At the LGA Annual Conference in July 2004, James Strachan, Chairman of the Audit Commission, addressed efficiency and devolved decision-making in the public sector. A key concept was the humpty dumpty effect.
“As taxpayers’ money flows down vertically from the Exchequer to the locality, what we see is the ‘humpty dumpty’ effect: large amounts of taxpayers’ money are earmarked for say regeneration, which is then broken down and channelled through numerous central government departments. The result is a plethora of agencies at work and a multiplicity of funding streams, all often operating with little or no co-ordination. Then you (the authorities) at the local level are forced to try to put humpty dumpty back together again. Extraordinarily inefficient.”
So what does James Strachan suggest to address this problem and improve the delivery of public services to citizens?
a) Understand each other better. Second civil servants from Central Government to Local Agencies.
b) Make co-operation mandatory between Central Government departments in common policy areas. Turf wars over ownership do not improve service delivery to the end user.
c) Work in partnership. Local Strategic Partnerships bring together leaders of different services. By meeting and understanding each other better trust grows. Local Public Service Boards should be able to develop whole plans for local areas.
d) Combine different streams of funding into a single flow. Pooled budgets, joint decisions and joint understanding. This is the next logical step for partnerships.
e) Local government to become more proactive and ambitious in how best to manage central/local relations.
f) Use partnerships to break down boundaries and old structures to achieve the efficiency gains outlined in the Gershon report. It is estimated that over £200 million can be saved from the administration of council tax and housing benefits alone just by implementing best practice that already exists.
g) Regulation as a tool for improvement rather than a meddling regime. Reduce and improve the co-ordination of public sector regulation but the focus will remain on helping the poor performers.
h) People not structures make an impact. “Create a culture of customer responsiveness where innovation is prized and where calculated risks to experiment with new ways of providing services are encouraged”.
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