A real Christmas cracker

The lighter side of local government

Well, I'm off for my holiday break after today - but I wanted to wish all the readers a Happy Holiday and a Prosperous New Year. The IDeA wishes you Seasons Greetings (do follow the link - it's cute!) If you're so minded - I wish you a Merry Christmas, too. In lieu of Friday Funday -we're having a wacky Wednesday full of holiday cheer:

A punishment to fit the crime
I've already blogged about councils putting up seasonal displays. Now one council has already experienced vandalism of their lights and a little restorative justice.

A hooded gang who vandalised a town's Christmas tree were made to redecorate it again just moments later after being caught on CCTV. The yobs had ripped £100-worth of fairy lights from the tree in Bridgwater, Somerset, but were marched back to the scene of the crime to repair their handiwork by police officers.

Sedgemoor District Council has released grainy, CCTV photos of the youngsters re-decorating.

Too right, I say. Though not exactly in the same league, I experienced a little Christmas vandalism last year at the hands paws of a local youth.


I tried my best to make her pay, but I had less luck with the restorative justice than the local Somerset constabulary.

Christmas dinner
Growing up in the Southern US, Brussels sprouts were not a regular part of our holiday fare. But I've grown to like them. But not nearly as much as this guy.

A Devon man who hoped to set a world record by eating the most Brussel sprouts in a minute has failed. Richard Townsend, 24, of Exeter, fell seven short of the target of 43, which was set in December 2003. Mr Townsend, who had eaten a plate of sprouts every day for the last six months, said he just "lost it".

Oh, dear. Mr Townsend prepares his sprouts simply by trimming them to a uniform size and cooked them (I guess quite simply) for four minutes. I definitely couldn't eat 43 in a minute. I can eat more than I might otherwise though if they're prepared in a way taught to me by an old friend - I'm no recipe writer, so do bear with me - but trust me these are delicious!

• Prepare sprouts as normal
• Load the sprouts up in a steamer (I use a double boiler with steamer section - but you can also steam in a microwave proof boil with a bit of cling film over the top)
• Toss in three or four peeled cloves of garlic - cut in half or thirds if you're so minded - otherwise at least score them
• Throw in a pinch of oregano or basil - or even herbes de Provence
• Dice red sweet pepper or bits of sundried tomato and stir them into the mix (an optional step - but it does make those sprouts look festive)
• The essential step: drizzle sprouts with olive oil
• Steam until tender, but not too mushy (you'll just have to use your judgement)
• Salt to taste (I usually do this at the table afterwards)

Yum. Yum. Happy Christmas everyone.

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Friday funday: spoilt for choice

The lighter side of local government

Yes, sometimes it's a struggle to find those clips that can tickle the local government fancy, but this week, I have to say, I've been spoiled for choice. Since, I can never make up my mind, I'll just share them all...


South Beds DC flushed with success

Leighton Buzzard’s multi-storey car park loos have been named the United Kingdom’s best public toilets by the British Toilet Association, beating off entrants from the rest of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

You don't look half cheery

West London local authority trading standards units have cracked down on short measures in the festive season.

The lighter side of public health?
If the trousers fit, please call 0-800-YOU-R-FAT. (I'd think this were funnier if I weren't in line to see this myself.)

We're not squabbling over chicken feed here

London Mayor sued for withdrawing pigeon food subsidies for Trafalgar Square.

I vant to suck your blood buy your castle

Brasov County Council, in the heart of Transylvania, is offered the opportunity to purchase Dracula's castle. (I've been there and it's awesome!)


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Get in on it now!

According to IT think-tank and consultancy Gartner, blogging is set to peak in 2007. So that means if you get into the act now, you'll still be ahead of the curve.

I've always thought that blogging - keeping a web log or online diary - is an excellent way of keeping a learning log or a record of lessons as you progress through projects, meet new professionals and are exposed to new ideas. Personally, I find it an invaluable way of maintaining my "written memory".

It does take a little bit of guts to start one up..."what will I say?", "will anyone be interested?", "what if I make a load of mistakes?", "what if I go too far?" But after you get over the inital hesitation, it's actually quite good.

Anyone can start a blog - and it doesn't cost anything either. This blog is hosted for free by Blogger at www.blogger.com But the IDeA also hosts blogs within our communities of practice space. Blogs there are a little more private - you publish your thoughts only to like-minded practitioners. Get signed up at www.communities.idea.gov.uk and take a look around for communities that interest you. For example why not join the communities I help facilitate - Policy & Performance and Performance Management.


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Innovation and stuff

Are we a nation of innovators? What is the UK for and how does it win its place in the world? Those were questions addressed in an event I was lucky enough to attend yesterday at Nesta [http://www.nesta.org.uk/] on innovation where Charlie Leadbeater [http://www.charlesleadbeater.net/home.aspx] was giving a ‘provocation’.

Emerging, from torrential rain into this breakfast meeting I found myself dazed and disoriented, blinking into the reality of some 1960’s envisioned future – all columns, lights and mirrors. Obviously a home for innovation.

Charlie Leadbeater was arguing that the UK should position itself “as a society of mass innovation, a place where creativity and innovation are everyday activities, practised in my settings, by many people.” While China is characterised as ‘the world’s fastest growing economy’ and the US is known as ‘the home of high-tech and Hollywood’, the UK doesn’t really have a one-line pitch to the world. Instead, a discussion with students in China revealed an image of this country as about Premiership football, rain, island isolationism and Mr Bean. (This, the country that produced Newton, Shakespeare, Darwin, Dickens, the Beatles and Britart). Leadbeater proposes ‘ten habits of mass innovation’, but at this event he focussed on three.

He suggested we need a debate about what education is for. Up to know the debate has mainly been about process – what type of teaching, systems standards and testing do we want. But what is the education for? “Learning should develop every child’s capacity for independent critical thinking and collaborative problem solving.”

How can we promote citizen innovation? Innovation isn’t something which should be done by elite specialists in a special place (though as one participant pointed out, this discussion was being had by elite specialists in a special place). This will include the challenge, in an ageing society, of how to live healthy and worthwhile lives in our 90s.

Can we donate some of our unused knowledge for the benefit of developing countries? Do we have any discarded intellectual property hanging around which we don’t use any more which we can put in a recycling skip to help towards dealing with aids, clean water etc.?

Other points that came up:

Most of the other countries that are steaming ahead have some sort of ‘burning platform’ that is driving them forward (particularly small states fearing bigger ones) what is ours? My answer (though I didn’t have chance to mention it in this august gathering) was that we have a rotting platform. We have relatively well-off lives and the threat of climate change or the Chinese and Indian impact on the global economy seem very distant. Our productivity and niche economic advantages are gradually disappearing, but the platform doesn’t look too bad. A few bits are crumbling at the edges, but the extent of rot is not enough to galvanise us into action.

What about the public sector? The problems identified were government’s excessive centralism, distrust and departmentalism. Also the performance metric driven approach and entrenched interests, resistant to anything threatening the tick box approach to control.

