Ministers unveil measures for "significant shift" in power to neighbourhood level

The Government has unveiled measures aimed at producing “a significant shift in power down to neighbourhood level”, with an enhanced role for so-called ‘Neighbourhood Councils’.

The proposals are contained in Open Public Services 2012, an update on the progress made since last year’sOpen Public Services White Paper.

But the Local Government Association immediately warned ministers against considering "yet more layers of bureaucracy and red tape".

Other key measures announced in the update include an independent review of barriers to choice in public services and raising the profile of choice through a ‘You have the right to choose’ campaign.

The Government has also launched a call to evidence to help understand “whether there is, or in the future might be,” value in enshrining in legislation a right to choice.

It has published a number of draft clauses “providing an outline of what such legislation for an overarching right to choice might look like in a range of specified services for individuals”.

In relation to transferring powers to neighbourhood level, the Government said it would:

• Shortly be issuing guidance on the transfer of assets from local authorities to Neighbourhood Councils and community groups;
• Consult in May on detailed proposals to make it easier to establish new Neighbourhood Councils. “This will include looking at how Neighbourhood Forums (for example, those set up to put together neighbourhood plans under the Government’s planning reforms) can easily and straightforwardly form Neighbourhood Councils, should they wish”;
• Ask the Local Government Association and the National Association of Local Councils to help develop model schemes for Neighbourhood Councils by summer 2012. These schemes will make it clear what powers can be devolved to neighbourhoods, the kinds of assets that can best be managed at community level, and the roles and responsibilities of Neighbourhood Councils and local authorities. It will also “address the challenge of how a Neighbourhood Council can become more involved in local service delivery where there may be resistance from principal authorities”; and
• Create an “open, easy-to use” mechanism for residents to record their experiences, identify any obstacles and create new social networks. “This will also provide an opportunity for recognition of those principal authorities who provide an exemplary service in supporting the transfer of power to Neighbourhood Councils.”

The Government said it anticipated that, taken together with new rights introduced in the Localism Act 2011, these proposals “will lead to a significant shift in power down to neighbourhood level”.

The update includes a wide range of other measures.

In relation to schools, ministers are to look at ways to increase the supply of good school places, “within current spending settlements and fiscal rules”.

This is to include reviewing incentives for the creation of new schools, for good schools to take over worse schools, and for good schools to expand. The Government will also examine the rules around gifting land to free schools.

The paper also highlighted the work being done by the Department for Education and the Local Government Association with representatives from academies and maintained schools, and nine local authorities, to explore different approaches to their changing roles and responsibilities following recent education reforms, the dramatic rise in the number of academies and the creation of free schools.

In addition, the update heralds another push by ministers for the establishment of social enterprises by front line staff in the public sector. The Government said it had identified local authorities’ services, fire services, probation and adult social care as some of the areas for developing new mutuals.

Ministers insisted that a “huge amount had been achieved” since publication of the White Paper last year, citing the creation of free schools and the expansion of academies, reform of the welfare system and the introduction of the Payment by Results Work Programme.

However, the update argued that the case for reform had become even stronger over the last six months. “Given the fiscal constraints, the only feasible way of making the gains in quality of service that our economy and society so urgently need is to make a step change in the productivity of the public services,” it said.

“And the only feasible way of achieving such a step change in public service productivity is to introduce competition, choice and accountability – so that the public services can display the same innovation and entrepreneurial drive that characterise the best of the UK’s economy and society.”

Writing in The Daily Telegraph today, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “I want us to end once and for all the closed state monopoly where central government decides what you get, and how you get it. In its place, I want truly open public services, where people can choose the hospitals and schools they go to, with the right information at their fingertips to make that choice; where different providers, from the private and voluntary sectors, can come in and offer new services that people can access free; where funding is directed to helping the most disadvantaged; and where these services are truly accountable to local people, not to politicians or bureaucrats in Whitehall.”

On enshrining the right to choose, David Cameron also wrote: “This means if your mother needs hospital treatment, or your child is about to start school, you will get a choice over where they go. And if that choice doesn’t exist, or you’re not happy with it, you will have a way to get your complaint listened to and resolved.”

Responding to the Government’s update, Cllr Sir Merrick Cockell, Chairman of the LGA, said: “Councils are already working closely with town and parish councils and other community groups in redesigning services from the bottom up and additional unnecessary red tape from government is unlikely to help.”

Sir Merrick argued that local authorities were “way ahead” of the rest of the public sector in rethinking the way public services are delivered.

“Rather than considering yet more layers of bureaucracy and red tape, the Government must now grasp the nettle and make some genuine reforms itself,” he said.

Cllr Cockell suggested that as democratically elected representatives of their communities, councils were ideally placed to champion the needs of local people, and make sure they get good quality services that meet their needs.  “A new range of powers for unelected quangos and ombudsmen must not get in the way of councils’ ability to hold services to account,” he warned.

Further measures in the update

• Fostering the establishment of ‘Choice Champions’. These people are to promote choice in public services and provide independent scrutiny and challenge to providers and commissioners. The Government also hopes they will support citizens – particularly the vulnerable and disadvantaged – in making effective choices in public services. Plans will be developed to raise awareness among citizens of the choices available in each service;
• The creation of ‘choice frameworks’ to outline and raise awareness of the choices available in a number of individual public services;
• Ensuring there is a “clear and simple” process to escalate a complaint where it cannot be resolved through local complaints procedures, which should still be the first port of call;
• Work with the ombudsmen to examine ways in which they can play an effective role. This includes ways in which they can: improve awareness and understanding of the role of ombudsmen in ensuring effective redress as the final resort when people do not receive their right to choose; use their ‘name and shame’ power more effectively; and communicate unresolved issues to the relevant elected body, “for instance to local councils in the case of the Local Government Ombudsman;
• Work with consumer groups to explore how to improve the way in which users of public services can complain. “A one-stop shop for public services complaints could potentially receive and forward on complaints to the right body, remind users of their rights, including timings for responses, and provide clear information about how to escalate complaints if necessary”;
• Extension of commissioning approaches in central government to new areas, including publishing a pipeline of new contracts;
• Establishment of a Commissioning Academy. “In a world where more and more public services are commissioned from providers outside the public sector, we need to ensure that employees – and politicians – across central government and the wider public sector are equipped with the skills to engage knowledgeably and confidently with suppliers”. This means understanding the need for outcomes-based procurement and a step change in thinking from line management to contract management;
• Extension of the Rights to Provide to areas such as youth services, probation services; children’s centres, and fire and rescue services;
• Examination of whether providers have a sufficient right to appeal to an independent figure or organisation “when they feel that they have been excluded from a commissioning process”. Proposals will be brought forward for consultation;
• Looking at ways of ‘levelling the playing field’ “so that all qualified providers in appropriate public services can compete on fair terms”;
• Development of a set of continuity regimes in all relevant public services, “to ensure that essential services are maintained even where providers fail or risk failing – while ensuring in each regime that providers face real consequences when failure occurs”;
• Ensuring that key data about public services – including data about user satisfaction and performance of providers from all sectors – is in the public domain in a comparable and accessible form.

All government departments will start to report on progress against the White Paper’s priorities in the spring. The Government as a whole will report annually to Parliament.

The Open Public Services 2012 Update Paper can be downloaded here.The call to evidence –  including the draft clauses on the right to choose – can be viewed here.

Philip Hoult