Public services are not unchanging things, that can be managed the same year in, year out. Most have evolved, through social innovation, over the years. Recently the pressures on public services have grown. So has the speed of evolution. Leadership (setting direction) tends to be even more important during times of rapid change. Local leadership is particularly important when change is due to a decline in central demand or resourcing and/or the growth in importance of local factors and resources.
Cuts, Demand and Local Change
Since the global banking crisis of 2008 and the worldwide recession which followed, the government has attempted to reduce the cost of public services as a proportion of the national income, even during times of recession and slow growth. In England, public spending cuts have led to very large reductions in the money available to local public services – and local authorities in particular. Local services have shrunk – and some have been withdrawn altogether.
The demand for local services – particularly in social care – arising from the needs of an ageing population is projected to increase during the same period as public spending will continue to be cut. The need for social innovation, and opportunities to bring it about, are both greater than ever before. The question is not whether change will happen. It will – and it will go on happening. For local leaders, the question is whether they want, and are able, to influence the effect of change in localities; to preserve and make better places for people to live?
Other Drivers for Social Innovation
Public spending cuts and increasing demand for social care services are not the obly important drivers for change in public services. Other factors driving the pace of social innovation include:
personalisation – services to individuals have increasingly been subject to reforms giving users access to personalised budgets to buy services from approved suppliers;
evidence based working – which developed in particular from the health service is now applied across a wide range of public services
social value – collectively purchased and provided services are now subject to requirements to consider wider social value in purchasing
coproduction – services users and communities around them are more likely to be seen as potential providers or coproducers of social value by acting as partners in service delivery; providing alternative services; or by mitigating the need for public sector interventions
integration – of NHS and social care budgets and the transfer of responsibility for health promotion from the NHS to local authorities
localism – the 2011 Localism Act promoted the legal ‘personality’ of Councils – their ability to do anything which an individual might do – including to set up and have shares in enterprises either producing social value by providing services or by making profits which can be used to provide services
devolution – to combined authorities in major city regions of central government spending on transport, skills and business support in return for the election of ‘metro mayors’ to cover these conurbations
digital technology and data – just as the Industrial Revolution created the need for, and enabled, new kinds of public services during the 19th century, the Digital Revolution provides a spur to social innovation now.
What’s Next…
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