An IBM survey [http://www-5.ibm.com/e-business/uk/innovation/channel/html/revitalize/BTI.0004.html] had found that unlike the private sector, public sector respondents rarely mentioned employees and customers as having an important role in innovation. Charlie Leadbeater (who wrote the IDeA’s ‘Man in the Caravan’) said that his experience of good public sector innovation involved leadership, outcomes, customer focus and engaging employees. The problems he identified were deploying new ideas up to mass scale (rather than being trapped with little schemes) and how to stop old lines of business – how to exit (interestingly he thought that while government is not very good at picking winners, they are quite good at picking losers, so could help divestment).

Not everyone agreed with the mass innovation thesis. Doesn’t it undermine the important role of experts and lead to philistinism?

Are we stuck with our national culture, and should we even try to change it? Is it already changing out there through popular culture like the X-factor and Dragon’s Den and virtual forums and worlds on the web? Or should we just accept we are a nation of shopkeepers, who are tolerant, support the underdog and don’t like to boast? We’ve got a successful pop industry but we’re not sure how we’ve done it (no pilot schemes, government grants or performance indicators). Perhaps our one line pitch to the world is something about our quirkiness and oddness. Should it just be that we’re cool?

Ipsos Mori End of Year Event

After an early state, a late finish, with the Ipsos-Mori end of year event with speakers Ben Page, Sir Michael Lyons, Trevor Phillips and Nicholas Boles. Lots of interesting points made, many which complemented the morning’s session: here’s just a few.

Polls show that compared to other countries we really are quite a tolerant nation.

The public would like Scandinavian levels of public service with US levels of tax.

The public simultaneously want to be left to make their own decisions but also for the government to sort things out for them.

People want to know who is making the decision
That those people are powerful and able to make a difference
And if decide to challenge, that it will be acted upon.

There is a common view that inequality is getting better, so we just need to give it time. However, at the current rate of change we will:
· have a representative House of Commons in 2080.
· close the gender pay gap by 2085
· close the ethnic employment gap 2105.
· close the disability employment gap probably never
· close the ethnic qualification gap – definitely never.

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Friday funday: innovation

The lighter side of local government

It's all about inovation today. Innovations of all sorts. It's quite timely because one of my colleagues, Adrian Barker attended a seminar on innovation this week. Charlie Leadbeater spoke - he's always thought provoking - and you can find his recent presentations - including those on innovation - here.


Drunk or just boring?

'Tis the season of office Christmas parties. And yes, I know it shows a flaw in my character, but unless I'm drunk, I usually find them dull, dull, dull. And ever since that last unfortunate incident, I've really tried to avoid overconsumption of alcohol in front of the people that sign my cheque.

But thankfully for seasonal revellers in the borough of Westminster, the City Council has got you covered either way.

With the Christmas party season underway, a new free texting service has been launched to help revellers get home safely from central London.

The service is part of a Westminster City Council's "Some things you only do when you're drunk" campaign All people have to do is go to http://www.somethings.co.uk/ to get telephone numbers for bus and safe taxi services.

And if making small talk with the boss is just too much, there is even an excuse text to help you get away from the boring office party.

What's that smell?

What's the smell that you usually associate with public transport or bus shelters? No, really - go on - close your eyes and smell that smell.

Now imagine what they could smell like, roses, freshly laundered sheets hanging in the sun, new-mown hay, warm chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven?

Via the Governing blog, I've discoverd that one need no longer imagine. Bus shelters in San Francisco are to smell like chocolate chip cookies - thanks to an advertising campaign by California's milk board. (See, you Brits think of biscuits then tea, but we Americans think of cookies then milk).

Christopher Swope writes of this advertising innovation:

I know how I'm supposed to feel about this. I'm supposed to mourn the passing of yet another of our five human senses into the advertising kingdom. Madison Avenue took sight (TV) and sound (radio) from us long ago. Taste as advertising is give and take -- I'm thinking free samples here. Now they're snatching smell from us, too. Only touch remains an ad-free zone, barring changes in law or social behavior.

But let's be honest: Bus shelters could do worse than smell like chocolate chip cookies. Much worse. As a teenager quoted in the Chronicle points out, "It's going to smell like cookies and bums."

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This blog is-a-changing

Gentle reader,

I'm about to upgrade the version of blogging software that I use. This may affect the RSS feed, so if you use a feed reader - you may need to check if you're still getting posts from this PM. It won't affect the address of this blog.

If all of this means nothing to you, then you needn't worry about it.

Your faithful blogger,

Ingrid

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PM Partner update

Update from the PM Partner site

I've created a new page called Resources for councillors and non-executives .The 2006 Local Government White Paper outlines a greater role for councillors in executive, ward and scrutiny roles. Councillors and partner body non-executives will need to develop and enhance their partnership working skills. I hope we'll highlight a growing number of resources - but for now in particular this highlights two recent IDeA publications Neighbourhood renewal and social inclusion: a councillor's guide to scrutiny and Inside Top Teams: A practical guide which includes a section on partnership working.

I've also added a link to a new set of IDeA case studies on what local government and the community and voluntary sectors are doing together called Journeys to Improvement on our Community and Voluntary Sector Page

I've also tabulated the results of the PM Partner participant survey which you can find here. As a project team and with colleagues, we still have to think about what to do with what you said - but there was a lot of food for thought. Even from early results, we could see that we needed to improve the navigation of the site - and I hope that we've done that.

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Friday funday: video gaga

The lighter side of local government

Many years ago - the London Borough of Brent was one of the first councils in the country (the world?) to use a webcam as part of its regular service. The webcam was used in the wedding room - and it was a way for families - often located around the world to share in the newlyweds' joy. The camera is still there.

I remember it because I worked at Brent at the time. Although we looked at the wedding webcam out of a sense of novelty - we really didn't need it. Our offices overlooked the arriving brides and grooms - which was always a treat. We saw big fluffy white wedding gowns, beautiful red Indian saris, and some wedding outfits that defy categorisation (e.g. the woman who wore a gold bikini and then strategically draped herself with golden gauze).

Cradle to grave
At least one South London nursery operates a webcam for nervous parents. And now there's a webcam for end-of-life, too. Peterborough City Council has started a webcam service at its crematorium.

Families will pay £45 to allow friends and relatives to view services at the council run crematorium in Peterborough, Cambs. Crematorium bosses are offering a DVD or video for an extra £25

Although it sounds a trifle ghoulish, I can well imagine that it's a service that could bring a lot of comfort to some. In the weeks following her father's funeral (my granddad) my aunt listened to a recording of the service over and over when she was on the road.

Canned cam
Anderson County, Tennessee installed a webcam in its jails. I'm sorry I missed that - because now the service has been canned. (Plus - as it's where my dad grew up - I might have seen someone I knew!)

Some viewers have been using the cameras to harass female jailers by calling them on the telephone and taunting them as they work, according to Anderson County sheriff's officials. In other cases, viewers are tracking inmate movements and using the information to coordinate deliveries of contraband to prisoners on work details outside the jail.

