Building on this programme’s engagement with CEOs, DASSs and DCSs, including with officers from authorities that have previously undergone reorganisation, this section explores officers’ views on the key perceived opportunities and risks for people-based services. This insight is drawn from 1:1 conversations and roundtable discussions in addition to a survey of CCN members.
There is also the potential to unlock a wider strategic ambition , which is more holistic and all-encompassing for each local place, with a more formally unified group of decision-makers who, between them, have access to a wider range of levers to deliver. This can support aligned strategy, policy, and decisions at a place level, whilst also removing blockers and enabling places to achieve this ambition at greater scale and pace. These benefits have the potential to deliver advantages for the whole council, and stakeholders engaged through this programme identified a distinct set of opportunities for people services: The opportunity to work in a unitary organisation with housing services alongside social care can present opportunities for a more integrated approach to service delivery. This includes potentially providing a more joined-up service, i.e. in support of homelessness. Stakeholders mentioned that this may also help align available housing in an area with in-need cohorts such as young people leaving care. It may also enable counties’ land holdings to be used for housing and specialist housing, depending on local needs. The data held by lower tier authorities holds significant value in supporting the proactive identification of ‘at risk’ cohorts within a place , and early intervention to prevent need from escalating. Many stakeholders agreed that LGR offers an opportunity to better connect this data and leverage it.
3.1 The perceived opportunities
Service delivery currently often requires collaboration between district and county colleagues, and this can present barriers in terms of ensuring organisational, cultural, and financial alignment. As a result, the primary anticipated benefits associated with reorganisation include improved efficiency of delivery; simplicity and clarity of local accountability; and enabling further devolution of power regionally and locally. Officers engaged through this programme emphasised that perhaps most importantly, reorganisation could act as a springboard for transformation, encouraging new and innovative models of service delivery and collaboration as tiers of government are brought together, while leveraging the opportunities for deeper public service reform and integration with health, police, and the voluntary sector. Officers spoke of how this opportunity can bring with it the ability for leaders to focus more on place , with a wider set of services within a single organisation providing more ‘levers’ to influence the local place through effective service delivery for residents.
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