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Durham E-Theses Learning from the Case: A Grounded Account of Best Value Practice from within Easington District Council QUARLESS, CHARLOTTE How to cite: QUARLESS, CHARLOTTE (2013) Learning from the Case: A Grounded Account of Best Value Practice from within Easington District Council, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6930/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Learning from the Case: A Grounded Account of Best Value Practice from within Easington District Council Charlotte Quarless A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Applied Social Science Durham University 2012/13 Abstract i Abstract: The thesis provides a grounded account of Best Value (BV) practice from within the setting of Easington District Council (1974-2009); formally recognised as an ‘excellent’ local authority by the Audit Commission in a Comprehensive Performance Assessment completed in 2003. Introduced by the Local Government Act 1999, BV replaced the previous Conservative regime of Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT). A regime which was criticised as relegating the import of quality in favour of a robust emphasis on the financial cost of local public service delivery. In contrast, conceived by the newly elected Labour government in May 1997, BV was intended to ensure “continuous improvement in both the quality and cost of services”. Initially at the forefront of New Labour’s improvement and modernisation agenda for local government, the ‘test’ of BV was intended to “be the hallmark of the modern council” (DETR 1998: 64). Informed by personal experience, the aim of the thesis is to acknowledge the human accomplishment of BV as a collaborative process as achieved through the culturally evolved meaning making frames enacted by both elected members and paid employees working in the context of a local authority setting. The thesis provides a description of the local authority as situated in place and of that placedness as providing a bounded sense of reality determining the interpretation and implementation of national policy frameworks – specifically, BV. Achieved by way of combination of an analysis of local authority documents, observational methods and semi-structured interviews the thesis examines the complexity of the contemporary local authority organisational form and presents an argument for a more nuanced approach in appreciating the interactions which inform the underlying accomplishment of specific performance outcomes by the local authority. Preface ii Preface: Warning! Caution! Alert! Read me… We are not just one person, we are many peoples. Most of the time I consider myself a girl, at other times, I am a woman. Having successfully resisted the shackles of ‘wife’ I am a life-partner, lover, friend, companion sometimes adversary, at other times menace (latterly, I fear, I have fulfilled the role of the proverbial albatross) – to my house- mate, fellow dog-owner and significant ‘other’. If my dog was to maul a child, in the eyes of the law I would become a ‘dog-owner’. However, the furry creature, currently contentedly at my feet, does not (in his own doggy-consciousness) consider himself to be a possession owned by me. At 5pm he will become a nuisance as he pesters to go out and have his chief ‘ball-thrower’ entertain. Yes, at times I am ‘ball-thrower’ too. The act of writing imposes a schizophrenic experience. I am me but I am not me. These are my words. Correction: these are not my words. These words and their meaning, I share in common with others: the langue, the parole. Ours is an existential riddle. Contained within the pages of this binding, are the words I have chosen, selected, to express my inner thoughts and convey my meaning. As I type, these thoughts are represented on the page as black ink against a white background. I am physically absent. My voice is silent. Yet, an impression is conveyed. A mark is made and a trace of self is transacted. Aware of my (possibly and perhaps) unconventional self I think it necessary to preface the words of this text – I think it necessary to provide some context to my meaning… Following a number of years of personal struggle I have come to accept that I am an ‘odd-bod’. Frequently, this is a revelation which surprises. I do not claim the wisdom of Confucius, but a fish cannot swim through air and a bird can not fly through water. Reading Dennis Wrong’s ‘The Over-socialised Conception of Man’ (1961) in which he argues that human beings should be seen as social without being entirely socialised Preface iii (i.e. that there is inevitably tension had between individual human nature, suspended amidst the requirements of the wider human civilisation): I see myself. The oil contained within my pores stubbornly refuses to dissolve and be rendered soluble within the waters of the academy. I am attracted to organisations and I am intrigued by their constitution. But (alas!), I find that I am not, naturally, of the organisation. The thesis has taken an age to complete. “When will it be done?” “Are you nearly finished yet?” Dander-blast! Bush-twaddle! The well meant inquiries of others! The PhD has been my own personal odyssey, at times a Greek Tragedy. No doubt to the casual observer, a great comic farce. The following information is stated for the benefit of the reader: during the third year of the thesis (unbeknown to me at the time) I edged into depression… Depression: the malaise of modernity. In this ‘brave new world’ (from which many of us can be found running scared) the dream of Aldous Huxley’s Soma has been realised many times over by the pharmaceutical giants. I have my own ‘magic beans’ but I have yet to find a beanstalk growing at my window. I should qualify, the experience of depression was only in part connected to the completion of the thesis. Even though I am now quite recovered, I continue in my struggle to comprehend the medical diagnosis of ‘depression’. Whether as ‘victim’ or sociologist, I recoil from the label and stubbornly resist the pronouncements of experts. Unlike Churchill I have no ‘black-dog’. My dog is an impatient fur-ball, of mixed parentage, without ‘papers’ and purchased for the measly sum of £80 from above an off-license in Hartlepool (much to his own chagrin and delusions of grandeur). I cheerfully refer to this past episode as that time when I went a bit ‘fruit-loop’. When at its worse, I can clearly recall the acute physicality of the experience. Life stopped, because at that point I could not go on. My study at home, in which I now sit and type, amongst a rainforest of stray papers and a battalion of books, was mothballed. The thesis languished. I did not work. I did not write. Instead, I walked. I chopped wood. I counted stitches. Slowly I got better and in time I reached the decision that I would continue… It is not my intention to define myself in terms of ‘the depression’. I am a ‘Charlotte’. I tend to find that people who have known ‘Charlottes’ agree that we are a breed apart. Preface iv The name inculcates personality. Unfortunately, there are Charlottes who prove my thesis wrong, but I generally think them as undeserving of their great title! (I jest you know, I hope that that is clear.) Yes, I have experienced ‘depression’ but I am not a depressive. Ardently, I consider myself a person of a most cheery disposition. Unexpectedly, the experience had imparted something – insight perhaps. Certainly my perspective became changed. Significantly, I recognised the thesis as having been informed by the experience. It is difficult to quantify to what extent, but even today the experience continues to resonate. When I had suspended my studies, I retreated. Although social, I declined to socialise. Temporarily freed from the seeming coercion of the perpetual motion of socialisation I began recognise anew the mechanisms in which I had previously been suspended. Bauman (1990) writes that the task of the Sociologist is to ‘defamiliarise the familiar’. For a time, in my morose state, I was locked out. It was a choice I made. In that time I became differently acclimatised. It was as though I was on the outside looking in. Now, when once I was outside, I stand from inside looking under. The thesis does not comply with the codes of convention. There are no big ANSWERS contained within this tome but I do consider that over time my findings have crystallised. As much as this has been a process of serious intellectual inquiry, it has also been journey of self revelation. I hope the contents of the thesis prove interesting to the reader. In conclusion, I realise that the University might easily have not made the allowances it did to enable my completion of the thesis.