EXECUTIVE SUMMARY the Combined Communities of Blaenau
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The combined communities of Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen are home to around 160,000 people (just over 5% of the population of Wales, and 28% of the population of Gwent). Geographically the area runs from the Heads of the Valleys in the north to the M4 corridor in the south and includes an enterprise zone, a world heritage site and one of Wales’ most thriving shopping centres. It also comprises some of the poorest communities in Wales. A new geography, with the advantages of bringing the north and south of the area together, provides an opportunity for the collective communities of the two county boroughs to envisage themselves in a new way; reframing an identity based on economic disadvantage and low aspiration to a more optimistic picture based on innovation, skills and technology. We know that our two communities are full of people brimming with untapped potential, redefining the place in which they live allows them to reimagine what their future might be. The two current councils have many operational similarities: they are amongst the smallest in Wales, with all the challenges of financial sustainability that that brings; neither of them directly provide housing, leisure or residential care services; they are already involved in a number of collaborative ventures on major service areas including social care and waste management. they have both experienced difficulties with their education services, which they are striving hard to overcome, and both commission school improvement services from the EAS; Both organisations face a challenging financial future given the projected continuing reduction in local government funding, and it is very likely that we would have contemplated an administrative merger at some point regardless of Welsh Government’s plans for reform of local government. In some ways the pace of change proposed by Welsh Government is not quick enough for us; unless we do something well before 2018 maintaining both effective front line services and a viable corporate centre almost becomes an impossibility. However, our vision is not about bolting together two organisations to drive out transactional efficiencies and cost, it is about seizing a rare opportunity to bring about transformational change creating from scratch a new local authority with the 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY potential to provide the best public services in Wales for some of its most disadvantaged people. In pioneering a new model of local government in Wales, we believe that we can provide Welsh Government with a prototype of what a modern, outcome focussed council could and should look like, that is scalable to include additional councils joining later, or to cover a wider geographical footprint in our own and other regions of Wales, and can have a wider public sector leadership role. By acting as a pathfinder for Wales in this respect we can road test the model, cover the hard yards and provide lessons learned for those coming to the party later in the day. We know that it will not be easy, but we believe that it is achievable and that it will be an energising force for us at a time when our organisations are weary and dispirited in managing contraction and decline due to dwindling resources. The fact that some services across the two councils are not performing as well as they should is an added incentive, we have little to lose in those areas and the potential to make significant and rapid gains by breaking the mould and reimagining new ways of planning and delivering public services. Combined Authority 2 1. VISION FOR THE NEW AUTHORITY Provide a brief summary of your vision for the new Authority. This should include: Your ambitions for the area and your services and how you will demonstrate commitment to achieving them; Our ambition is to create a new and vibrant organisation providing transformed community leadership and services across the two existing geographical areas of Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent for and with communities that underpin them. The organisation will serve a population of 160,000 people and have a net budget in the region of £300m. It will knit together strong industrial heritage with the employment and regeneration opportunities afforded by the digital economy and associated knowledge industries. The new organisation will not be created by simply merging together the two existing Councils and continuing to deliver services using traditional methods and approaches. To do so would neither be practical nor financially sustainable. The local government landscape is changing and the creation of the new organisation provides the ideal platform from which to break fresh ground and be at the forefront of a new approach to public service delivery in Wales. To achieve this, the new organisation will need to be underpinned by a very different operating model to those historically employed in Local Government in Wales. At this early, exploratory stage though, selecting one particular model over another would potentially limit the ambition of the new organisation. Our aim is to provide a template for the future of public service delivery in Wales; something so important needs to be well thought through from the outset. The approaches employed by Councils that have previously faced extended periods of diminishing resources provide evidence that the journey to a future state and new operating model is likely to involve a number of relatively predictable phases. The New Local Government Network (NLGN), in its study entitled “Future Councils: Life after the spending Cuts” suggested the phases were as follows: Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Outcome based services Focus on a short, sharp period Review of service delivered by mix of public, of cutting costs – change driven offering and emergence of community and 3rd sector by incremental efficiencies alternative service providers service providers The NLGN reports that the majority of Councils go at least some way down the route to becoming an outcome focused organisation, with innovation focusing on service 3 1. VISION FOR THE NEW AUTHORITY redesign and co-production. The notion of a mixed economy of public, third sector and community providers, delivering services in the locality as a collective, offers the mechanism by which service provision across the local government landscape can be best sustained in terms of quality and breadth. While some services will continue to be directly provided by the new organisation, the future thrust will be ensuring the services needed by the new communities are delivered to the highest standard and lowest cost, mindful of the importance of public service as a key employer for our two communities. This is likely to be by a network of public, third sector and community providers with accountability for service quality and outcomes being retained democratically by elected members supported and advised by a highly functional, strategic core. The new organisation will see the Council’s primary role focus on community leadership, building community capacity, cross-public sector collaboration and championing growth in the area. The diagram below sets out how that model might look, and is based upon work already done in Blaenau Gwent, which could be progressed fairly rapidly by a merged authority from an established base. A more commercial approach is likely as the organisation will have less access to, and reliance upon grants, and will need to be more business like, integrating charging and trading in some areas with payment by results and outcomes in others. 4 1. VISION FOR THE NEW AUTHORITY Both authorities already have well established Local Service Boards and are familiar with the benefits of working in partnership across public services. The new organisation that we aim to build will be co-created within these wider partnership networks, calling on the strengths and knowledge of all those involved to develop creative solutions to local issues. The relationship between the new organisation and its communities will fundamentally change from that which currently exists. The themes associated with this emerging relationship might be categorised as the Council becoming a ‘trusted advocate’ that is focused on helping the community to help itself (whenever and wherever that is practical) but helping the community directly when it is unable to help itself. The shift toward outcome focused service delivery through a network of providers is by no means new to either organisation. Both Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen Councils have plenty of examples and experiences of services having been delivered through others. Housing services are delivered by a range of registered social landlords, education improvement services are delivered by the Education Achievement Service (EAS) and Leisure and Cultural services are to varying degrees provided by not for profit Trusts. What differs in respect of this proposal, however, is the scale of the change, the ambition to create a new organisation from two currently disparate bodies that is greater than the sum of its parts: using outcome measures and a mix of provision radically to redesign services; delivering shared and sustainable front and back office services; creating a strong, resilient and intelligent corporate centre - all with the aim of achieving a tangible improvement in the quality of life of our residents. Your approach to community leadership: how you will engage effectively with people and communities and actively consider those views in its decision making, including feedback and on-going engagement; The new organisation, as with all local Councils, will hold an over-arching representative role in the area that no other body can provide. It will maintain a democratic legitimacy and accountability as the primary locally elected body with a mandate to act on behalf of the whole community through bringing partners together, joining up local services, influencing the development of a shared local agenda and engaging with citizens to create a vision for their localities.