Solace responded loud and clear to the government announcement of a 10% cut for the 2015/16 spending round, which poses a huge challenge to individual councils.
The body which represents local authority chief executives and senior managers called for local services to be joined up more quickly, which could save up to £20 billion and protect frontline services; for money earmarked for growth to be brought together and devolved so that it can be co-ordinated locally; and for the flexible joint use of all public buildings, to reduce overheads. While the Heseltine single pot was felt to be a major disappointment, the pooled budget for health and social care demonstrated real progress in the argument for integration. Solace also flagged up the need for the government to play its part by stimulating more innovative reform and ensuring Whitehall departments do their bit.
Health
Officials from the Department of Health met with Solace's senior policy officer Andy Hollingsworth to discuss a new programme seeking to tackle the causes of early death. 'Living Well for Longer' calls for partners across the health and care systems to work together to prevent 30,000 premature deaths a year by 2020 by tackling the key causes of cancer, heart and liver disease, strokes and respiratory diseases.
Social care
Solace is putting together a response to Ofsted's consultation on a proposed single inspection framework for children's social care services, with input from members. Ofsted has asked for input on what a 'good' service looks like; the inspection of Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs); and the adoption of a new principle by which an inadequate judgment in any of the three key areas of judgment would automatically lead to an inadequate judgment overall.
Civil service reform
The IPPR's new report on civil service reform, commissioned by the Cabinet Office, came under scrutiny at a seminar held by the Constitution Unit. The report recommends the partial politicisation of civil service appointment processes, giving the Prime Minister the power to appoint permanent secretaries on a fixed-term basis. In Solace's view this could impact on DCLG's stated plan to revoke the statutory protection of local authority chief executives and lead compliance and finance officers. Solace policy officer Richard Bell questioned experts at the event about how these agendas might interact, and will continue to closely monitor the government actions.
Cabinet Office
Members of Solace's Elections and Democracy Policy Network Board sub-committee on central government relations met at the Cabinet Office to discuss the implementation of Individual Electoral Registration (IER) and other policy priorities with officials from the government and Electoral Commission. Board members met separately to discuss the network's work programme on IER and issues including performance standards and fees, with invaluable input from representatives of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets' Democratic Services Department who shared their experiences of tackling well-publicised electoral fraud.
Adoption
Solace is calling on councils to help tackle the shortage of adoptive families by changing the fee system to reduce competition between local authorities and remove disincentives on councils to recruit more adopters than are needed locally. Earlier this year a joint report by Solace, the LGA and the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) set out policy proposals to support local authorities to increase the recruitment and approval of adopters. Its proposal that fees for adopter recruitment and assessment should be set on a cost-recovery basis will be developed with other sector leaders. In the meantime Solace is encouraging councils to charge each other the same fees as Voluntary Adoption Agencies (VAAs), which should speed up decision-making and help eliminate deterrents to enlisting more adopters than required locally.
To find out more or about Solace please visit our website www.solace.org.uk
