This is a good year to be winning control of your local council. Party groups that have seized control in the elections have a great deal more to do than simply administer cuts.
Even slashing spending provides political opportunities. That is not to trivialise the reality of the cuts – particularly in northern councils, which are suffering the most – but there are still options.
While it is true many councils are reaching the limit of anything that could be called an efficiency saving, there are certainly more opportunities to be found for reshaping services through collaboration with other councils and other parts of the public sector.
At the last count almost 340 councils were sharing services with other local authorities. While the savings – which the Local Government Association estimates are around £278 million a year – are part of the story, the most imaginative collaborations involve spreading excellence rather than just sharing resources.
Councils with excellence in legal services, children's services, communications and much more are now sharing expertise with other authorities sometimes many miles away, jump starting the difficult process of finding new ways of working. Sharing services avoids the cultural clash of bringing in a big outsourcing company while encouraging entrepreneurial staff to grow their business.
But it is collaboration with the rest of the public sector where the most exciting developments are possible. The Cabinet Office and the LGA are excited by an ambitious programme by Worcester city council, Worcestershire county council, Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, Redditch borough council, Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police to run one property service. It will release tens of millions of pounds of capital receipts, greatly improve the quality of public buildings for staff and communities alike, avoid huge refurbishment costs and lead to an entirely different way of working. On top of that, the joint property vehicle (they are working on a better name) is playing a crucial role in regenerating Bromsgrove town centre. They have now proposed taking over the running of government buildings.
This shows just what political and management vision can achieve. Council leaders and police commissioners have shown their willingness to share and cede control in pursuit of a bigger goal – improving services while delivering cashable savings.
Collaborative working is being pursued everywhere. Another example is the Local Vision programme, backed by the Local Government Leadership Centre and NHS Leadership Academy, which is supporting over 20 projects where public and voluntary services are working together on everything from tackling food poverty and alcohol abuse to promoting physical exercise.
In the South London, Southwark and Lambeth councils are collaborating with major hospitals to integrate social care services with those for physical and mental health.
Reducing welfare dependency and stimulating economic growth is the key focus for many authorities – collaborating with businesses on skills development, helping develop local supply chains and continuing to bang on the door of the Department for Work and Pensions in pursuit of local control of the Work Programme.
The assault on council spending is causing demonstrable hardship for many people. It is also unleashing extraordinary creativity and energy built upon the personal resilience and determination of staff and politicians.
So the victors in yesterday's local elections have many opportunities as well as risks and problems. Local politics is in its element – making tough decisions, grabbing opportunities where it can and finding a way through.
Far from diminishing local government influence the cuts are, perversely, giving councils a renewed status and importance in the public sector and the rest of the economy. Despite the difficulties, it's an exciting time to be in local power.
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