a general civic leadership role. This takes them back to their unique core role as directly elected representatives who can therefore speak on behalf of local people about the sort of services to be provided in the area. Whether those services are provided by the council or another public body, or by the private or voluntary sector will depend on local circumstances and what is most appropriate.
This places a stronger emphasis on partnership - working with other bodies to achieve common goals - and empowerment - giving people and organisations the "tools" to do things for themselves.
The key elements of the new paradigm are:
- Civic Leadership - where local authorities take the central role but as
part of partnerships - which should be
- strategic
- holistic
- targeted
- delivered at community level
- empowering and enabling
- transparent and accountable
- sustainable
The core role of local government is precisely that of the symbolic analyst - identifying the important trends and issues in a local area, identifying solutions and working with the community and communities of interest such as business or other agencies to address them.
The clearest indication of the direction this new paradigm will take local government is the Government’s Best Value proposals. This replaces the measurement of local government’s efficiency and effectiveness by relative cost (normally in relation to the private sector) and Citizen’s Charter style standards to a more dynamic model which measures effectiveness by sophisticated benchmarking and user surveys.
In order to meet the Best Value standards a Council has to continually test its performance by a variety of means rather than a once every five year exercise in tendering. This includes looking at how it performs relative to other councils taking into account all the different services, getting users to define what it is they want from the council, and seeing whether they agree this has been delivered. Each service should be part of a rolling three year review programme to find ways of improving what is delivered.
There is also a growing demand through Best Value and other programmes established by the previous as well as the current government to measure success in relation to outcomes - what happens in the area the programme is designed to affect - as well as outputs - what was done. This is more difficult, especially when the programme is looking at issues with complicated causes and effects such as the performance of the economy, and has a higher demand in terms of quality and quantity of information, as does the Best value process.
Other pressures are evident via the consultation paper Modernising Local Government: Local Democracy and Community Leadership, and other recent government documents.
At the same time there are changes in Information and Communications Technologies which mean it is easier to provide a service that is more personal, delivered closer to people and more cost effective. This is through options such as:
- Single records for individual citizens and organisations shared by all the organisation but with access restricted for different officers and uses to different parts of the data
- Intranets which make sharing information and communication easier through access to common databases and email
- Teleconferencing which allows remote "face to face" contact with officers
- One stop or first stop shops where receptionists have access to and can pass on basic information, can perform "diagnosis" of what people’s needs are, can take payments, book services and appointments.
- Call centres where employees can provide the same service as one stop shop receptionists over the phone
- The internet and "kiosks" where citizens and businesses can access information and book services and appointments themselves
The Better Government white paper is expected to call for greater use of these and sharing of information and service delivery by central and local government linked to Tony Blair’s call for 25% of government transactions be done "on line" by 2002.
Drivers for change are :
- Best Value
- Pressures on budgets
- Better Government
- Modernising Local Government
- Moves to streamline internal organisations and foster corporate management
- The need to re-integrate delivery of services which have been "externalised" in transparent delivery to citizens and organisations (although not necessarily the management of those services)
- Competition from other agencies to lead this reintegration
- Civic leadership
- Local Agenda 21
- "beauty" competitions for resources which require civic leadership, community involvement and partnership to be in place to be successful
Brakes on change are:
- Departmentalism - Many managers still feel that control of services depends on control of information and are therefore reluctant to allow other departments access to information they use for their services. There is also still a reluctance to allow work carried out by dedicated departmental staff to move to corporate "pools" for the same reason - fear of lack of control
- The initial investment cost of change - Although there may be savings in the future the annual financial system of local government does not allow this to be used to cover "up front" costs of new technology and training
- "professionalism" and protectionism of "expertise" - As with departmentalism, individuals or professions may be reluctant to admit that any of the work they currently do can be done by people without specialist training for fear of losing control over professional standards.
- Technophobia - some people simply do not understand or like using IT. Other feel it is below their status to do anything as manual as using a keyboard.
