Rising to the challenge : certainty

s114 Notices

There is a need for some optimism in the midst of the clamour over s114 notices. At a recent event, senior local government leaders were calling for resilience and positivity, despite the difficulties. It also led to a discussion about the need for clarity about what you provide and why.

It is not always clear what is, and is not, a statutory service. Once you take into account an associated delivery model, it can become more and more opaque. Indeed, the rationale for providing a service may have been lost in the mists of time or become part of a political backstory. The City Solicitor at Birmingham mentioned this challenge in their context in a recent council meeting and called it ‘extraordinarily difficult’.

Yet in times of straitened budgets obtaining clarity is key. We need to be completely clear about what we do. Council priorities are not the same as statutory services. The narrative and rationale needs to be both precise and persuasive. Done well, clarity can be a rallying call and collaboration point for discussing the ‘what next’ for officers, members and residents alike; ultimately it can make taking the tough decisions easier. If there is certainty as to the ‘what’ and the ‘why’, then the ‘who’ and the ‘how’ can be dealt with. Perhaps a service is valued within a community, but can be delivered through a different model? Could a service be replaced or can it be viewed, delivered, hosted and managed differently? Can you move from provided ‘by’ to provided ‘with’?

At Local Partnerships we believe there are several ways of driving greater certainty in local government, including:

• Deep dives and cases for change – reviewing service re-design options; agile strategies for asset sales and transfers; business cases for new ways of working; reinforcing the narrative for transformation
• Using data analytics to drive evidence based, informed action allowing senior council leaders to focus on focussed data driven decision making

If any of this resonates, please get in touch.