GOVERNANCE & LEADERSHIP
at a drop-in centre, when they saw that not everyone would be able to get in. But now the drop-in centre has had to go appointment- only, further restricting the help it can offer.
“I suspect that throughout my time here I’m going to have pressure to be more outspoken, to be more demanding, because that fits what people are experiencing. What I’ve said to people is that obviously we will be vocal when we need to be; but it’s not just a case of being aggressive for the sake of being aggressive. We need to be evidence-based and positive, and offer solutions.”
Same issues as the early 2000s
Armstrong said leading Locality is the “perfect job” for him, with his recent campaigning and charity roles, and his background in the civil service and in neighbourhoods policy.
“Quite a few people are still around in the sector who I used to work with when I was in government. In some ways it’s really great to be back, and some of the things are familiar – but in other ways it’s depressing how some of the issues that were around in the early 2000s are still there and haven’t been solved or changed.
“The thread throughout most of my jobs has been a focus on communities: supporting communities to improve their local neighbourhoods.”
Reforming public services
A big campaign for Locality at the moment is ‘Local by Default’, which we have covered in PSE in recent issues, since it was launched at the House of Lords in March.
At the heart of Locality’s argument is that economies of scale in public services are usually a myth – that combining public sector procurement into larger and larger contracts to try to drive down unit costs through efficiencies of scale tends to fail.
Armstrong’s predecessor Steve Wyler called that a “a highly convenient myth for command- and-control politicians and for those who want to see mass privatisation of the public sector”, adding: “But not only is it false, and wholly unsupported by evidence, it is devastating in its consequences. It leads to an industrial approach to public services, riddled with standardisation and silo working.”
Instead, public service commissioning and delivery should take place ‘by default’ at the neighbourhood level, rising to other levels only with specific justification; people should be seen as assets, not just problems; a focus on purpose, not just outcomes; and a focus on value, not costs, by solving problems early.
Armstrong called it “the perfect thing for us to be putting more attention on” and promised additional resources for the campaign. Its recommendations would cost nothing, and ultimately improve outcomes for less money.
“Who doesn’t agree with that concept?” Armstrong asked. “We’re wasting billions giving people inadequate services at the moment that actually don’t address the issues people have, and are actually making things worse in some ways.”
That happens, he said, when people are shunted between service providers, or who get no help at all when they fall just below a certain threshold, but whose problems then get worse. “By the time people do reach those thresholds, it’s often too late for them to turn their lives around,” he said.
Storing up problems
Locality and the Social Economy Alliance have been debating those issues at the party conferences this year.
“We’ve got into this way of thinking where salami-sliced budget cuts mean you just outsource to whoever comes along saying they
will deliver at a low price. But that’s not cost- effective; you end up storing all of the high-end problems.
“The value of our membership – locally-based, multi-purpose community organisations – is that they look at people holistically, can see them as assets rather than just problems, and can start to intervene early because they’ve got the knowledge and the ability to be able to signpost different services.”
Projects that had particularly caught his eye recently, he said included Barca-Leeds, which is redesigning services to help people overcome deprivation-related health and social issues, with funding help from the LankellyChase Foundation.
Armstrong told us: “They’re doing some really interesting work, and we’re keen to see how we can take lessons from that.”
He also had praise for Wigan Council, one of a number of local authorities that seems genuinely interested in redesigning services along ‘local by default’, neighbourhood-led lines.
“Local authorities are going to be subject to increasing cuts over the next two or three years, which are already programmed in. It’s good that some of them are starting to see that there’s a whole new way of being able to deliver services that can actually save them money, rather than just thinking about that salami-slicing or outsourcing approach.”
‘Local by Default’ will also be a key theme at Locality’s annual convention, which takes place in Cardiff on 17 and 18 November.
Tony Armstrong FOR MORE INFORMATION
W:
locality.org.uk/events/locality-annual- convention-2014
public sector executive Oct/Nov 14 | 35
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