Box 04: Impact and equality of aggregation on different areas
The main themes explored in this report relate to the implications of the disaggregation of people-based services, where this is being considered or proposed. Nonetheless, for several county areas where disaggregation is being considered, this is likely to be accompanied by a degree of aggregation of services between neighbouring unitaries and county councils. 11 of the 19 county areas who participated in this work are considering some degree of aggregation with one or more neighbouring unitary authorities. This is often alongside disaggregation in other areas of the county, which introduces additional complexity. The analysis conducted for this report looks at the relationship between scale and demand for people services, the costs of provision, and quality of service delivery. It demonstrates the benefits of scale and the risks of losing scale through fragmentation and disaggregation. It can also be shown that for smaller unitaries being aggregated into larger authorities, there can be a positive effect when measured by comparing to the baseline performance of the original unitary authority. It is the case that, in a future state where the population is served by a larger number of smaller authorities, this increases the risks outlined through this analysis. However, there will be significant segments of the population - those living in smaller, existing unitaries, often in more urban and deprived areas - which may see some level of aggregation and which may stand to gain. This could lead to a debate around the extent to which the system is redesigned to favour these populations, at the expense of those living within larger upper tier county council areas.
58
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs