What does community engagement for local government reorganisation look like?
March brought a scramble to submit interim proposals to government looking at how areas in England will respond to the challenge of reorganisation. According to a recent article in the Local Government Chronicle, there are over 50 options still in consideration.
Our director, Sam supported one of the many councils in preparing their bid, advising them on how to position their argument, making recommendations for future stakeholder engagement and leading the copywriting of their final submission. It was a busy few weeks and for the team here at Filigree, prompted some thinking about how on earth you might shape a community engagement programme around these changes.
what does it mean?
It’s a difficult idea to explain to communities and residents who perhaps couldn’t say – and don’t really care – that they may have one council to collect the rubbish and another to fix the potholes. And that this is all about to change, hopefully for the better.
The English Devolution White Paper, published in December last year, set out a vision to simplify local government leading to better outcomes for residents.
This means areas currently covered by a county council as well as district, borough or city councils could have fewer, more efficient local authorities delivering public services.
Jim McMahon, Minister for Local Government and English Devolution last month invited council leaders and chief executives of councils in 21 areas to put forward their initial thinking on how their entire area might be reorganised to deliver value for money, maximise economic growth, address inequalities and improve service delivery for council taxpayers.
what happens now
There’s some work to be done to take local communities and residents on this journey.
Arguably, the biggest challenge for local authorities right now is to ensure there’s genuine collaboration between the two-tier councils. It’s certainly not in taxpayers’ interests to see political posturing and petty arguments over boundaries or budgets.
We’ll be looking at how council leaders and chief executives step up and join an open, transparent conversation about how to deliver in the best interests of their area, regardless of where council boundaries lie at the moment.
For any consultation, we know it is important that participants properly understand what they’re being asked to comment on so they can make an informed decision. The topic of how local government reform is complicated, and it is likely most people don’t have the insight or expertise to consider issues such as optimal population size, the number of seats or councillors or where boundary lines might be drawn. Clearly, this is for council officers and elected members to make decisions and put forward the most advantageous option on behalf of their residents.
a chance to involve communities
However, residents should be involved. We’d like to see local people share their views on their own experiences of council services, what they’d like to see more of, how service delivery could be improved. This is a chance to listen to the lived experience of those who have experienced social care first hand; capture views from people supporting those facing homelessness; or families navigating SEND support. Capturing insights and co-designing new service delivery models is the real consultation opportunity as plans for local government reorganisation take shape.
We’re looking forward to supporting councils with workshops, targeted discussions, interviews and depth research to consider how local government reorganisation might be an opportunity for meaningful change for residents.