Survey respondents were asked what they believe is the most appropriate approach to mitigate the risks and deliver the opportunities from LGR (Figure 6 below). The most supported approach was ensuring that any new unitary councils have a population of 500,000 or more, with 89% of respondents feeling confident or very confident that this would be the most appropriate approach to mitigate the risks and deliver the opportunities of LGR for people-based services. This suggests that larger unitaries are more likely to provide the scale and capacity to enable them to manage complex people-based services, ensure financial sustainability, and reduce fragmentation. In general, approaches that rely on fragmented delivery models (such as shared services or trusts) were viewed with low confidence by stakeholders who responded to the survey. For example, a trust model received the lowest confidence of all approaches (95% not at all confident or not confident). The following sections of this report seeks to test and quantify these perceived risks, to inform the planning and implementation of LGR. In doing so, it aims to minimise the potential negative impact on services and the people who draw on the care and support they provide, and maximise the potential opportunities.
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