In Praise of Total Place: A step in the right direction

Total Place was set up by the Labour Government as an initiative that looks at how a ‘whole area’ approach to public services can lead to better services at less cost.

The strap line from the Leadership Centre for Local Government report was ‘Learning to do things differently’ and so was worth looking at for a blog which has a strap line of ‘doing something different’.

The problem was complex ways of spending public money with most decisions taken with little regard to local situation and with negligible influence by the local community. Total Place is therefore a potential to alter this balance of power through the creation of citizen centered services and joined up working.

The benefit of Total Place is the solution focused thinking to how do we create better services? We start with the service recipient rather than the department which means removing the borders to the departments and local authorities.

Local spending decisions are at the heart of total place thinking. There needs to be freedom to invest in one area for the benefit of another. To allow innovation and creativity to flourish it must be possible to move money around. Aligning budgets is a helpful first step in this direction.

As I have advocated for in numerous posts and as outlined by Total Place there is a need for a change in the bureaucratic system, which will require a paradigm shift in thought

Total Place is going to affect all frontline services, but whatever changes emerge will also affect Whitehall. Officials sitting at desks in the Department of Health, Communities and Local Government or the Home Office will have to re-cast their roles. Their thinking will have to be at a strategic level, because they will no longer be able to contribute to the tactics, where they will be out of their depth. Their expertise stops at the function boundary, but at the sharp end, boundaries will be spanned. This transition to the new world of Total Place will be a major challenge for the civil service.

Yet this will be, and is being, resisted

The option of a structural re-organisation of Whitehall to reflect what is happening at the frontline has already been ruled out.

So we should praise Total Place as a good initiative to relook at what government does and how to do it better, how to relook at the bureaucratic structure to enable it to do it better, and to move power away from Central to Local government.

However, for me there is something obviously missing. Chris Allison, Director, East Midlands Improvement Efficiency Partnership, sums it up

For local authorities over the next five years, collaboration with other public sector partners will be the name of the game

Well that may be the case for the next five years but it is a continuation of the politicians know best syndrome. The name of the game should be collaboration with citizens and other social players to co-create services.

Read more

Collaboration: The Next Big Step in Government and Public Administration

Next Big Development in Politics: Which side will the Lib Dems be on?

Public Service Reform (Tory/Labour vs Lib Dems)