Councils must modernise, save money and design good lives
The biggest redesign of public services in a generation lies ahead. As councils try to work out what new model could adequately respond to the complex demands on them, community-powered prevention offers a chance to deliver an approach that can simultaneously tackle rising inequality and financial restraint, writes Ruth Luscombe, Director of Inner Circle Consulting
Evidence shows that communities are better placed than institutions to respond to – and get ahead of – issues in their local areas if they are supported to do so. But a prevention-based approach is under threat from short-term, tactical funding decisions that often feel like the only choice for councils to balance desperately squeezed budgets. With this prevailing mindset, local government reorganisation also risks focusing on chasing economies of scale and missing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to design in prevention.
Public services focused on unlocking community-powered prevention have been far better able to shield the most vulnerable from complex service demand. Perhaps one of the most striking statistics is from Manchester City Council, which recently reported 2% fewer children in care since 2008 compared to a 35% increase nationally, as a consequence of an approach that prioritised prevention and partnerships with the community. The Wigan Deal and Barking and Dagenham’s Community Solutions model provide other examples of success. As demand for adult and children’s social care, SEND support, and homelessness solutions soars, prevention is the only viable solution.
At ICC, we’ve been creating a toolkit to help 21st-century public service change leaders tackle the challenges of reform, financial pressures and rising demand together, by drawing on partner and community capacity to drive the savings needed. Our toolkit helps local authorities pivot to a model that maximises the power of community-led prevention within the financial constraints in which they are operating. This way, precious resources are not wasted in inefficient and fragmented service designs and local authorities can set up their own capability in ways that enable strong partnerships, build community capacity, and deliver balanced budgets.
We must be very practical about the capabilities needed from the get-go, and ensure resources go on the right things rather than getting lost between service silos. ICC supports councils in doing this by building a really good understanding of the people in a place and what they need. Data and insight on the root causes driving poorer outcomes in a place must underpin all decisions around future investment and service design. So, a key step is establishing the mechanism for sophisticated data sharing and analysis across public service partners.
Place-based or neighbourhood-based models such as Liverpool’s, which convene partners and the community to agree on shared priorities, are helpful ways to build shared understanding, enable the reallocation of shared resources towards the right things, and support upstream prevention. There is raw power in a conversation that urgently seeks to answer the question: “What do we collectively want for the people in this place?” rather than poring over individual organisation or service priorities.
Next, councils must look at their own organisational service designs and rethink the way support is designed and accessed. Communities thrive when personal motivation meets resources and networks of social support, but the current model for service access across public services is woefully inadequate at facilitating this. Too much time and energy is spent on wasted referrals and signposting. Too many services tie up precious resources in activities which, at worst, don’t help, and too often miss opportunities to make a small early intervention that could reduce need down the line. Teachers and charity workers are tearing their hair out trying to find the right help for people they see day in, day out. A painful amount of time and energy is spent on wasted referrals and signposting.
Instead of asking: “Does this person meet our threshold for this specific service?”, councils should ask: “What matters to this person, and how can we help them find support?” At ICC, we’re working with authorities to create person-centred service designs and to recognise and champion support networks beyond traditional public services’ boundaries. It’s the kind of service model that invites people in, because it is relationship-based and human, taps community power, and is vastly cheaper for side-stepping a sticky web of complex reassessments and referrals.
The principles of preventative service models—insight-driven design, place-based partnership, and person-centre service design—can help every existing local government organisation work better. If public services are truly about helping communities unlock a good life for the people in their places, they should also be the blueprint for every future model of local government.
We’re looking forward to sharing more on 3rd June at Stronger Things, where we’ll host a panel session on how public services enable community-powered prevention at scale.
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