ACSeS comments on LGA "Prospectus for Local Government"
The prospectus issued on 11 June 2007 is built around four core propositions:
- A Framework for Excellence - that all councils adopt and work to a nationally agreed framework of Excellence which strengthens leadership, partnership, quality services, place-shaping, public engagement, choice and accountability;
- Staying Ahead - that local government as a whole commits to a small number of critical work programmes each year aimed at improving services and place-shaping;
- Local government and the LGA - that councils, the LGA and the central bodies (the IDeA, 4P's, LACORs and the Local Government Employers) collectively strengthen and deepen their relationships to ensure effective representation and leadership of the sector; and
- Developing the local alternative - that councils lead the drive for a more local approach to public service improvement, requiring decentralisation and a renewed partnership with goverment.
ACSeS has made its comments on 31 July 2007 as follows:
‘Our Future – A Prospectus for Local Government’
The Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors, representing Monitoring Officers and Deputies, Legal Directors and Legal and Democratic Services Heads in local government, appreciates the opportunity of commenting on this document.
The Association welcomes and supports the document as a focused and coordinated statement of direction for local authorities collectively.
We readily endorse ‘Proposition 1 A Framework for Excellence’ and its nine hallmarks as comprising the elements for providing high performance by local authorities. We would urge that the LGA gives formal recognition to the recent ‘Good Governance Framework’ and Guidance produced by the CIPFA/SOLACE Joint Working Group, of which ACSeS was a member, as being one of the practical means for local authorities to work towards the nine hallmarks. It is only by building and owning the governance framework that the Joint Working Group has designed as a blueprint of good governance that local authorities can move forward into the realm of excellence that ‘Our Future’ identifies.
ACSeS recognizes the governance complexity that ‘Proposition 2 Staying Ahead’ anticipates and we are working towards developing the documentary infrastructure necessary to support the framework.. It should be appreciated that much of this direction is evolutionary and often therefore experimental and it is essential that local authorities have the courage to take stock from time to time in order to review what works best and to adjust as necessary.
We particularly endorse the collaborative approach indicated in ‘Proposition 3 Developing the local government sector and the LGA’. Indeed these are the sentiments in our own 5 year strategy. We believe that the local government family working together is likely to achieve more than working as individual bodies. We have commenced developing improved contacts and relationships with bodies with whom we have common or related interests, and we would be happy to work up more constructive relationships with the LGA and family towards achieving the goals in ‘Our Future’.
We support ‘Proposition 4 Developing the local alternative’ as a better way of ensuring local vision and needs are met by local public services. Local Government has demonstrated in the past its ability to convert vision into reality at a time when it could only be achieved by promoting local legislation. The mass of formal controls, regulation and legislative detail in recent years had had the effect of dulling the enthusiasm for visionary development.
A significant omission from ‘Our Future’ seems to be the absence of specific reference to the parish council level of local government in England. As the Association representing Monitoring Officers in England, (who are also Monitoring Officers for their respective parish councils) ACSeS has developed closer working relationships with the Society of Local Council Clerks and the National Association of Parish Councils with a view to encouraging better governance at parish council level. It would seem to us that recognition and practical working relations between the two tiers of local government is likely to be more productive in ensuring the success of ‘Our Future’. Recognition and respect at national level is likely to improve relations at local level. A supported parish level is likely to complement democracy and community governance at principal council level. We invite the LGA to consider this apparent omission.
We look forward to working with the LGA towards achieving the vision and perspective outlined in ‘Our Future’.