Watchdog tells Whitehall to raise game in consulting local authorities

The National Audit Office has urged Whitehall departments to raise their game when engaging with local government after concluding that some consultations are “rushed”.

In a report, the watchdog said central government could do better in directing its communications to best fit local government partners, and in fulfilling its commitments on engagement.

The NAO study found that in two-thirds of consultations in the two years to January 2012, the seven departments included in its analysis allowed less time than suggested in their own code of practice (60 working days).

A disproportionate number of consultations were issued just before parliamentary recess and the holiday periods of Easter, summer and Christmas.

“Many local authorities therefore find it difficult to co-ordinate their work on these consultations with their own political or business cycles,” the watchdog said.

The NAO research also revealed that in March 2012 alone, some 744,000 emails were sent by central government and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies to local government.

“Though the majority of individual communications are good quality, the large volume of communications between central and local government means that poor quality communications still have a significant impact,” the watchdog warned.

The NAO said local authorities were often exasperated at the poor signposting of government communications, claiming they wasted the time of people who received ones that were not relevant to them.

Other key findings from the report included:

• The organisational differences between central and local government made communication very challenging, and in messages that flowed from the centre it was central government that bore the responsibility as communicator;
• Not consulting delivery partners early brought a high risk of waste and optimism bias that could result in programme failure. The NAO cited its 2011 report on the cancellation of the fire and rescue control rooms project in this respect;
• Local authority staff found Government departments’ websites generally helpful in their content and design;
• Engagement between staff in central and local government, and the involvement of representative and professional bodies, was “extensive and diverse" but not systematic”;
• Working directly with local government provided insights for departments into how policies and services were joined up at local level.

The NAO said improved communication was vital against a backdrop of responsibilties such as public health moving to local government, the key role played by local authorities in the Government’s decentralisation agenda, and substantial reductions in staff.

It stressed how the operational experience of local authorities was important to the effective design and implementation of programmes.

“However, there is no consistent approach across government to drawing on local authorities’ experience from the start,” it said.

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said: "As the local delivery of services becomes an ever greater concern of central government, how departments and local government communicate with one another becomes all the more important.

"Communication and engagement between central and local government are inherently challenging, especially given the differences in priorities, ways of doing business and pressures. Communications need to be clear, timely and take account of these cultural differences.”

Morse added that consultation needed to be done in a way that showed that “central government ‘means it’, with enough time for the results to be meaningful, and for local government views to be reflected in the projects which go forward”.

He warned: "Only when these issues are addressed can the knowledge of both central and local government be used to best effect to achieve the joined up services that local communities need."

A copy of the report can be viewed here.