Yikes!! According to webcam's site -

The department has been pleased with the popularity of the cam over the past few years, but Sheriff White noted that safety and security must take a priority

...and on the right side of the law
According to The Guardian, the Police are using the free online video service YouTube to nab recruits rather than criminals.

Videos of police officers in action are being broadcast on an internet site more used to Beadle's About style footage, in a bid to improve the force's image and attract new recruits. Videos of West Yorkshire officers patrolling the streets and talking about their work nestle alongside clips titled "policeman shoots himself in foot" and "**** the police" on the YouTube site which has tapped into the legal side of the "happy slapping", video phone carrying youth culture.

But the force's web communications manager, Patrick Brooke, says the police no longer feels threatened by such juxtaposition. "There was a time when we would have insisted our videos were safely tucked away on our own site, but not now," he said.

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LSP futures

Topics: LSPs, communties of practice, LSP Futures

I attended an event on Wednesday for LSP Futures. LSP Futures is a non-profit network of partnership practitioners - such as LSP managers - and membership is by subscription. They meet regularly and focus on both policy and the practical issues of managing partnerships.

I was invited along to talk about PM Partner - a collaborative website focused on partnership issues - and about whether LSP Futures might want to use it to share their knowledge over the web. I also talked about the IDeA's new Community of Practice platform at www.communities.idea.gov.uk which is another web-based way of supporting face to face networks.

The event itself was largely focused on the White Paper and Paul Philpott and Cath Docherty from the DCLG helped to clarify some of the issues around LSPs and LAAs in the White Paper as well as improvement support for councils as well as partnerships.

Clearly there is still some room to play for - and interestingly Paul Philpott spoke about local authorities getting more involved in not just advising on guidance as it's developed but also writing guidance. This could be a more open way of going forward - a more mature relationship between central and local government. But - of course - we need to make sure that all local authority views are represented (and increasingly, too, the views of our partners in other sectors.)

We'll be discussing some of these issues in our forums at the Policy and Performance community of practice (registration required - but easy and free).

****

I thought it was interesting that one of the things the network wanted to explore Results Based Accountabilty - which we have blogged about here before.



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New communities

Working on PM Partner has been a really interesting experience of collaborative knowledge-building. The site is still active and focused on performance management in partnerships, but we've opened a couple of new communities of practice as well.

These are hosted on the IDeA's community of practice platform - this is a semi-private online space. That is, you have to register to view any of the content - but anyone can join the two communities we've started

Policy and performance: this community is aimed at people who work in the area of developing or implementing improvement policy.

Performance management: this community is for people who want to share the latest developments on performance management - particularly around more detailed or technical aspects.



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Best Value - best value?

It worked, it really worked....
Long-term Evaluation of Best Value: Final report was published last week.

Was it good for you?

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Friday funday: all a-twinkle

The lighter side of local government - Christmas light switch-on special

It's not just the season of Advent, it's the advent of the Christmas shopping season. And everyone knows that means Christmas lights turn-on.


Seasonal cheer:

• Santa and a councillor will switch on the lights in Bromsgrove.
• Spongebob Squarepants flicked the magic switch in Falkirk.
• Brave young cancer patient switches on the lights at Barrow in Furness.
• Local schoolchildren switch on the lights they designed themselves in Bognor Regis.
• Malvern uses "green" lights with low CO2 emissions.

Bah-humbug:

• Parish wins a set of Christmas lights - but has no electricity to turn them on.
• WORST CHRISTMAS LIGHTS IN BRITAIN?
  Council bosses are reported to have only put up one set of christmas lights in Collumpton, Devon, sparking outrage from shoppers. Traders were asked to donate towards the display but refused. A town clerk explained that the council couldn't force people to get involved. (sorry no link)

Personally, I have every sympathy with the council on this one. Why shouldn't seasonal displays be a partnership between the council and local businesses?

• One council is still considering the Health and Safety issues of a big switch-on.
• Christmas is costly and dangerous in one London borough. Staff have been advised not to put up any Christmas decorations.

One worker said: "We only wanted to get into the spirit and brighten the place up. It feels more like the Eastern Bloc than the East End round here now - except slightly less cheery."

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Restless for improvement

Topics: performance management, improvement, City of Westminster Council

On a fairly regular basis, the IDeA brings in external speakers. Invariably these events are always really good, with a fresh take on some aspect of local government or area governance.

Today Peter Rogers, Chief Executive of Westminster, was our speaker and he described his organisation as "restless for improvement". He has a low key, but really engaging speaking style. He covered a lot of really interesting topics, but a couple really stood out for me.

• Westminster had a peer review - an "international peer review" involving the then Mayor of Baltimore and now Governor-elect of Maryland.* Peter Rogers has been a peer reviewer himself, but he also said that peer reviews are a great way to reinforce self-awareness.
• Westminster undertook several studies -a local area study looking at some of their most deprived areas and a customer needs analysis. They also looked at how much money they had been spending in these areas (apparently it was a lot). They took this information to their partners who worked in the area. Funding was occurring in parallel - so much more effort was placed on defining and sharing outcomes and harnessing funding in train to achieve those outcomes. Local Area Renewal Partnerships have been developed to really help area partners focus on the achievement that needs to be made in 1 year, 3 years and 5 years down the line.
• As part of their improvement planning, Westminster mapped all of their services against a matrix of cost versus quality and with their 50 top managers planned how they would achieve improvement in quality and a reduction in cost through increasing efficiency.
• Peter Rogers challenged the notion of improving performance indicators across the board in a bid to improve satisfaction. Council-level performance indicators "average the misery" and don't tell you what residents in different areas prioritise. Tackling the things that really matter to different neighbourhoods means that you can see an increase in overall satisfaction, while the council level PI remains the same, and cost possibly goes down.
  

_____________

*Martin O'Malley had been invited to take part in the peer review particularly for they way Baltimore has been working on policing and quality of life issues through their CitiStat performance management approach. I have blogged about that here.

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Frontline radio

Topics: councillors, communication, personal development

Do you know about podcasting? Here's how wikipedia defines it:

A podcast is a multimedia file distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. The term, as originallycoined by Ben Hammersley in an article in The Guardian February 12, 2004 [1], was meant as a portmanteau of "broadcasting" and "iPod".[2] Like 'radio', it can mean both the content and the method of delivery; the latter may also be termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster.

Blah, blah, blah. What podcasting really is is an opportunity for people to tell their stories the old fashioned way - orally. But with the added advantage of allowing people to listen to it later, downloading it from the comfort of their own home or office.

Now you can hear "podcasts" by councillors. It's not really, technically a podcast but a "listen later" of the IDeA's new 1 hour radio programme about councillors called Frontline, hosted by the dulcet-toned Pascoe Sawyers. This week's episode includes:

• Councillor Sue Adeney from Malvern Hills, who will reveal why she is giving it all up and is about to leave the council
• Paul Wheeler, who will argue that more people should stand for election as councillors
• Emma Waddingham from the Local Government News, who will discuss the hot topics of the day.

