Three linked reports evaluated the local government modernization agenda – the 20 or more policies that followed the 1998 and 2001 Local Government White Papers. There was 'strong evidence' of significant improvements in many local government services between 2000 and 2006.
Source: Steve Martin, Meta-evaluation of the Local Government Modernisation Agenda: The State of Local Services – Performance Improvement in Local Government, Department for Communities and Local Government (web publication only) | Cardiff Business School and INLOGOV, Meta-evaluation of the Local Government Modernisation Agenda: The State of Local Democracy – The Impact of Policy Changes on Accountability and Public Confidence, Department for Communities and Local Government | Helen Sullivan, Meta-evaluation of the Local Government Modernisation Agenda: The State of Governance of Places – Community Leadership and Stakeholder Engagement, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Report (1) | Report (2) | Report (3)
Date: 2008-Dec
A report summarized the views of key stakeholders about the intended outcomes of local area agreements and local strategic partnerships. Respondents were positive about the new approach to delivering outcomes and the new performance framework. However, there was some concern as to whether the implications of devolving responsibilities to localities were yet fully realized; and whether scepticism, a lack of capacity, or fears about loss of control could limit changes in the behaviour of some central departments towards localities.
Source: Helen Sullivan and Eileen Lepine, Long Term Evaluation of Local Area Agreements and Local Strategic Partnerships: Report of the First Round of Stakeholder Interviews, Department for Communities and Local Government (web publication only)
Date: 2008-Dec
A report outlined a theory-based framework for the evaluation of local area agreements and local strategic partnerships.
Source: Helen Sullivan, Long Term Evaluation of Local Area Agreements and Local Strategic Partnerships: Developing a 'theory of change', Department for Communities and Local Government (web publication only)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Dec
A report summarized the findings from 5 in-depth case studies looking at the impact of local area agreements and local strategic partnerships. The new local performance framework was broadly welcomed, and the most important local driver for change was a desire to improve social and economic outcomes. Doubts were expressed, however, about whether tensions between local and departmental priorities could be a barrier to progress.
Source: Hilary Russell, Long Term Evaluation of Local Area Agreements and Local Strategic Partnerships: Case Studies Issues Paper, Department for Communities and Local Government (web publication only)
Date: 2008-Dec
A report said that housing issues did not fit neatly with the typical thematic partnership structure of local strategic partnerships (LSPs). Local councils needed to consider whether their existing LSP structure was providing adequate opportunities for discussing and addressing housing needs, and the contribution that housing services could make to wider neighbourhood and economic issues.
Source: Matthew Warburton, Implications of the New Local Government Agenda for Council Housing, HouseMark (024 7646 0500)
Links: Report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2008-Dec
A report mapped the web of relationships and responsibilities behind local regulatory advice, inspection, and enforcement activity. Council services providing vital consumer protection and regulatory advice to business were delivered amid 'enormous complexity'.
Source: Moirum Khanum, Mapping the Local Authority Regulatory Services Landscape: Towards a common understanding, Local Better Regulation Office (0121 226 4000)
Links: Report | LBRO press release
Date: 2008-Nov
A think-tank report said that the potential of the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 (giving more power to local communities and councils over their neighbourhoods) had not yet been realized.
Source: Anthony Brand, Sustainable Communities Act: The key that finally unlocks real local potential, New Local Government Network (020 7357 0051)
Date: 2008-Oct
A think-tank report called for local councils to be given greater responsibility – and more incentives – to drive forward local area agreements. The existing system was still too inflexible for many local authorities.
Source: Anthony Brand, Deal or No Deal? Delivering LAA success, New Local Government Network (020 7357 0051)
Links: NLGN press release
Date: 2008-Oct
A report by a committee of MPs said that the government should impose a duty on local authorities to develop a public toilet strategy, involving consultation with the local community. This would go a long way towards achieving the right of people to have accessible and clean public toilets, wherever they lived, worked, or visited.
Source: The Provision of Public Toilets, Twelfth Report (Session 2007-08), HC 636, House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Help the Aged press release | UNISON press release | BBC report
Date: 2008-Oct
The government published its response to a review that considered the burdens placed on local government as a result of its relationship with the Department of Health.
