Toward an agreed improvement strategy

On Monday, I was lucky enough to be able to go to a conference on the central-local Improvement Strategy. I was there merely as a glorified notetaker, but it was still a great event (organised by my colleague Adrian Barker).

There are a lot of big challenges in the local governance and public sector policy environment and some exciting positive shifts in the way we'll be working - closer working between partners, greater engagement with citizens and customers and stronger, enhanced roles for front line councillors. At this conference, chief executives, senior political leaders, representatives from the Department of Communities and Local Government and regulators were all there to get their heads together around how we'll fashion new, more cohesive and effective ways of supporting improvement in local goverment through these challenges.

At the IDeA, we've long seen our role as working with local government, supporting improvement - and sometimes helping to lead improvement, too as we work with councils to innovate and to share those innovations more broadly within the sector.

Part of our approach to support is going to be how the IDeA helps local government help itself. Paul Coen, Chief Executive of the Local Government Association, spoke about the recently launched LGA campaign - raising the game in local government. Part of it is about taking responsibility for sector colleagues who need a helping hand.

Helping the public sector to help itself on regional or sub-regional basis, while capturing and sharing (and sometimes developing) the learning nationally were certainly some of the themes being explored in the groups I was with. It's too early yet to share headline findings, but we hope to be able to explore and share this debate with you over the coming months.

This is cross posted - (with pictures!) at the Policy and Performance Community of Practice (free registration required) at www.communities.idea.gov.uk








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Friday Funday

the lighter side of local government

Reduce, reuse, re-mourn?

Reducing waste to landfills is important responsibility for local government. Introducing waste charges might persuade some people to throw away less. But The Guardian has highlighted some interesting work that councils have done in reducing waste without imposing charges. And that includes innovating recylcing of and re-using materials. For example:

Tameside council, east of Manchester, promotes recycling while cutting carbon emissions, by running a recycling plant. The council then uses the plant's products, with plastic recycled for litterbin and park bench manufacture. As the latter are more resistant to arson than wooden ones, the council has re-introduced cemetery memorial benches. It is also considering plastic headstones.

"We can show children that the plastic they collect is used locally," says Robin Monk, head of environmental services.

What price local engagement?

When I worked in local government, we sometimes gave a small "appearance fee" to members of the public who gave up a wet Thursday evening to talk to us about say...highways maintenance.

But what if you're a member of the public who'd like to get involved - but maybe you just don't have the time? Could you hire a proxy to share your views on local services? Well, in Germany you can.

Young, good-looking, and available for around 150 euros (£100), more than 300 would-be protesters are marketing themselves on a German rental website.

OK, so they're mostly just willing to protest - but maybe they'd charge a little less to attend a neighbourhood forum - so long as sandwiches were provided.


Those don't grow on trees, you know

Pranksters were being held responsible today after a tree sprouted a strange fruit of shoes and boots.

Councils have to deal with all sorts -

Brenda Brooker, spokeswoman for Gosport Borough Council, said contractors had been tasked with taking the shoes down.

She said: "I know the winds have been strong of late but unless it blew down the changing rooms of the local football team and whistled up all the boots into the air, I suspect it is someone having a laugh."

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Communities of Practice update

As regular readers may be aware, we've started a new Community of Practice for Policy and Performance on the IDeA's Community of Practice platform at www.communities.idea.gov.uk
Each month, I round up contributions to our CoP for an internal newsletter, but there's no reason I can't share it here.

January highlights from the Policy and Performance Community of Practice

• An interactive listing of resources on the Strong and Prosperous Communities Local Government White Paper
• The Government’s response to ‘The Customer Voice in Transforming Public Services”. Julia Bennett highlights key elements from the Government’s response and likely next steps.
• An interactive listing of Policy resources
• Julia Bennett pulls together agency thinking on customer service issues in the White Paper.
• Ingrid Koehler writes about a policy and performance day long workshop that she presented for officers at North Tyneside MBC and South Tyneside MBC at the request of North East Regional Associate Annette Stansfield.
• Laura Julve recently appeared on the Frontline radio programme hosted by the Leadership Programme’s Pascoe Sawyers. She provides a link to her “podcast” on the Community Call for Action.
• Julia Bennett writes about her very rewarding experience of participating in a Peer Review.
• Effective health and social care partnerships – Ingrid Koehler attended a conference co- chaired by the IDeA's Sue Johnson- joint head of our Healthy Communities programme and picked up some great ideas.