Initially set for a 12 week run, I think this is a fantastic initiative. This is all about helping frontline councillors tell their stories in their own way - sharing ideas and practice.


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Users and community networks

Topics: users, community, network, social capital, co-production

There are two really fascinating briefings from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on user partcipation and networks. One focuses on local governance and the other is based around using the knowledge of users (e.g. in health or social services)

The user briefing raised an issue in my mind I hadn't thought about in a while. For some years, there has been a lot of talk about trust and government or trust and professionals. How much do the general public or individuals trust their doctor, their local politician, their social worker, etc. JRF found that:

Service users feel that their knowledge is generally not valued or taken
seriously by professionals, policy-makers and services. The closed culture of
health and social care services and their own inadequate resources restrict
service users' capacity to develop and share their knowledge

But this is really about trust in another direction. How much do professionals trust us to choose the right treatment or package of services? How much are we trusted as a neighbourhood or community to know how we want to run our park or choose the right transport plan. Trust is a two-way street.


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Friday funday

The lighter side of local government

Environmental health don't take half measures
Or the wrong content in measures either at Westminster. Westminster City Council's Food Team busted a pub landlady for replacing branded spirits with the cheap stuff.

Councillor Audrey Lewis, Westminster City Council's Cabinet Member for Licensing and Community Protection, said: "When customers order drinks in any licensed premises we expect them to be given what they asked for and not some cheap alternative.

Darn right! I do have to admit to having done this once myself. I filled a Jack Daniels bottle with cheap supermarket bourbon to bolster the liquor table at a party. None of my guests drank it. But a friend of mine (and co-conspirator in the spirit switch) and I did end up drinking the cheap stuff by accident some time later. The next day we both ended up with the hangover of our lives.


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Friday funday

Something smells a little fishy

And it's a chippie!

A chip shop owner is being investigated - because of a complaint that his shop
smells of fish and chips, a council said today.

Of course, councils have to investigate such complaints as a spokeswoman for Wakefield Council pointed out. And they had to check that the proper extraction systems were installed and working properly.

She said: "The law states we have to investigate the complaint. "It is certainly not a case that fish and chip shops should not be allowed to smell of fish and chips."

The owner of the chippie was not quite so understanding of the council's requirements to check out the salty, vinegary odour.

Chip shop boss Steve Morton told The Sun newspaper he was shocked to receive a letter from environmental health staff which told him: "We are investigating a smell of fish and chips."

Mr Morton, 42, said the chip shop had been operating for 40 years without a problem. He said: "You'd think they'd twig that a fish and chip shop smells of fish and chips. It's absolutely crazy."

When we first came across this story in the office a colleague asked "What else would a fish and chip shop smell like?"

"I dunno," I said "Saveloy?"


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PM Partner update

I think I've edited almost every page on the PM Partner site. This is in response to feedback about the site - basically we want to make it easier to navigate. There are now a lot more links between pages with related content.

What do you think of the White Paper? I've added a new topic to the policy discussion page. I've also added a link a new Audit Commission paper on partnerships, schools and better outcomes for children on the Children and Young People page.

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Abuzz about the White Paper

Topics: round up of responses to and opinions on the Local Government White Paper Strong and Prosperous Communities.

Here's a link towhat the LGA and IDeA have said. The LGA response (link to a pdf file) is also a really good summary of what's in the White Paper.

The links below certainly do NOT necessarily reflect the views of the IDeA (my employer)- or even me personally! I just rounded up published responses as I found them.

Council associations:

London Councils - they broadly welcome, but wish there'd been a bit more talk about finance.
Association of North East Councils - welcomed the White Paper, and quite glad it was launched in the North East

Local government in the North East is at the heart of place-shaping, which is about taking responsibility for the economic, social and environmental well-being of citizens and communities. These are the key themes we have committed to in our recently launched 2006/07 Manifesto, which have real resonance with Government thinking, as set out in the White Paper.

Westminster says White Paper recommendations should go further and faster for excellent councils like us.

‘Whilst we warmly welcome these new proposals as the first step, we want the government to go further and faster to give local councils the powers to make a real difference to people's lives. Further powers should also be granted to those excellent Local Authorities, such as Westminster Council, who are efficiently managing their resources and delivering best value public services.

Opposition parties

The Conservative Party: Caroline Spelman, Shadow Local Government Secretary started out with some praise:

"Let me begin on a note of consensus. I entirely agree with the Rt Hon Lady when she said this morning 'local government is in much better shape since 1997'.

...but then...

The reason, of course, is that the Conservative Party is now the largest party of local government, and the Labour councillor is now an endangered species.

She also questioned the timing (why now ahead of Lyons and Barker reviews) and where the real devolution from central to local was to be found.

The Liberal Democrats

Ming Campbell thinks it's a mess:

Until we know what the proposals are going to be for the financing of local government, it seems to be pretty remarkable to discuss the powers of local government because the two - powers and finance - are inextricably linked.

"It's a mess, frankly, and Ruth Kelly, I think, has rushed ahead with this document. She should have waited until we get the Lyons report in January, then we could have had a comprehensive discussion about local government, not least because of the fact that so many people in this country feel entirely disconnected from local government.

And Andrew Stunnell, LibDem shadow Local Goverment minister doesn't think much of it either

"...it was a wasted opportunity and it does not address key issues of
local democracy and accountability."

Think tanks

Involve - a think tank supporting citizen engagement says

At long last Ruth Kelly has launched the much-anticipated Local Government
White Paper: 'Strong and prosperous communities'. After months of speculation as
to exactly what it would contain the final version does not feel like it lives
up to the hype surrounding it.

The Local Government Information Unit was broadly supportive but summed it up as:

“This is a small step towards stronger local democracy that has been presented as a giant leap."

There is point by point commentary here. This being probably the most biting criticism:

“The White Paper fails to provide a constitutional position for local government, as called for by the Lyons Inquiry, and to really commit government to subsidiarity and their obligations under the European Charter of Local Self Government. The words double devolution have gone because there is such limited devolution from Whitehall to Town Hall.”

The Adam Smith Institue appears to have published their response on the basis of the press release and not the official document. On ASI blog, the denounce centralism and say that real localism is about local financial control. They are not optimistic about the details of the white paper:

it is unlikely that Ruth Kelly will endorse any such vision. Centralism will prevail, and along with it, apathy and poor service in local government.

Unions and trade bodies

Unison likes the stronger role for local communities - but is concerned about an environment of cutbacks and pension reductions - and:

no matter how much the Government wills it, you won’t get successful changeunless you bring the workforce with you

The Confederation of British Industry says:

"We welcome the focus on efficiency, user engagement and greater use of
competition in delivering improved services."

But they were less keen on potentially expensive neighbourhood governing bodies.


