Empowerment White Paper “Communities in Control” Davy Jones November 2008

This presentation is about: 1)The main elements of the empowerment agenda for local public services 2)The key features of the new Empowerment White Paper 3)The scale of this shift and how the economic crisis affects this agenda

Key legislation & guidance Strong & Prosperous Communities 2006 LAAs operational guidance (Oct 07) Empowerment Action Plan (Oct 07) 2007 Local Government & Public Involvement in Health (LGPIH) Act Sustainable Communities Act (Oct 07) Statutory guidance for LGPIH (Jul 08) CAA consultation document (Jul 08) Empowerment White Paper (Jul 08) Participatory Budgeting Strategy (Sep 08)

Structural reforms – unitaries, mayors, parishes Local Area Agreements across England New “duty to inform, consult & involve” Changes to local service inspection – CAA Local Involvement Networks (LINks) in health & social care New statutory “place-shaping” guidance Local Government & Public Involvement in Health Act

Local Area Agreements All 150 top tier authorities (with districts involvement) All “single pot” funding via Area Based Grant Based on Sustainable Community Strategy, determines key priorities and targets for local area Up to 35 (+ 17 statutory DCSF) targets Link to new National Indicators & Places Survey (NI 4) Citizens should be involved in shaping LAA LSPs self assess progress annually against LAA & report to local citizens and to Government

Local Strategic Partnerships LSP key role in identifying priorities in Sustainable Community Strategies and Local Area Agreement New statutory duty to co-operate for named LSP partners around agreeing/delivering LAA targets Role of Council as leader of LSP, overview & scrutiny role with other partners Reviews performance – self assessment Guidance on local “neighbourhood charters” But remain ‘non-statutory’ & unaccountable

Section 138 – Duty to Involve New duty to “inform, consult & involve” from April 2009 Applies to Best Value authorities (except Police, Wales) “Where BV authority considers it appropriate…” It must involve “representatives of local persons or local persons in the exercise of their functions by…  Providing information on the exercise of the function  Consulting about the exercise of the function  Involve in another way about the exercise of function “Appropriate”: guidance states “routine functions” & “significant one-off decisions” Comprehensive engagement across LSP now expected

Duty to involve – police/health S96 Police Act 96 & S157 Serious Organised Crime & Police Act 2005 Empowerment White Paper extends duty to police S11 Health/Social Care Act 2002 & S242 NHS Act 2006 LGPIH 2007 emphasis on reporting consultation S221 LGPIH introduced LINks – key council role – for involving people in health & social care services

Participatory Budgeting in UK PB now in 300+ cities worldwide White Paper: PB in every local authority area by 2012 DCSF targets on young people & youth budgets National strategy on PB published Modest UK pilots over past 5 years voluntary sector or youth “pot of money” local neighbourhood “pot” voted on by local citizens broad budget consultation approaches linking to all or part of LAA/SCS process

Comprehensive Area Assessment “For the first time, local public services will be held collectively to account for their impact on better local outcomes” Multi-inspectorate review of area and organisations replaces CPA, Use of Resources & Direction of Travel Area Assessment: how well are local public services delivering better results for local people on local priorities Organisational assessment: how well council and fire & rescue services manage finances, business, resources & performance From rolling programmes to targeted inspections

CAA & Empowerment CAA will assess implementation of duty to involve: How well council/partners know/engage with their communities (esp vulnerable/hard to reach) Community involvement in defining priorities/assessing outcomes Co-ordination of partners’ community engagement Accuracy of self assessment will be key Organisational assessment includes how organisation engages local communities… in financial planning Big challenge to “managerialist” councils CAA critical in ensuring empowerment agenda is delivered

Engagement cycle in new agenda Citizens involved in debate on local priorities, services & budgets Feeds into Sustainable Community Strategy, Local Area Agreement & neighbourhood charters Annual self assessment by LSP Independent inspectorate assessment of risks in the area, using customer feedback, PIs etc LSPs produce annual report for citizens which feeds back into involvement process LSPs choose from menu of options (PB, Citizens Panels etc) a way to involve citizens cyclically in these processes

Actually 3 documents 1. Communities in control: Real People, Real Power Empowerment White Paper 2. Communities in control: Real People, Real Power Evidence Annex 3. Communities in control: Real People, Real Power Improving Local Accountability Consultation Plus, lots more consultation documents/guidance notes leading to Community Empowerment, Housing & Economic Regeneration Bill (CEHER) Empowerment White Paper

