During our recent discussion group meeting, we examined the newly declared Office of Local Government (OfLog). The Secretary of State, Michael Gove, has heralded numerous prospective benefits to emerge from OfLog, while maintaining that it does not represent a resurrection of the Audit Commission. However, upon closer scrutiny, its responsibilities appear to align more closely with the remit of the former Audit Commission than with OfWat or OfGen. It will primarily focus on the performance of local governments, engaging intimately with the performance improvement team at CIPFA. From my perspective, this seems to suggest another measure to enforce Central Government ideologies onto Local Government structures.
We also delved into a particular instance of this influence. Local Government Minister, Lee Rowley, has vehemently suggested that the South Cambridgeshire Council should abandon its ongoing four-day week experiment. He asserts that this change might somehow undermine the principle of “Value for Money”, and potentially infringe upon the Council’s legal obligations under the Local Government Act. His correspondence, which came across as overly assertive, seemed to be more about power dynamics than having any substantive legal implications. Our discussion group concluded that the South Cambridgeshire District Council’s experiment has proven largely successful, resulting in tangible cost savings. It appears that the Minister has misconstrued the concepts of capacity, outputs, and outcomes, and has not comprehended that the notion of Value for Money is contingent upon optimizing resource allocation to achieve the best performance and best outcomes for the citizen.
Additionally, we briefly discussed the issue of underclaiming by the Department of Work and Pensions and the resultant impact this has on Local Authority service delivery.
Please note that the slide pack contains additional slides covering other items of interest in the news and job adverts, which are provided in partnership with Business Smart (https://www.businesssmartsolutions.co.uk/).
The recording for this week can be accessed through this link: https://bit.ly/VN230710.
Slide pack files and reports can be downloaded from links below.
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