What the bloggers say:

Rob Hopcott says: Democratic Flaws in New vision for UK Local Government unveiled in White Paper

Ordinary people who have tried to debate local issues sensibly with local councillors and have been confronted by a wall of uncommunicative silence and obfuscation may well question whether genuine benefits will be achieved. They may even hold their heads in their hands and wonder which planet the authors of the White Paper are on.

From the blog Stumbling and Mumbling:

There's much to be said for Ruth Kelly's proposals to reform local government; more decentralization and greater accountability. However, in emphasizing the need for "strong leadership" Ruth is merely betraying New Labour's faith that leadership is always the solution.

And it goes on to compare localism with managing a football team. Me, I love a good sports analogy. Political punditry is a game of more than two halves.

Free Think - a Liberal Democrat blog - didn't think much of the White Paper.

Considering the many ideas that have been floated around for so long (see our Local Heroes debate) people should be more angry by the half-baked proposals here. Local Government needs a radical make-over. With its further proposals for stronger (and longer lasting) council leaders - what is presented here is more a completion of the reforms Labour proposed in 2000.

And also wondered why the White Paper was low on finance details (i.e. why not wait until Lyons findings?)

Looking for a Voice thought it was a "sham".

Real Local Government and real local decisions will only be made with the
benefit of local taxation, if central government is still the tax collector and
not devolving the setting and collecting to local government, this is still more
government, not less.

About Whose News has an interesting post which compares British and French local government systems.

In contrast to France’s structured system, the British one is a shambolic muddle. A typical fudge some would say.

The blogger appears to lament that most services are centralised enough - and local things (like traffic calming and flower displays) aren't local enough in the UK.

Another LibDem blogger is critical (LibDem Voice)

The Government’s new proposals for local government sound like decentralisation. Councils will get the power to create their own by-laws, and public services will get more scrutiny from the public.

But on closer inspection, it’s the sort of decentralisation one would expect from Labour. Without a reform of local government finance, Westminster still plays the tune as it pays the piper. The by-laws are spun as a new way to fine people for anti-social behaviour, as if Labour haven’t realised that enacting more and more laws is not as effective a way to curb crime as better policing of the laws we have.

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Partnership quick hits

Topics: partnerships, crime, business, private sector, parish councils

Links to partnership news and examples

Innovation through partnership
Read about the liveability fund pilots and the successful work with neighbourhoods and communities on IDeA Knowledge

Together we can fight crime

Rising re-offending rates can only be brought under control with the support of local councils and their partners warned the Coalition on Social and Criminal Justice today. The coalition’s report, "Neighbourhood by neighbourhood: local action to reduce re-offending", says local organisations with local knowledge are best placed to work with the prison and probation services to help ex-offenders stay on the straight and narrow.

News from the Local Government Association

Parish pride in partnerships
Award-winning Staffordshire Connects partnership is honouring the role that parishes play in partnership, too.

Private and public sector crime fighting in partnership
An innovative partnership for sharing data and information between public agencies and business.

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Friday funday

The lighter side of local public services

Put it right out
I've fairly recently quit smoking (just over a month ago) and I debated blogging about it here. Would making a public announcement make it easier to quit - or would I be a hostage to fortune? Well one councillor has made his decision pretty clear. As Nottinghamshire County Council declared a county wide smoking ban (including outdoors in country parks!), Councillor Chris Baron has press released his own smoking cessation. And he's going to blog about it on the council's intranet, too. Good for you Chris - and best of luck!


I can't imagine any better publicity
Ambulance trust warning over new horror movie


If you ever, ever doubted the importance of the trading standards team
Dodgy goods uncovered in London


This race is a dead heat
If you haven't heard - the Midterm elections are on in the US and will take place Tuesday November 7th. In these elections, Americans vote for Congressmen (members of the House of Representatives) who are elected whole-body every two years and in some states for Senator - they are elected by thirds every two years to six year terms. And to avoid wasting a ballot or opening a polling station on more than one day, many Americans are also voting in local elections, too -either in the general election next Tuesday or in the primaries which are held between March and October depending on the state.

Despite some high-profile races in the past, most US elections are straightforward, first past the post type deals. But one school board member (a county-wide rather than school-based post) won her race in a highly unusual way.

Katherine Dunton, who died of cancer on October 3, the day of the local election, was re-elected to the Aleutian Region School District board after her opponent, Dona Highstone, called "heads" on a coin toss that landed "tails," state and local officials said.

Lest you think this is the usual way....

"This is the first that I have ever heard about, not only in our state but in any other," said Whitney Brewster, director of the Alaska Division of Elections.

Democracy finds a way
Hawaiian Islanders whose trips to the poll were threatened by bad roads and an earthquake damaged road will have their ballots delivered to them by helicopter.




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I am not your maid

Topics: co-production, communications, littering, user and citizen responsibility, environment

Some years back, I was enjoying lunch with some colleagues outside. We were sitting on the grass on what must have been the first warm, dry day in a while. The wind kicked up and my sandwich wrapper blew away. It tumbled over the grass.

I spent a little while chasing that wrapper. You know, cartoon-style, almost reaching it and then it blowing a little further on - and me chasing it again. Eventually it blew into the road - and while I hate litter, I do have a healthy fear of traffic. I gave up - vowing internally to pick up another piece of rubbish in recompense.

A casual passer-by had watched the whole episode and said to me "I don't know why you bothered, you'd just be doing a council worker out of a job."

Those of us who work in the public sector know it doesn't quite work like that. There are lots of other things that council workers could be doing with their time other than picking up after me or anyone else. But it is astounding how many people casually litter.

Perhaps when you were a kid your parents may have said "I'm not your servant," or "I'm going to stop picking up your mess and soon enough you'll see what a sty we'd be living in." Well, mine did anyway. Some councils are saying the same thing now. "We're going to stop picking up after you for a while - and let's see how the filth mounts up."

It's a publicity stunt, but a worthy one. It shows local residents how much the council does normally, but also shows how we all have a responsibility to help keep our environment clean and tidy. The Local Government Association is encouraging councils to consider stopping street cleansing for a day or so.

Commenting on the idea, Cllr Paul Bettison, Chairman of the LGA Environment Board, said:“Using ‘shock tactics’ like stopping street cleaning services for 24 hours is an effective way of making people face up to how much litter is dropped on our streets every day.“Any council choosing to introduce a suspension in street cleaning services would hope to make people think twice about dropping their litter in the future. “The action would also demonstrate to people that their rubbish doesn’t magically disappear but that a hard working council street cleaner removes and disposes of their litter. Councils strive to keep where you live clean and tidy but if every single person did their bit to keep the local area litter free then tax payers would get an even better deal.”

Of course, it's not as easy all that. You have to tell people what you're doing and why you're doing it. You need to back it up with an effective message encouraging people to look after their own environment by not littering. From my youth in America, I will never forget anti-littering messages that played on both pride in the American landscape:



and negative regional stereotypes:



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PM Partner update

Update from the PM Partner project

The big news, of course, in the last week is the publication of the Local Government White Paper. I've provided links here though I'm sure you've already downloaded a copy. Also on the News page - I've provided some links to LAA and LSP publications that were released the same day.

