1. What can we learn from the Community Budget pilots?
Tony Wilson Inclusion
David MacDougall
Avanta

2. Introductions Tony Wilson Director of Policy Inclusion
David MacDougall
Head of Research & Strategic Development, Avanta

3. Background to Community Budgets
What are Community Budgets?
Less ring fencing and direction over budgets
Localisation and redefining service delivery
Pooling and aligning of budgets of local partners
Builds on LAA’s, Total Place, co-design pilots, Family Intervention Projects etc
Initially, with a particular focus on supporting Families With Multiple Problems (FWMP)...
... With new pilots looking much wider and/ or deeper

4. Why? Long-running concerns around:
Multiple funding streams and accountabilities
Overlapping or duplicated provision
Services organised by provider rather than user/ beneficiary
... And Families with Multiple Problems a perfect example!

5. Community Budgets and FWMP in Numbers
£8bn estimated spend on FWMP – ‘welfare millionaires’
120,000 FWMP in England
First 16 pilot areas cover 28 Local Authorities – 25% of English population
10,000 families supported by end of this Parliament
... But 3.9m households where no-one in work
8,000,000,000/120,000 = £66,000 – includes Universal services
But no sense of what an average family has ‘spent’ on them

6. What are they hoping achieve?
Step change in the way that services are commissioned and funded – route for delivering on localism and devolution
Testing ground for Payment By Results (PBR)
Repositions policy to consider models of non-traditional family
New approaches – prevention, early intervention, outcomes

7. An in-depth example
Avanta is working in partnership with Manchester City Council to maximise synergies between the Work Programme and local services through the joining up of local service provision and funding.
This concentrates on helping workless families through targeted interventions designed to break the cycle of intergenerational unemployment and chaotic lifestyles.
Stabilizing chaotic lifestyles is the key. Addressing barriers including addiction, homelessness, skills and other interrelated barriers. A “family Solution” is required to break the cycle of benefit dependency.

8. Culture: Contestability
Priorities for Avanta
Culture: Contestability
Early Intervention
Not more Money!
Bonds and PBR
Data Sharing
Free Schools

9. What lessons? Best Community Budgets: Build on existing partnerships
Align objectives and accountabilities, not (just) funding
Based on shared evidence, systems and data
Strong local leadership – buy-in
So... not about accounting and finance – focus on families:
“Community Budgets as a term is misleading. It is not about one big budget nor is about the whole community. It is about making services more effective and efficient for those with the greatest need”

10. The next wave... Deeper: ten “Neighbourhood” Budgets:
Broader: four “Whole Place” Community Budgets:
Cheshire West and Chester
Greater Manchester
West London
Essex
Deeper: ten “Neighbourhood” Budgets:
Neighbourhood control, launching Apr 13

11. Implications for the future
Radically different public service model?
Maybe... But even if not:
More focus on sharing practice and working across sectors
More co-design, co-commissioning
Better and more consistent use of data
Evaluation – understanding what works, but more importantly why?

12. Which means:
Developing innovative and flexible partnerships between the private, public and voluntary sector
Need to be more ambitious and to move at a faster pace to reflect public sector reform and the need to gain greater value for money.
From intervention to saving to re-thinking service provision

13. Discussion and Questions
Conclusions

14. Contact Details
Tony Wilson Inclusion Tony. M:
David MacDougall Avanta M: