Local government should focus on needs in an era of cuts

Leadership in local government is comparatively easy when budgets are growing and staff don't have the threat of redundancy hanging over them, but those days are long gone. We're in the middle of a period of cuts and uncertainty and in this context it would be easy for an organisation to turn in on itself, focusing on its internal politics and administrative processes at the expense of the needs of residents and a wider vision of place. If though, residents' needs were the single point of reference from which all our decisions were made, maybe the job of leading would become easier. The problem is that opinions vary, both on what residents need and how to improve results. Staff, managers and politicians all care about public services but building a consensus for change is challenging when the main task is to cut spending more than ever before. In Surrey , my team (services for young people), recently went to the cabinet with a proposal to adopt an approach to delivery where we commission outcomes from the market and no longer provide services directly. This transition from service provider to commissioner is not an easy one when it means dismantling longstanding service structures and creating a new marketplace of suppliers. When our cash is tied up in public sector monopolies how can we transform into social investors? We think we have found how we can create a new model and get better results for less money and the first step towards this was understanding needs, then establishing a set of outcomes. To do this we set about analysing what it was we actually provided. Jumping out at us was the discovery that our services were designed not to meet changing needs but to deliver activities and statutory duties. Maybe need and outcome were never a central design principle of 20th century local government. We realised we had a set of services that were not sufficiently focused on improving outcomes, so we have had to set about redesigning them into something quite different. Generally colleagues see the business logic to our proposals but if we are to meet the savings target some staff will inevitably be made redundant. Those that remain may end up working in the third sector and others may be asked to do their jobs very differently. We may ask a youth justice officer to help find a Neet (not in education, employment or training) young offender a college place rather than refer them to a Connexions personal advisor. Why? Because we can't afford for one young person to have two professionals, both assessing, planning and supporting and then inevitably recording their work on two separate databases. Despite big authorities like Suffolk embracing commissioning as an approach there is still considerable nervousness amongst decision makers. Members are concerned that they'll lose their favourite youth worker or receive a reduced service offer locally. Staff understandably are concerned they will lose their jobs and pensions, while corporate officers are concerned that it just won't work – "what is a social enterprise and why can it do it better than us?" is a question I've heard repeatedly. These sensible concerns about what we are proposing to change in the future mirror my concerns associated with the consequences of not changing, although that is not really an option when we have so much less to spend. We could turn in on ourselves, abandoning innovation and creativity in favour of rationalisation, cuts and downsizing. Designing a service that fits a reduced funding envelope is easy when you simply put red lines through your budget – do the same as before, just less of it. To do something different requires public sector leaders that listen, acknowledge and respond with empathy to the concerns of members and staff. But most of all they must be tenacious in putting the needs of residents at the forefront of their thinking when deciding how to behave. Garath Symonds is assistant director for young people at Surrey county council This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, become a member of the local government network.