Sir Bob Kerslake, Permanent Secretary for the Department for Communities and Local Government, guest blogs on the recommendations of his independent review of Birmingham City Council and how they apply to other councils too...
Local authorities provide many of the most visible frontline services, and most people respect them and trust them to do a good job – 77% according to a recent poll. This level of public confidence is a priceless asset, and should not be put at risk. It was for this reason I was asked to lead an independent review of Birmingham City Council, following some high profile issues over a number of years.
The report was published earlier this month and will make uneasy reading for anyone who cares about local government. Birmingham is our second city and, with 120 members, the largest council. It should be a source of inspiration for other big cities. But instead it has started to fall behind them. The council now has a chance to improve its performance and demonstrate better leadership, budgeting, strategy and services. An independent panel will be available to help the council with this transformation and act on some of our findings.
This will be a challenge for the council. But these are challenging times for all local authorities and all parts of the public sector. As a former council chief executive and having helped lead a government department through similar fundamental reforms I fully understand this. But we should not forget what this is really about: improving the lives of local people by providing better services for them.
So in that sense while the recommendations of my review are particular to Birmingham, many are very applicable for other councils too.
To take a few examples:
Firstly, councils must go for growth. No town or city can flourish without jobs and investment and no council will be sustainable in the long term unless this is achieved. But if they do the prize is two-fold. Increasing growth will reap rewards for residents, but also improve council finances to help them consolidate successes. The incentives for local government finance are all now based around growth such as business rates retention, the New Homes Bonus and expanding a council tax base by getting more people into work. The best councils will take advantage of this, the worst will fall further behind.
Secondly, councils need to enable people to get the education and skills that can tap into this growth. In Birmingham we found that adult skills, particularly in poorer areas, were a long way short of where they need to be. The city's children's services also have a troubled history and there have been well-reported problems in some schools.
But the wider point is that unless councils help equip their population with skills, it won't be local people who are able to get the new jobs that are created or take advantage of their regenerated new city centres. On the contrary the gap will only grow wider between those who can and those who can't.
Thirdly, these are challenging times for council budgets but that makes a realistic but robust, longer-term plan for managing finances all the more vital. Assuming there is additional money or a last-minute solution from central government if the books aren't balanced is not an option. It is local people who will have to pay.
And fourthly, political leadership needs to be about setting a clear strategy and making sure it is realised, not unnecessarily interfering in the day to day running of services. But what good council leaders can do more of is engaging local partners and citizens in that long-term vision. Given the financial challenges, partnership is only going to become more important: whether between business and public bodies such as in local enterprise partnerships to encourage growth; between charities, health and social care as we deal with our ageing population; or in a troubled families programme-style approach that brings several services together to deal with high cost problems in a more effective way.
For all local authorities, strategic leadership, effective partnerships, service transformation, and economic growth are the only games in town.
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