You do need to be registered in the Policy and Performance Community of Practice, but registration is easy and immediate. Join us at www.communities.idea.gov.uk

And - there was a late entry, too which I didn't manage to round up. The IDeA offers training on Communities of Practice facilitation and my colleague Vicki Goddard (who frequently provides me with Friday Funday fodder) has just come back from her training and started blogging immediately. And why did she do it? To impress me...

My colleague Ingrid Koehler swears by all this, especially the ease of it all, so practicing using the Communities of Practice platform will help me impress her(!), means I can upload content because I want to, not because I'm being (well-intentionally!) 'nudged' into it(!!,) and enable us to work more together on these ways of working and enhance the work we do.

I wonder who she's talking about with the good-natured nudging? Can't be me, as I downright harass and harangue!

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Friday Funday

The lighter side of local government

So what's the point of all these Friday Funday posts. Why to make you laugh, of course (or perhaps raise a little smirky smile)? And what's the benefit of the giggle? Well, apparently, laughing can help you lose weight. That's according to a new study in the Journal of Obesity.

And what's the link to local government? As it happens, Friday Funday started off because although the IDeA's Policy Unit is known as a heads-down, hardworking, bunch of quiet boffin-types, we did happen to have a bit of a laugh on Fridays - perhaps sharing interesting snippets of news about local government and public services (yes, we're the types that can't really get away from work.) And since we're all about sharing practice - the Friday Funday blog posts were born.

And now that we know how beneficial it is, there's another reason to continue. See here at the IDeA we support councils in their role of promoting healthy communities - including being a healthier employer.


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Who do you run to...

...when there's no place to hide?

Lord Bruce Lockhart, Chair of the Local Government Association, is headlining a new ambitious approach to improving performance, outcomes and ways of working.

"The LGA is determined to seek radical solutions, and determined to put in place a robust and challenging action plan to ensure implementation. Many councils are leading through outstanding innovation. But there will be no hiding place for the poor performers"

Council leaders from across the political spectrum will today launch a
campaign to raise the game of authorities across the country.The key themes
include:

• Building visionary and ambitious leadership: making best use of both the political and managerial role
• Leading trusted and effective partnerships across the whole public sector
• Creating radically enhanced scrutiny: holding to account the council, the wider public sector, and service suppliers
• Devolving to residents and local organisations: engaging and communicating effectively, and enhancing frontline councillors' roles
• Ensuring outstanding improvement and transformation in service performance:innovation, value, efficiency and public access and satisfaction
  

***********

I think there's a growing awareness that we're all going to have raise our game in terms of performance management. I recently spoke to a group of officers from both North and South Tyneside about the challenges of the new policy environment as well as the lessons of the best in terms of what local government has already done on performance management. They were certainly ready to embrace those challenges and are making links across the water to support each other in that work.

Just like in North and South Tyneside, with this recognition that we're going to have raise our game, I think we're going to have to lean on each other a little bit more, too. And by that I mean sharing ideas and innovations (proactively) and asking for help with ideas and implementation from local authority and partner colleagues.

The IDeA wants to support the development of this approach and is creating spaces for online communties of practice at www.communities.idea.gov.uk. And we're not just creating spaces, we're also helping to facilitate online and face-to-face groups in collaborative working across the public sector, too. I and the team I work with facilitiate the Policy and Performance Community of Practice and a more specific group focused on performance management. And in the latter group, it just so happens you can find the slides (you'll need to be registered to view them) from my day long workshop with North and South Tyneside officers.

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On the chain gang now

The Home Office has announced a new scheme of Community Payback.

Home Secretary John Reid today announced that all communities in England and Wales will have the opportunity to get something back from offenders who have committed crimes in their area.

The "Mayors' Community Payback Scheme 2007" would provide a platform for mayors to choose a worthy project in their area that would benefit the community. The project can be nominated by the mayor or be initiated through suggestions from the public, media or local community groups. The successful project would be announced at the mayoral installation in May.

Community Payback-visible unpaid work by offenders-was launched in July 2005 in six pilot areas, and in late November/early December 2005 across the rest of the country. The aim of Community Payback is to give the community an opportunity to see the unpaid work carried out by offenders and to give them a chance to decide what projects they work on.

Growing up in America (and particularly in the American South), I'm quite used to seeing offenders doing useful work - giving back to the community. Oftentime they did work of a similar nature (if not side-by-side) that "non-custodial" volunteers from the community were doing, too. Meaning that the work itself isn't stigmatised (e.g. litter picking, beautification projects).

