Whitehall ''undermines Total Place''

Thursday, March 18, 2010

A lack of joined up working across Whitehall departments risks undermining the government's Total Place initiative according to a report by the New Local Government Network.

The NLGN reckoned that while billions of savings could be achieved at local level, a "historic reluctance" for government to devolve powers threatened to derail the project and the only way to slash inefficiency and wastage in public services is to break existing top-down models and cultures of accountability and service delivery. The report suggested creating a new Department for Devolved Government from Communities and Local Government and the Cabinet Office and urged that management of public health budgets and local policing be passed immediately to local areas.

The NLGN also suggested new 'Place Proposition Agreements' which would allow local areas to set out how they could provide services for less money as a response to the expected cuts in public sector budgets. Also, councils should get the final say over how money is spent on regeneration, transport and housing, a new Total Place Progress Joint Committee should monitor the programme, and there should be a new Collaborative Leadership Academy to drive leadership across the public sector.

Report author Nigel Keohane said: "The concept of aligning all public resources in an area around the needs of its community is simple and commonsense. Putting it into practice, however, remains a major challenge not just for local areas but also for Whitehall. The changes needed go way beyond simply removing a few ring-fenced budgets or performance targets. Our cultures of governing and our current systems of funding and accountability cut through and undermine our focus on what the citizen needs."