New comments have been added on the Adding Value page - outlining some of the danger zones in working together. New links and new information have also been added on the Acronyms and Abbreviations page and the Data page.

We really need more feedback to the online survey (Click here to take survey ) So far it's largely been positive - but there were some negative ratings on being able to find things on the website. And we're going to try to do something about it. So please, please do take the time to fill out the survey - it doesn't take long! Promise. And it can really help shape this and other future projects.

Adrian Barker and I also had a chat with someone today who is potentially interested in using the PM Partner site for some very exciting partnership developments. If this pans out - I'll update more later.

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Transforming public services

Topics: improvement, collaborating, web 2.0, blogs, wikis

Will new technology support transformational change in the public sector? I don't know, but I do think that it will change the way that we work - and that some of that will definitely be for the better.

My personal experience of using the collaborative website PM Partner - a wiki - and this blog has been really positive. It has really helped me to organise my thoughts, my notes and the things I read in a more constructive way.

Demos is looking at whether new technology - sometimes described as the Web 2.0 approach - will be supporting transformational change in the public sector. And they're doing it in a Web 2.0 kinda way. Simon Parker writes:

Ever wanted to help write a Demos report? Me and Niamh are editing a collection called The Collaborative State, which is full of references to how blogs and wikis are going to transform the way the public sector works. So we thought we'd see if they can also transform the way we work. Click here to be transported to our new project wiki, where we'll publish some of the essays and case studies over the next few months.

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Friday funday: twinned

The lighter side of local government

Destination Timbuktu

What do you know about Timbuktu? Thirty-four per cent of people think it's a mythical place. And several towns in Wales want to twin with it.

Cardiff, Aberystwyth and Hay-on-Wye have all been nominated as potential partners for the city in the West African country of Mali.

Photographer Stuart Redler started the search for a new UK twin with Timbuktu after visiting the city. He said:

"I thought it would be fun to have a sign on the outside of your town saying 'Twinned with Timbuktu' and if it prompts people to go there that would be great. Everything you hear about Africa is so negative but Timbuktu is such a great place. It would be nice for people to be able to go there rather than Germany or France or somewhere like that."

But your name's on all our road signs

Does Manteo sound like a real place? Well, it is - but unfortunately it's the twin that Bideford forgot according to the Mail on Sunday.

Residents of Manteo, in the state of North Carolina, insisted they have been twinned with the North Devon town for two decades.

But a search of Bideford town hall archives has not revealed a single record of the arrangement. Manteo resident David Riley, who presented Devon officials with a commemorative clock from his town has now returned home to investigate the mix-up.

Bideford town clerk George McLauchlan said yesterday: "He seemed like a nice guy and gave me a clock. It was a very nice clock. He said he was very proud to be twinned with us and offered a sincere thanks on behalf of the town's population for representing them in the UK."

"I said thank you but had to let him down gently. It seemed even more cruel not to."

He added: "He seemed a little puzzled and said our name was on all their road signs."

Photo by Luis Lebron.

Manteo is on historic Roanoke Island on North Carolina's Outer Banks. I used to holiday in that area as a child. It's truly beautiful, lovely beaches and welcoming hospitality. You could do worse for a twin.

Twin registry

Curious about who your town is twinned with? Look no further than the Local Government International Bureau (LGIB) registry of twinning. Or find out more about the benefits of twindom.

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And in other partnership news

Yes the local government white paper came out yesterday - and there's loads of stuff on partnership and partnership performance. But there were a couple of other partnership related items that also came out yesterday. In particular:

Local Strategic Partnerships: Shaping their future - an analysis of responses
This report outlines the findings of the questionnaire included in the Local Strategic Partnerships: Shaping their future consultation document. The analysis was conducted by Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute for Communities and Local Government.

Local Area Agreements Research: Round 2 negotiations and early progress in Round 1 (link to a pdf file)
This report explores the negotiation of second round local area agreements and early progress in implementing first round agreements. Research was carried out in 12 of the 21 pilots, six of the 66 round two areas, each of the nine regional government offices and across central government departments

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Local Government White Paper

It's out and on the Department for Communities and Local Government website. More later. (posted at noon 26 October)

UPDATE: The Local Government Association has issued its response (link to a pdf file). It's useful not only to get the official LGA line on the White Paper, but also because it's a pretty handy summary of the 236 pages of government policy. See also the LGA's White Paper website.

Further update (30 October 2006): See what the IDeA is doing around White Paper themes.

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PM Partner update

The PM Partner update - a collaborative website about better performing partnerships

More comments on the help please page - and it's probably worth taking another look at the Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue upload on that page. They would like comments on their partnership working framework by the end of this month.

Also further additions to the acronyms and abbreviations page. Also I've added links to the Assessing your partnership resource, the CDRP and case studies pages.

In the News section- Chris Calvert from The Wildlife Trusts provides a fun link to a game they developed to help people think about sustainable development and urban green spaces.

If you haven't received an email about taking a survey about this website - please tell us what you think about PM Partner Click here to take survey

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New on Knowledge: transformational partnerships

New on IDeA Knowledge

Transforming the delivery of services through partnerships: learning activities

The 'Transforming the delivery of services through partnerships' theme highlights how the beacons have developed partnerships to deliver more effective services. Each of the seven services is different, as is each of the partnerships but the net effect is a better and more cost effective service.

Each beacon council will be hosting open days. These will give you an insight into why they got beacon status and how you can learn from them. Open days and events scheduled so far are:

Anglia Revenues Partnerships open day (1 Nov)
London Borough of Sutton open day ( 9 Nov)
Bristol City Council open day (14 Nov)
Pendle Borough Council open day (22 Nov)
London Borough of Southwark open day (28 Feb 2007)

Book your place online

*******
A "reprint" of a Times article by our very own Andrew Cozens on how PCT and local government are working together to improve public health.

Local Government is rediscovering its responsibilities for public health

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Partnership news - quick hits

Topics: partnerships, parish councils, shared services partnerships, customer service, children, adoption


Parish councils and partnerships
Lewes District Council and the Sussex Association of Local Councils met to support partnership working on their shared objectives.

Councillor Elizabeth Lee, Lewes District Council Lead Member for the Community, said: “The Conference was fundamental in providing a sound basis for future co-operation. Its success is a tribute to the delegates’ commitment to working closely and to making partnerships have an impact on the wellbeing of our local communities."

Staffordshire connects
The Staffordshire Connects partnership held its Beacon Open Day this month and brought together practitioners from around the country. A highlight of the event was a film designed to:

...showcase how it had made capital savings of £1.8m by investing in systems together and was saving more than £400,000 a year by maintaining and developing those systems jointly. The DVD also revealed that annual efficiency savings of more than £750,000 were expected to arise across the partnership, once its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system had been fully implemented – enabling 80 per cent of customer enquiries to be dealt with at first time of asking

The partnership is made up with the 10 councils in Staffordshire and has its own website. The site includes partnership papers (e.g. business case, communication protocols) for anyone interested in how they've done it.