Source: Department of Health Commentary on Task Force Recommendations, Department of Health (08701 555455)
Links: Response | Letter | Review report
Date: 2008-Oct
Researchers examined why people did or did not feel able to influence local decisions, and sought to generate strategies that might help increase this type of empowerment. There was confusion about which decisions happened at the local level, with national decisions sometimes misattributed to local authorities, and vice versa. People's previous experiences of interacting with an authority underpinned views about their ability to have an influence: complaint-handling therefore had a profound influence on people's trust in their council as well as perceptions of a council's willingness to listen.
Source: Mehul Kotecha, Jenny Graham and Andreas Cebulla, Feeling Able to Influence Local Decision Making: Understanding, barriers, facilitators and strategies for increasing empowerment, Department for Communities and Local Government (0870 1226 236)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Sep
A series of papers was published as part of the evaluation of community strategies (mainly drawn up by local strategic partnerships). There was an increasingly coherent and sophisticated approach in the strategies to the specification of actions, targets, and indicators.
Source: Janie Percy-Smith, Detailed Assessment of Community Strategies, Department for Communities and Local Government (web publication only) | Policy Research Institute, Process Evaluation of Plan Rationalisation 2004-2007, Department for Communities and Local Government | Surya Monro, Equalities and Community Strategies: Research report, Department for Communities and Local Government | Martin Purcell, Issues Paper 9: The Role of Elected Members, Department for Communities and Local Government | Murray Hawtin and Martin Purcell, Issues Paper 12: Community Engagement in Community Strategies, Department for Communities and Local Government | Surya Monro, Sukky Jassi and Alison Darlow, Issues Paper 11: The Relationship Between Community Strategies and Local Area Agreements, Department for Communities and Local Government | Lynne Dowson, Issues Paper 10: Local Development Frameworks and Community Strategies, Department for Communities and Local Government |
Links: Paper (Percy-Smith) | Paper (Policy Research Institute) | Paper (Monro) | Paper (Purcell) | Paper (Hawtin/Purcell) | Paper (Monro/Jassi/Darlow) | Paper (Dowson)
Date: 2008-Aug
An audit report said that local councils in England, particularly those which had the most rapidly ageing populations, were not ready to meet the challenges or grasp opportunities as people got older. Older people (defined as those aged over 50) would make up more than 1 in 3 of the population by 2009: but most council services focused on the minority who required social care, excluding the invisible majority who might end up isolated and vulnerable if ignored.
Source: Don't Stop Me Now: Preparing for an ageing population, Audit Commission (0800 502030)
Links: Report | Audit Commission press release | Age Concern press release | Help the Aged press release | LGA press release | ADASS press release | CSV press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Jul
A report examined the ways in which local authorities and their partners were making connexions between the 'place-shaping' and 'personalization' agendas. Local authorities and their partners saw both policy strands as being fundamentally about empowerment – at the community and individual levels respectively. It was not yet clear, however, to what extent this understanding was making a difference to the planning, commissioning, and delivery of public services
Source: Jane Carrier, Communities – Healthy, Strong and Prosperous: The links between the personalisation and place-shaping agendas in adult social care and health, Improvement and Development Agency (020 7296 6693)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Jul
A study found that local public service agreements had led to improved working practices, new initiatives, and wider change in local authorities. There were significant improvements in some of the targeted service areas – often judged sustainable beyond the agreement period – and many targets were exceeded. But both central government and local partners needed to be much more disciplined in identifying the 'real-world' outcomes they wanted, and to be clearer about how policy and practice would bring these outcomes about.
Source: Office for Public Management et al., National Evaluation of Local Public Service Agreements: Final Report, Department for Communities and Local Government (0870 1226 236)
Links: Report | Summary | Appendices
Date: 2008-Jul
An audit report examined the recruitment and retention pressures facing local councils in the light of demographic and other changes. It assessed the potential risks to key services of councils failing to properly plan their workforces, and it evaluated the progress councils had made.
Source: Tomorrow's People: Building a local government workforce for the future, Audit Commission (0800 502030)
Links: Report | Audit Commission press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2008-Jun
A think-tank report proposed a single commissioning process for all local public services in order to empower local authorities in their role as the only democratically elected local body, and to thereby strengthen local accountability over service provision.
Source: Getting to the Heart of Local Accountability, Local Government Information Unit (020 7554 2800)
Links: Report | LGIU press release
Date: 2008-Jun
A report examined the role for local government in promoting equality and diversity.
