''Change not cash'' from Total Place

Thursday, March 25, 2010

The real opportunity that Total Place provides is in transformational change rather than just saving money, Dave Smith has said, writes Matthew George.

The Sunderland City Council chief executive told the launch of a new NLGN report on Total Place: "Efficiency gains are a product of the transformative process, not the other way round. People are motivated by making a difference, not saving money."

He said real transformation ultimately comes from the demands of residents: "It is clear from polling that citizens have an expectation that public services can be far more productive and efficient than they are currently are.

"But they expect we can do that and sustain the quality of services if not improve them. The real opportunity of Total Place is not organisational change, the real transformation is in us ensuring and enabling our professionals to come to the table in a different way."

Smith said a new and different form of collaboration between central and local government was needed.

"Local government has to be a mature partner with central government in understanding, establishing and articulating both the supply side and demand side of making the pilots a reality," he said. "We have to recognise it is not within the control of one element of local and central government to deliver."

Smith concluded: "If we are going to grasp this agenda we have to have new and different forms of partnership between central and local services to make it happen."

The report recommends giving councils full discretion over spending across housing, transport and regeneration in a single capital pot.

It suggests merging Communities and Local Government with the Scotland and Wales Offices, incorporating the Cabinet Office and constitutional elements of the Ministry of Justice to form a new Department for Devolved Government. And it wants a Collaborative Leadership Academy to be set up to develop leadership across the public sector.