You can also find out more about the IDeA Beacon scheme here.

Adopting best practice

Three neighbouring Councils have worked together to launch a new website to attract more people willing to adopt children. Partners in Adoption, the adoption consortium for the London Borough of Havering, Thurrock and Southend Councils, have launched a new website at www.partners-in-adoption.co.uk

The site looks pretty good - and has absolutely loads of information about the adoption process in easy to understand language.

In support to the site, Partners in Adoption will be hosting an Adoption Open Evening to be held at the Orsett Hall Hotel from 6.30pm on Wednesday 25 October. Anyone interested in adoption is invited to attend.

The website isn't fully populated yet, but has a place for adoption stories. That could be a really powerful way of showing prospective parents what adoption is about. Here's a US site that features adoption stories - as well as profiles of children wanting to be adopted (something I'm not sure would happen in the UK).

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e-democracy goes international

Mary Reid, the Mayor of Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames - has posted about a new centre of excellence for local e-democracy in her blog.

ICELE launched at last!

The International Centre of Excellence for Local e-Democracy (ICELE) was officially launched this week.

One of the great things about internet technology is that we really can pick up on best practice at the furthest distance without additional cost or delay.



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Friday funday

The lighter side of local government

Boo!
The first place I ever lived in England was Sheffield. I arrived there almost exactly ten years ago (I don't remember the exact date but it was October). Back then there was very little in the way of Halloween celebrations, which was kinda sad for me because it's probably my favourite holiday. I didn't know about the local customs of Bonfire Night and "penny for the guy" - and I thought that all the children, lying on bundles of rags on the pavement, begging for pennies were actually beggars. There seemed to be a kid on every street corner - or more - competing for begging space, and I was pretty shocked about the level of child poverty in Sheffield. When I expressed my concerns, my then fiance (now husband) - a Brit - near about laughed his head off at my expense.

How times have changed. Sheffield City Council is embracing the Halloween fun with a pumpkin patch and a Fright Night in front of Town Hall and in the nearby Winter Gardens. The money raised from the pumpkin patch will go to the Lord Mayor's charities - some pretty worthy causes. This is the fourth year of Halloween fun and is apparently Britain's biggest Halloween fun.

Last year this monster event celebrating things that go bump in the night attracted more than 28,000 revellers, many kitted out in spooky fancy dress. This year’s event promises to be bigger then ever before with even more chills and thrills, plus a number of spooky surprises to watch out for! The fiendish fun will take place at locations across the City Centre with loads of ghostly goings on including: a fiendish funfair, macabre street theatre, fancy dress catwalk, fire-spinning, and market stalls

And I don't care what anyone says about Americanisation - Halloween is a fun holiday and anyone who turns their nose up at good fun is a glummery old fuss-budget who will be turned into a pumpkin at midnight.

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Partnership and performance policy

Topics: partnerships, performance management, targets, PSAs, LAAs, policy

Phil Woolas gave an interesting speech about local government and partnership policy the other day. Not a departure, or even a shifting of emphasis - but it does underscore the Government's committment to partnership working and the idea of double devolution

...we put in place a pretty heavy-handed top-down performance regime. Local government responded and began to improve its performance in many ways - not least in delivering better quality services and in managing its performance.
...
now we need to move on, to a new devolutionary era. In this era, the focus is on place - not on individual players and providers. It is on the positive difference you are making for your area - not on the detail of how you and your partners might be doing it.

Local government must be the place shaper and place maker. That means working across the whole landscape, not just being confined to silos of service delivery or particular spheres of influence.

He then goes on to describe some interesting practice in Local Area Agreements (LAAs) and other ways of pooling budgets and working together.

------

Over at the Treasury, Ed Balls has made some pronouncements about a leaner, meaner system of targets. In its own way, it's quite an interesting speech.

In 1998 we set over 600 performance targets for departments - our first attempt systematically to articulate the Government’s goals. And, not surprisingly for a first attempt, we did not get it all right

What he says they didn't get right was not enough consultation with front line staff and too much emphasis on inputs and processes. Result: micro-management from the centre. But they've learned from all that.

We also learnt the importance of a relentless focus on delivery. Setting a target is not an end in itself.

They're also promising more emphasis on outcomes, greater attempts at joint-working and boundary crossing, a process of target setting that will involve those who actually manage and do the delivery, and a much, much greater emphasis on customer and citizen satisfaction.

But these are PSAs (public service agreements) that affect all of Whitehall - how will this trickle down to local government?

Ruth Kelly will soon publish the Local Government White Paper, which touches on many of these important issues in relation to local services. So we have been working very closely with colleagues in DCLG and across government to ensure our approach fits with and complements the proposals she will outline on local performance management.

--------

As I said, I don't think any of this is a big surprise. The Government has been signalling this way for a while. But I still think it will be a really big challenge (or maybe opportunity) when local government and its partners really are held jointly accountable for area outcomes - and there are no process rules to either bind or blame.

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The user experience

Topics: mental health, social services, substance abuse, customer experience, users

I noticed a couple of interesting articles in the Society Guardian today on the user voice. In fact today's edition is all about the users of mental health services some of whom formed Society Guardian's editorial board this week.

One interesting article was about the user experience in the blogosphere. That is blogs from the perspectives of users. I blogged a little while ago about the power of stories - well, "user blogs" might be about the power of a chronicle and a place where others to go to know that they are not alone in their experiences.


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Friday funday

The lighter side of local government


Public Private Partnership?

In Alamosa, Colorado the town council raised funds by auctioning off the rights to paint the fire hydrants. Flickr user Zelda Go Wild has documented some of them in a Flickr photo set.

I've been to Alamosa - and it's not a place I particularly wanted to visit. My car broke down when visiting the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (breathtaking, by the way) and we had to get it fixed in Alamosa. Folks there were pretty friendly though and the town's views are spectacular across a wild and windswept landscape. (Via SLV Dweller)


Reputation management or do they wear shoes?

Yesterday I attended a talk on the Local Government Association's Reputation Project. It's all good, sensible stuff - and another way that local government is supporting itself in improvement (though perhaps they could take a bit more advantage of Web 2.0 concepts though there was an acknowledgement of the power of good story-telling).

It struck me as funny that the same week I heard that talk - I read this story about reputation management in Louisville, Kentucky. They're not just trying to change the image of the city government, but of the whole city.

People familiar with the metro area see it as a large, fast-paced city that has become a hot spot for business and recreation, said Matt Schulte, president of the brand research and strategy group Horizon InSight, a division of Louisville’s Horizon Research International.

The problem is that 89 percent of outsiders say they don’t really know enough about Louisville to form a realistic view, he said, so they automatically envision pictures of the “Old South” and ask questions such as, “Do they wear shoes?”

...snip...

To replace stereotypes, the region must put forward a more positive, urban view, but it “needs to be grounded in reality,” Schulte said. “We’re not going to be the next New York or Las Vegas.”