My British husband was less used to the idea and I remember visiting an outdoor "folk museum" in Mississippi that was being maintained by prisoners. He thought they were just part of a chain gang "living exhibit" - until he saw that there was a real guard with a real gun.

I don't expect that the Home Secretary's version will run quite the same way. I do think it's a stroke of brilliance getting Mayors to select the project. The vast majority of mayors still hold honorific positions, but spend a lot of time and hard work on promoting their area and worthy causes within it. It also creates a sense of accountability and community that the project might not otherwise have.

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Who gives you extra?

...East Riding apparently, who scored top marks on Value for Money as assessed by the Audit Commission.

Three-quarters of single tier and county councils exceeded the Commission's minimum requirements for their use of resources overall, and all met the minimum requirements. Fifteen councils achieved the highest possible overall score and one council, East Riding of Yorkshire, achieved top scores in all five themes. There has been a general improvement across the five themes which make up the assessment, including internal control and financial management.

Congratulations to them and to all the other top scorers. East Riding submitted a case study to the Performance, Management, Measurement and Information project. Although it doesn't cover VFM in any detail, it does highlight some of their innovative and effective approaches to performance management.

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Friday Funday - 12 Jan

If you're looking for the latest improvement technique, forget business process reengineering or future basing. One local government manager in Thailand seems to have a whole new technique for putting a little extra pep into the workforce. Napping.

A Bangkok municipal office has launched a new program to increase productivity: Lights go out just past noon and civil servants are invited to take an afternoon nap. Seeking to infuse city workers with a bit more pep, the Pathumwan district office in central Bangkok has set up a lunchtime "nap room" with soft music, sweet-smelling flowers and strict rules barring mobile phones and talking, said Surakiet Limcharoen, the district's top official who started the program.

Workers report feeling "fresher and brighter" after the midday snooze.


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Friday Funday

Ah, the first Friday Funday of the New Year. So what's new on the lighter side of local government?

Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999

This headline caught my eye.

Alcohol blamed for rise in New Year 999 calls.

Really? There's a shocker. But it turns out that people were in partying more than they have been for a while despite (or maybe because of) the bad weather in places.

Ambulance staff dealt with the highest number of emergency 999 calls in the early hours of the New Year since the Millennium, with the majority related to alcohol...

I'm a celebrity, get me out of this council meeting!

Brace yourself! Lindsay Lohan is being encouraged by the New York State Independence Party (NYSIP) to run for local government in 2009.

According to celebrity gossip blog Hollyscoop:

At first I thought this was a joke, but the NYSIP's Frank Morano believes Lohan could bid for New York City Public Advocate - a position next in line to the mayor.

Morano writes, "As Albany is currently a cesspool of corruption, badly in need of reform, you may also want to consider a bid for the state legislature. Many celebrities have made the transition from Hollywood to politics, ranging from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura to Sonny Bono and Ronald Reagan. Few if any though, had the enormous potential that you possess."

Blackberry preserves

As you may be aware, the US held Federal midterm elections in the Autumn - electing our national representatives. But a lot of state and local elections were also held and many governors, state legislators and other locally elected officials take office in the New Year.

If you're a Governor leaving office, you'll probably have this commemorated with a painting of an official portrait so that your lovely visage will be preserved for posterity.

President George Bush's less famous older brother Jeb stepped down from his position as Governor of Florida this week. His official portrait reflects the growing role of portable technology in local governance.

Via the Governing blog:

Jeb's official portrait contains a few noteworthy features in addition to his smiling mug. The painting, unveiled a couple weeks ago, also includes a photo of Bush's family, several books, including the Bible, and Bush's BlackBerry, a nod to his prodigious email use.

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Tip top green councils

The Guardian features a story listing the greenest councils of them all.

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Happy New Year

I hope you all were able to enjoy a nice break. I certainly did. The New Year is a time for reflection, prediction, wishes and resolutions.

Today's Guardian has a couple of New Year type features.

The first is a public policy wish list with desires ranging from more public loos to flexible working for everyone.

The second is set of public sector predictions for the coming year. I don't think the first prognostication will surprise anybody:

The year to come is likely to bring a squeeze on public-sector budgets - and see the beginning of a sea change in the way services are delivered.

So what about you? What do you predict for the New Year? What would be your greatest wish? Have you made any workplace resolutions - are you planning big changes in the way you'll be doing things?

I've been thinking a lot about the promised reduction of performance indicators and the reduced demand of information from Government and inspectors. I wish their promise comes true in the genuine spirit in which I think it was intended. But I predict some friction and compromise before the year is out.


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