How People Get Involved 38% felt they could influence decisions in local area 39% contacted elected representative/official, signed petition, protested in last 12 months (civic participation) 21% taken part in some local (civic consultation) in last year 10% participated in direct decision-making (local activism) in last year – housing, policing, education & health most common area 77% donated to charity in last month White Paper Evidence Annex

Political engagement is very much dominated by the already well- resourced: the most highly educated, the rich, and those from the top educational echelons Pattie et al % social grades A/B “certain” to vote in immediate general election; 34% of social grades D/E 43% people in managerial/professional groups feel able to influence local decisions compared with 30% (routine occupations) & 32% (unemployed or never worked) AND 51% earning up to £10,400 pa had NEVER used internet (6% earning above £36,400 pa) 71% aged over 65 have NEVER used internet; 35% between (4% of year olds) Who gets involved ?

50-60%+ want services to get on with the job 25-40% get involved around specific life choices – schools, moving 2-5% are citizen activists Do people want to be involved? 32% say it is very important to be involved, 47% quite important; 71% people would get involved in process where they decided how & where local money was spent – Opinion Leader research

NEW duty to promote democracy NEW duty to respond to petitions NEW extended duty to inform, consult & involve NEW right to hold officers publicly to account White Paper – new duties/rights

Duty to promote democracy Falling voter turnout, declining trust in politicians, difficulty in recruiting candidates Recognises value of political activity and aims “to help councils promote involvement through clearer information, better trained staff & more visible councillors in the community” Builds on work of Councillors Commission & complements the Duty to Involve (LGPIH 2007) Statutory duty to promote democratic understanding & participation Review of statutory code of publicity

Duty to respond to petitions Petitions relating to council & joint responsibility functions Council to have advocacy role on health petitions Petitions open to all who live & work in area to organise & sign Significant support should trigger public debate in full council (threshold 5% of local people?) Petitions will be used as evidence in CAA – may trigger inspection

Takes effect from April 2009 Named bodies take “appropriate steps” to involve people in decisions, policies or services that may affect/interest them Now involves key arts, sporting, cultural & environmental organisations too (universities) Key extension to local police forces Statutory Guidance due later this Autumn Extending the duty to involve

Right to hold officers to account Increase visibility of local public officers Chair/Chief Executive to face regular public hearings New right to petition to hold officers to account through public meetings Requirement that lead councils in LAA areas agree & publish details of scheme Government to specify minimum standards LGA major concerns about the proposals

White paper – other proposals More support for Third Sector - £70m Community Builders Fund Parishes/Neighbourhood Councils – make it easier to set them up Scrutiny – joint county/district OSC committees, on area basis Planning/Land –money for planning initiatives + Community Land Trusts Young People – extending YOF, YCF + national institute for youth leadership Tenants – new National Tenant voice, more TMOs Mayors – reducing threshold, making revotes easier (Stoke !) LINks – extending their remit ? Redress – allowing financial compensation

Localism, less inspection & PIs, and involving citizens not just New Labour agenda Liberal Democrats always supported devolution/ localism & “people power” David Cameron at Conservative Councillors Association “This is the future… local councils…being judged held accountable, being evaluated by your residents” Tory-controlled LGA response: “LGA supports the intentions of the Empowerment White Paper …” Eric Pickles proposal on non-conformance quickly squashed Political consensus ?

Scale of the empowerment shift “Aspiration … is to embed a culture of engagement and empowerment – authorities consider as a matter of course the possibilities for … information, consultation, involvement … across all authority functions” Consistency of message across Government – “This is a Government (Empowerment) White Paper” Similar to the 1990s culture shift on Performance Management

Impact of economic crisis Case for empowerment needs to be recast – if it is seen as an add-on or a luxury, it will not get funded, or be cut Arguments for empowerment in “hard times”: Consultation/involvement leads to better targeting of services Investment that will pay long-term dividends Co-ordinated engagement across partners can save money Involvement in resource allocation strengthens social cohesion Involving citizens in “tough decisions” can deflect criticism from Members/officers Not investing in empowerment will lead to poor CAA results – “heads will roll”

Davy Jones