Hmm. Now, I come from the South - so I understand this - but I have to wonder how succesful they're going to be when Southerners do love to cling to some of their more iconoclastic traditions. For example, electing a dog named Goofy as mayor in the picturesque town of Rabbit Hash - not too many miles up the road from bustling, metropolitan Louisville. And I also wonder when I see the city government's list of 16 reasons to love Louisville that includes both some really cool attractions (the waterfront development, Mohammed Ali Center, the Kentucky Derby) as well as some things that might only be of interest to the local government anoraks - such as the combined city and county governance structure.

(Both stories via Governing's blog)

Now that's long service

Jack Chase may be the UK's longest serving and oldest parish councillor. He's just turned 100 and he's served almost 80 years on the parish council.

Mr Chase says his biggest achievement was overseeing the start of work on the
village's sea wall in the 1930s

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PM Partner update

PM Partner update

I'm still going to do some round-ups from the PM Partner site, even though we've finished the programme of topics. So long as people are still using the site, it's worth rounding up contributions.

Check out new request on the "Help Please" page. Breaking up is hard to do, but what's the best way to end a partnership sensitively and tactfully. I'm not aware off the top of my head of any specific guidance (other than having a clearly stated purpose at the beginning which can help make it more clear when the partnership is over).

New links have been added on the LSP page, providing pointers to other useful resources. And Adrian continues to add to the list of acronyms and abbreviations.




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Hello lurkers

Topics: online communities, blogging, engagement, PM Partner

David Wilcox posts on participation rates in online communities -

There have been a number of articles referencing Jakob Nielson's recent
Alertbox on Participation Inequality: Lurkers vs. Contributors in Internet Communities. (TalkDigger digs up 50-odd references.) He sites a familiar ratio of readers to contributors to participants:

In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action.

At the beginning of the PM Partner project, I think I boasted optimistically that we would beat that ratio. I don't think we have. I'm currently developing an online survey for our community participants to assess what kind of participation ratio we had on PM Partner over the last couple of months.

In one sense, the participation rate over a couple month period is probably not that important. If we've built up a good resource that people can use and add to as needed - then we've achieved a lot. If we've made the beginnings of facilitating a community who can support each other as they face challenges in partnerships and performance.

David argues that this "participation inequality" is neither good nor bad. It just is. Some people are natually a little more comfortable with the format and the communication itself.

Neilsen thinks there are some disadvantages (listed in this post) and he also includes some ways to overcome "participation inequality".

I think one disadvantage to particpation inequality - particularly for people such as myself who work on the public pound - is that it can be quite difficult to convince that others that our work has value when only a few people are "participating". (And this is also part of the reason that I'll be conducting a survey - to really test the value of what we've done so far and the approach).

The IDeA is starting to go down the road of more collaborative approaches and online communities of practice - and the concept of participation inequality is one that we're aware of and live with. How we deal with exactly is an approach we'll probably develop over time.

You can check out the new IDeA Communities of Practice platform here at

www.communities.idea.gov.uk



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Partnership quick hits

Topics: education, partnerships, procurement, shared services, community engagement

A round-up of noteworthy links on partnerships

• Southwark Schools Learning Partnership gets Ministerial praise from Alan Johnson
• Cornwall sponsors an Oscar-style ceremony of prime partnership progress

Cornwall’s outstanding success in bringing people and groups together to improve the quality of life in the county will be celebrated at this year’s Cornwall Partnership Awards ceremony at the Atlantic Hotel in Newquay on Wednesday, October 11th.

The county’s Partnership “Oscars” ceremony, ... highlights partnerships which have brought Cornwall’s people together, provided leadership, helped others or enabled people to help themselves.

• Adur and Worthing councils take steps to have one workforce to promote better, more efficient services to their residents.
• Portsmouth gets ministerial praise for its community involvement. Much of this through partnership.
• Shared services partnership between Northumberland and Durham could save both a packet.

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novel collaboration

In my prevous post, I mentioned the IDeA publication The Man in the Caravan. Charles Leadbeater wrote it.

He's working on something else really cool, now. A book on collaboration, and he's taking a collaborative approach.

As I was researching and writing We-think over the past eighteen months and more, it became increasingly evident that I could not write a book about collaborative creativity in a traditional way. My argument is that creativity is invariably collaborative and that opportunities for largely self-organising creative collaboration are going up the whole time. Seems odd then not to apply that thinking to the book itself.

You can check out We-think here. This is a great idea, but it is a halfway between a traditional non-fiction book and a real collaborative project. And the comments I read so far were kinda negative because of that. But that's part of what you have to go through in the process of collaboration! (sometimes).

Via David Wilcox's Designing for a Civil Society.

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The power of stories

Topics: best practice, policy, evidence-based policy, CVS

Last week I blogged about a workshop/seminar I attended at the NCVO on social networking. It was a great event - but Steve Bridger who was also there just posted about it and covered an aspect I hadn't mentioned. And that's the web as increasing accountability, but also as a way to get your point across.

We can all agree, I think, that the web has empowered individuals and invited more scrutiny into the work of organisations.

Charities are not immune from this evolution but they do have a secret weapon: compelling stories.

Some fifteen years ago, I frequently travelled around the UK for Oxfam talking to often quite large groups of the charity’s dedicated supporters about ‘third world debt’ and ’structural adjustment’. Inevitably, I weaved in human stories from the ‘field’ to help illustrate the impact of these reforms on those living in poverty, the intended beneficiaries of Oxfam’s projects.

Intrinsic to good storytelling is the conversation that it generates. Dialogue always (or nearly always!) followed my ‘debt’ workshops.

Blogs and social media provide the best tool set yet to continue the conversation.

I don't think that it's just charities or community organisations that can use compelling stories. No, I think local government can and must do so, too. At the IDeA, one of our most powerful publications has been The Man in the Caravan, which isn't a bunch of bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo but instead is real stories about real people and how changing what we do in local government has made a real and positive difference in their lives.

This change story advocacy is important for a variety of reasons.

1. It shares good practice among practioners in a human and understandable way
2. It demonstrates to Government the importance of empowered local government
3. It shows users and citizens what is possible in their locality - they can use this as a way to access or request services or as a way to hold their local council accountable if services are delivered in the same old, untailored, inefficient way.

In my work, I'd love to have more of these stories, but they are notoriously difficult to gather and sometimes to articulate. And I agree with Steve Bridger on this 100% (so I'll quote him again).

Blogs and social media provide the best tool set yet to continue the conversation.

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PM Partner update

Update from the PM Partner project

6 October
Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue have added their draft partnership framework here and looking for comments before the end of October. This would be a great place to share your views and comments on drafts. I hope you'll help them out.

I've added a new resource to the Voluntary and Community Sector page on navigating public sector procurement requirements. There are new comments on the adding value page - are you really adding value if you get a warm glow from doing things together that you would have done separately?

5 October
New resources have been added to the Project and Programme management page - in particular - a cut down version of Prince 2 which can be used for partnership projects. There's also more on the future of PM Partner page.

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