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ITEM EX7

EXECUTIVE – 3 APRIL 2002

GOVERNMENT WHITE PAPER: "STRONG LOCAL LEADERSHIP – QUALITY PUBLIC SERVICES"

Report by Director for Strategy

Summary of the White Paper

  1. The government’s White Paper on the future of local government was published during December. A copy of the full text is available in the Members’ Room and it can also be read at www.dtlr.gov.uk.

  2. The White Paper proposes a programme for improving council services; enhancing local democracy and strengthening community leadership. Freeing councils from unnecessary red tap and bureaucracy, Public Service Agreements and Best Value are key elements of this plan coupled with a new element: a Comprehensive Performance Assessment of each council, which will result in a classification as high-performing, striving, coasting or poor-performing.

  3. All councils are promised freedoms and deregulation, including:

    • greater freedom to charge, borrow, invest

    • freedom to provide services to others;

    • fewer plans

    • less ring-fencing of grants;

    • less government inspired area-based initiatives and consent regimes;

    • the introduction of Business Improvement Districts

    • the abolition of the Council Tax Benefit Subsidy Limitation Scheme.

  1. High performing, striving and coasting councils will receive additional freedoms based on a sliding scale, whilst poor-performing councils can anticipate being more closely inspected and monitored. In extreme cases failing services may be transferred to other providers and the council placed into administration.

  2. Oxfordshire County Council is committed to being a high performing local authority. We aim to deliver responsive services and value for money.

    3. LGA Comment

  3. A detailed commentary on the White Paper has been prepared by the Local Government Association and this can be read at ww
    4. w.lga.gov.uk. The LGA broadly welcomes the White Paper with some significant reservations. It has set out six key messages:

    1. The acceptance of the LGA’s proposal for central and local government to agree joint delivery priorities marks a watershed in central-local relations. It recognises that local councils are critical for the driver to improve public services and will enable both spheres of government to focus on the issues that really matter to local people.

    2. We believe that the White Paper’s proposals to rationalise plans and partnerships, remove consent regimes and abolish the council tax benefit subsidy limitations scheme, represents a substantial cull of central government red tape. Ensuring that all departments grant ambitious additional freedoms for the local PSA process will be equally important if councils are to have more space to innovate and respond flexibly to local needs.

    3. A step change in the quality of local services will require more than incentives and rewards for high performance. It demands a real focus on equipping councils with the skills and tools they need to improve. We welcome the White Paper’s commitment to a review of the support for Councils and look forward to significant additional resources for capacity building in the forthcoming spending review.

    4. We are disappointed that the White Paper does not set a clear target for cutting the dramatic increase in ring-fenced spending since this government took office. A generally radical finance reform agenda will also depend on early progress on the options for changing the balance of funding during the lifetime of this parliament.

    5. While we accept that an overall performance assessment is a necessary pre-cursor to a more proportionate inspection regime, the categories proposed must be based on robust data and should inform rather than dictate the tailored package of rewards, flexibilities and support available to individual councils.

    6. If the White Paper is to genuinely herald a new era in central-local relations, its proposals must be under-pinned by cross-Whitehall backing. The Education Bill currently before parliament, represents an early test of this commitment. It proposes to increase the ring-fencing of resources and the powers of the Secretary of State stands in sharp contrast to the deregulatory theme of the White Paper.

An Oxfordshire County Council Perspective

  1. From Oxfordshire County Council’s perspective, there are several aspects of the White Paper which are welcome. The Government’s signal of a more mature relationship between central and local government, and the powerful endorsement of councils as leaders of their local communities are promising. The White Paper emphasises the unique position of democratically-elected councils, their role in promoting positive community relations and preventing incidents of civil disorder of the type experienced in some parts of the country during 2001.

  2. The most radical and controversial proposal in the White Paper (Chapter 3) is the proposed classification of councils according to their performance within a framework to be established by the Audit Commission. The proposals are similar to the ‘star rating’ system recently applied to NHS Hospital Trusts which, in the case of several Trusts, amounted to naming and shaming.

  3. This aspect of the White Paper will be a challenge to all councils. Whilst we strive for all round excellence, there will always be room for improvement. Moreover, the framework for assessment is still being designed: this is proving to be a complex and difficult task. The reputations of councils may be damaged if their authorities are classified as coasting or poor-performing. This is likely to make it more difficult to improve performance rather than easier.

  4. Undoubtedly, services in some councils are poor and something must be done. The Comprehensive Performance Assessment could be useful in challenging performance and encouraging a more determined approach to delivering change. However the process needs to be carefully developed. For example thought should be given to ending individual government departments, such as the Department of Health, operating their own ranking systems of individual councils’ services.

  5. The current timetable, that envisages the start of the CPA process in April, suggests that the process will be implemented with limited time to consider fully the options and implications.

  6. The White Paper is strong on monitoring and sanctions but says little about plans to enhance the existing political/managerial leadership of councils in trouble.

  7. The additional freedoms offered as incentives to high-performing or striving councils, are not particularly attractive and could be strengthened. However the PSA process has shown that Government departments are reluctant to go further than the current limited proposals.

    8.   Conclusions

  8. The introduction to the White Paper suggests ‘a radical change in the relationship between central and local government’. If all government departments adopt the letter and the spirit of the White Paper there will be an improvement in the relationship. However, important opportunities have been missed. Even if the White Paper is fully implemented, the UK will remain highly centralised with many local services run from Whitehall with relatively little local discretion. There are no proposals for addressing the long-standing problem of local government’s heavy dependency on Government grant with over two-thirds of revenue spending remaining under the direct control of central government. Without a more fundamental shift of powers and functions to local democratic control it is questionable whether public interest in local government can be reinvigorated.

    9. RECOMMENDATIONS

  9. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to:

          1. welcome the aspirations set out in the White Paper and the willingness of the government to work in closer partnership with local government;

          2. urge government to regard the White Paper as a first step in the right direction towards a reduction in central government control and deregulation of local government;

          3. impress on government that the Comprehensive Spending Review planned for later this year provides an important opportunity to minimise ring-fenced grants and radically increase the proportion of local government funding controlled and raised locally;

          4. inform government and the Audit Commission of the need for the Local Government Association to be fully involved in the development and agreement of the national framework for the Comprehensive Performance Assessment, and for this process to command the respect of local government if it is to succeed;

          5. invite government to give further consideration to the support to be given to authorities classified as coasting or poor-performing, and the additional opportunities to be made available to striving and high performing authorities.

STEPHEN CAPALDI
Director for Strategy

Background papers: Nil

Contact Officer: Stephen Capaldi, Tel Oxford 815466

7 March 2002

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