Source: Lucy de Groot and Angela Mason (eds.), How Equality Shapes Place: Diversity and localism, Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Mangers (0845 652 4010)
Links: Report
Date: 2008-May
An article examined the idea that increasing civic engagement led to better public services. Local councils which aimed to promote understanding of citizenship among the public were found to be more likely to have higher service performance: but those which aimed to increase citizen engagement in local governance were associated with lower performance in deprived areas.
Source: Rhys Andrews, Richard Cowell and James Downe, 'Support for active citizenship and public service performance: an empirical analysis of English local authorities', Policy & Politics, Volume 36 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Apr
A think-tank report said that local councils might struggle to employ enough staff to run services over the next ten years as one-third of its staff were due to retire.
Source: Nigel Keohane, Leading Lights: Recruiting the next generation in local government, New Local Government Network (020 7357 0051)
Links: NLGN press release | UNISON press release | Liberal Democrats press release | Personnel Today report
Date: 2008-Apr
The Northern Ireland Executive announced (following a review) that the existing 26 local government districts would be rationalized to create 11 new districts. A range of functions would be transferred to the new councils, including: aspects of planning; rural development; the public realm aspects of local roads functions; urban regeneration and community development; a range of housing-related functions; and local economic development and tourism.
Source: Press release 13 March 2008, Northern Ireland Executive (028 9052 0500)
Links: NIE press release | BBC report
Date: 2008-Mar
A report examined how local authorities might choose to make different 'trade-offs' in responding to the challenges of neighbourhood governance. Neighbourhood arrangements should be balanced with the demands of efficiency and proportionality.
Source: Governance, Neighbourhoods and Service Delivery, Centre for Local Economic Strategies (0131 650 9166) and others
Links: Report
Date: 2008-Feb
An article reviewed the evaluation studies of local government modernization commissioned by central government. It identified valuable insights into the contemporary state of English local government, central government, and central-local relations. But future research needed to rediscover the value of studying local politics 'in the round', the impact of socio-economic and non-local factors on local policy outcomes, and the role of new sources of policy influence in the channels of central-local relations.
Source: Martin Laffin, 'Local government modernisation in England: a critical review of the LGMA evaluation studies', Local Government Studies, Volume 34 Number 1 Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Feb
An article called for greater clarity of thinking on the issue of joint working between local authorities, their partners, and local communities. It identified three main types of approach: service-influencing, service-delivering, and parish council developing. Strengthening political co-governance was essential for a healthy democracy.
Source: Peter Somerville and Nathan Haines, 'Prospects for local co-governance', Local Government Studies, Volume 34 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Feb
An audit report said that partnerships intended to overcome the drawbacks of traditional contracts between the public and private sectors often failed to live up to expectations. Local councils should enter into complex partnerships only if they had the high level of expertise needed to get good value for public money as circumstances changed over a long time. A think-tank opposed to public-private partnerships nonetheless criticized the report for 'inadequate methodology, no evidence base, employment issues ignored, no audit of private sector investment and no comparison of an alternative in-house approach'.
Source: For Better, For Worse: Value for money in strategic service-delivery partnerships, Audit Commission (0800 502030) | Dexter Whitfield, Public Private Partnerships: Confidential 'Research' – A critique of the Audit Commission's study of strategic service-delivery partnerships, European Services Strategy Unit/Northumbria University (0191 227 3500)
Links: Report | Audit Commission press release | ESSU report | FT report
Date: 2008-Jan
The government published a strategy setting out how central and local government would provide the support that local partnerships would need to deliver excellent local area agreements.
Source: National Improvement and Efficiency Strategy, Department for Communities and Local Government (0870 1226 236)
Links: Strategy
Date: 2008-Jan
The government announced plans for new 'community contracts' across England – voluntary agreements between local people and town halls that would allow residents to set minimum standards, bargain with councils for extra services, and put in place checks on quality.
Source: How to Develop a Local Charter: A guide for local authorities, Department for Communities and Local Government (0870 1226 236)
Links: Guidance | DCLG press release | Speech | BBC report | New Start report
Date: 2008-Jan
A think-tank report said that local councils should introduce e-petitions to engage people in local politics. Allowing citizens to publicly petition councils to debate and review spending and policy commitments would give them direct influence over how local services were delivered, and encourage greater democratic participation.
Source: Giorgia Iacopini, 21st Century Democracy: E-petitioning and local government, New Local Government Network (020 7357 0051)
Links: Report | NLGN press release
Date: 2008-Jan