- fear of partnership/loss of control - people who are not used to partnership working between departments or with outside agencies - or who have a bad relationship with potential partners - are often concerned about joint working
- "alligators" - "draining the swamp" - changing the authority to work more smoothly - is often difficult because energy is diverted to deal with "alligators" - complex and urgent problems which are hard to tackle in a traditional authority.
- Inertia - many people fear change in principle because it is unknown
- Lack of capacity to change in members and officers - many existing staff and members may need considerable investment in training and support to make the transition to the new ways of working.
(Tim Anderson - Norwich City Council)
Debate
Needs Analysis
The proposition that all Information, Advice and Service work requires grounding in an analysis of needs is usually taken for granted. The Project team themselves revealed how patchy the baseline of work quite often is when a service is first established - the pressure of budgets and time often over-riding the sound sense which a reliably researched base offers.
It is equally important to recognise how quickly needs can change. Processes which feedback to the management lie at the core of a service which will evolve and improve, and this too has strong links with access to budgets and management time.
Joining Up
The concept of 'joined-up working' has been purloined by Government and referred to in various consultative documents. The pioneers of joined-up working are in local authority One Stop Shops. Far from acting as simple information/advice services the front-line staff inevitably find themselves acting as agents for their customers in bringing together different departments, and sometimes different organisations, to resolve their customers' problems.
Any failure to effectively address the need for cross-departmental collaboration is a comment on the leadership within a council. Staff at all levels can create blockages to effective working and it is only through proper management from the highest levels that it can be eliminated, if and when it occurs. We offer no specific 'benchmarks' for this particular issue
The full implications of joined-up working impact on the long-standing culture of the public sector as well as on the systems which exist, or are patched together (or don't exist) to support those who are working on the front-line. It is in this combination of issues that local government currently faces one of its sternest challenges. The theme of 'links to the back office' recurs throughout the tables in the body of this report.
Technology
Throughout the BICIS project the subject of technology consistently rears it head. There is no-one like the promoter of a technology system to declare he has the solution to "life, the universe etc...". One lesson from this study is clear - beware of 'free' gifts.
The members of the project have a wide range of experience in defining and implementing IT systems, as managers rather than as IT specialists. Their interest in the variety of technology channels which are appearing to 'deliver' information to citizens has been tempered in the debate by a general caution about the practices of suppliers in the absence of a coherent strategy from the council.
The need for a full corporate Information and Communications Strategy, which is launched from a base of 'information' and 'communication', and not from a technology opportunity starting point, is another consistent message. Such a strategy can only be defined if the information givers (the customer facing teams) are part of the process, the information providers within the council are brought on board (culture change), and the information users are clearly understood (user needs analysis).
From this stems technology decisions - and they are legion.
Service Standards
This is the underpinning key to the whole package of work. It becomes apparent as you work with the Tables that setting and maintaining standards which are appropriate both to the level of resourcing on the Community Information Service, and to the requirements of service delivery which exist in service departments, is the baseline against which the future of any CIS will be measured.
Each service department/area will have its own requirements with regards to service. It will also have its own sensitivites with regard to funding, staffing, professionalism, statutory responsibilities etc.
The prospect of negotiating 'service level agreements' with a multitude of service departments - all of which will be different and will have a different impact on working practice in the information service - is daunting but must be tackled. It is an operation which impacts on the ability of the service to market itself internally and externally, measure its successes, identify where it can improve, and also to feedback valuable data to service areas quickly when new issues or problems arise.
Properly structured standards, and their management, will act as an engine for change within the whole council.
Partnerships
A further consistent theme through the Tables is that of Partnership. There is some caution in any public sector organisation, faced as they all are with resourcing problems, about partnerships - and particularly about creating partnerships which might impact on existing work patterns etc.
This is an area which every council has to address. The potential for 'best value' which lies in local public sector bodies working together, and working together with central government and its agencies, is huge. We can expect continuing financial pressure from Government. Seeking the long term economies which come from closer working, joint decision-making, and sensitivity to the performance targets of other organisations, is a key issue. Information lies at the heart of the opportunity.