12.12.18
Approach to failures in local government needs ‘thorough rethink’
Methods of addressing failure in local government are “no longer fit for purpose” and need a major shift in approach to ensure struggling councils don’t end up making their situations worse, think tanks have warned.
According to the new report, the think tanks are worried that the public sector does not have the necessary mechanisms to deal consistently with council failure, therefore a “thorough rethink” is needed local government failure.
Local government think tank Localis and the Centre for Public Scrutiny (CfPS) published the report, arguing the idea of a ‘typography of failure’ will help articulate the key factors leading to failure.
They stress the importance of changes amidst a climate of government funding cuts to council budgets and rising service demands in areas such as social care.
The CfPS said: “It’s not just Northamptonshire and the spectre of other councils potentially issuing S114 notices. Failure is often many years in the making.”
It argued that publicised failure leads to councils becoming less outward looking, more introspective, more defensive – “they develop narratives about themselves and their own performance which increasingly bear no relation to reality.”
Jacqui McKinlay, chief executive of the CfPS, urged local government to start preparing for increasing instances of failure in the years ahead and said that improved scrutiny processes at local level will be “crucial” in this effort.
She commented: “Our recent experience of working with local authorities shows that it is time for a thorough rethink about local government failure.
“Failure in local government is not something that is going to go away – in fact, a range of looming pressures mean that the problem is likely to become more prevalent in the years ahead.”