Health and Local Government Partnerships: The Local Government Policy Context

This article explores partnerships between health and local government from the local government perspective; placing developments between the two sectors within the wider context of the Local Government Modernisation agenda. A number of commentators have argued that developments since 1997 – in particular the emphasis on community leadership and the new power of well-being – have provided local authorities with an exciting opportunity to reclaim a more pivotal role in shaping the health agenda at the local level. Such a role would be based on promoting well-being and a good quality of life, in keeping with the social model of health. In the longer run this reclaimed role could produce a shift in what has become the main boundary between health and local government: the health–social care boundary. The article reviews developments in three key areas: the health–social care boundary; the core components of the Local Government Modernisation Agenda; and the relationship between regeneration and health. The paper concludes that although progress has been made in regeneration and health and there is potential in elements of the Modernisation Agenda that these do not equate to a paradigm shift in local government's perspective on health. Instead, the social care boundary continues to dominate local government's vision of health. Central to this picture of modest progress is the substantial barrier to more radical change provided by the performance management frameworks governing both sectors.     

Modernising Local Government: Micro-Organisational Reform and Changing Local Structural Configurations

This article takes an indicative group of county, metropolitan and unitary authorities located in the English West Midlands to examine how effectively local government is grappling with modernising’ reforms in a context where the appropriate unit of analysis has become problematic because of broader changes to local governance. Sub-national territorial structural variability is becoming more pronounced while, paradoxically, what stands out in the micro-organisational dimension is the extent to which local authorities are increasingly working to a common reform agenda, notwithstanding the need to resolve incoherences in New Labour's modernisation project. The explanation for these observed (contrary) changes lies not only in the vagaries of top-down pressures emanating from central political and regulatory infiuences, but also in local institutional dynamics, as well as in lateral or peer dissemination of ‘good’ practice within local government.     

Devolution and Local Government: Evidence from Scotland

Devolution in Scotland has had a major impact upon local government. Local government, at both political and managerial levels, perceives central government in the shape of the Scottish Executive to be closer (geographically and politically) and more open to local government in terms of access to ministers and civil servants. However, Scottish central–local relations continues to be characterised by a sense of mistrust of local government, especially among civil servants and a continuing desire for central control of key policy agendas. Equally, the policy process continues to display features of fragmentation across major policy areas. Moreover, Westminster has not yet departed the scene of Scottish politics in both financial and policy terms but also in the enduring presence of a Westminster ‘political culture’     

'Unprecedented in Local Government Terms'– The Local Government Commission's Public Consultation Programme

The purpose of this article is to describe and evaluate the public consultation exercises mounted by the Local Government Commission for England under its successive Chairmen, Sir John Banham and Sir David Cooksey. The Commission was evidently proud of this aspect of its work, emphasizing repeatedly its unprecedented nature: in itself an unremarkable claim in the context of British local government structural reviews. This article suggests that, in terms of quality and value for money, as opposed to sheer scale, the consultation programme - and particularly the three principal tranches of MORI residential surveys - was less laudable. The article examines each of these surveys: the stage one community identity polls, which might have contributed to the government's intended 'community index', had the latter not previously been rejected by the Commission; the stage three option consultation surveys, the Banham Commission's instrument for the hybridization of English local government, which prompted accusations of policymaking by opinion poll; and the stage three 're-review' surveys for the Cooksey Commission, which had already indicated its disinclination to accord local public opinion any special weighting in its deliberations. The article attempts to summarize, in two key tables, both the results and the impact of the Commission's public consultations, and in doing so to trace the progress of the review from an initially proposed 99 new unitary authorities, down to 50, then 38, and back up to the final total of 46.     

Supporting Effective Citizenship in Local Government: Engaging,Educating and Empowering Local Citizens

Civic-republican theories suggest that an active citizenry is associated with community cohesion, better political institutions and inclusive democratic decision making. The influence of these arguments on the UK Labour government has led policy makers to focus attention on strategies to promote citizenship at a local level. In particular, English local authorities are expected to provide ‘support for citizenship’ as part of their wider duty to promote ‘effective community engagement’. The ways in which they can do this are various, ranging from the simple provision of information to direct support for community networks and groups. This article reports the findings of an extensive study of English councils' efforts to engage, educate and empower local citizens. The paper concludes that although local authorities have made significant progress in recent years in widening the structures for communicating with, and engaging citizens, there remains considerable scope for improving activities that address the learning implications of effective citizenship.     

Ethics in Local Government: Evaluating Self-Regulation in England and Wales

Local government in England and Wales is subject to the implementation of the Labour government's 'new ethical framework' legislation. This involves a statutory code of conduct for councillors, local standards committees to promote good practice and external investigative and adjudicative bodies to deal with allegations of misconduct. Prior to this many local authorities had adopted a self-regulatory approach to improving their ethical practice. This article charts the development of non-statutory policy towards standards of conduct - largely due to the generally high ethical standards in councils. A study of councils who have introduced self-regulation through standards committees shows that it provides a positive strategy for strengthening the ethical climate, although there is a role for external verification and, potentially, intervention where councils face structural problems of misconduct and/or corruption. The current creation of a statutory system with powerful investigatory agencies is not justified in the context of levels of misconduct and the experience of self-regulation.     

Local Political Leadership and the Modernisation of Local Government

Political leadership has been a key element of central government's attempts to ‘modernise’ local government over the past decade, within a discourse that emphasised ‘strong’ and ‘visible’ leadership and the role of leaders and leadership in driving change within local authorities. In the context of such an approach, and also taking account of academic discourse, this article draws upon interviews with nearly thirty individuals in leadership positions in local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales to assess their experiences of leadership and their views of some aspects of the role and work of councils. It suggests that whilst there is broad convergence between the aspirations of government and the narratives that emerge from these leaders on some aspects of local political leadership, there are also differences, perhaps most notably over the relationship between changes to decision-making structures and the loci of political power.     

Local Government Modernization in Germany: Between Incrementalism and Reform Waves

In taking a historical-institutionlist approach, this paper looks at the development of administrative reforms in German local government which, because of the comparatively high degree of political and administrative decentralization of the Federal Republic has played a crucial role in the latter's entire politico-administrative setting and, hence, in its institutional reforms. The paper mainly identifies three stages in the post-war development of administrative reforms. During the 'planning movement' of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Germany's local level government and administration underwent significant and, to a considerable degree, lasting institutional changes. The 1980s were a period of incrementalist adaptation. Since the beginning of the 1990s, conspicuously later than in the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian countries, but earlier and faster than the federal and the Länder levels, Germany's local government has embarked upon dramatic changes particularly on two scores. First, in a growing number of municipalities and counties, administrative modernization was incorporated under the heading of a 'New Steering Model' (NSM) that largely drew on the dominant international New Public Management (NPM) debate. The dynamics of the ongoing administrative reforms are marked by an 'amalgamation' of NPM/NSM and earlier ('traditional') reform concepts. Secondly, at the same time, the political institutions of local government have under-gone a significant shift as a result of the introduction of direct democratic procedures (direct election of mayors and heads of counties, binding local referenda). The paper argues that it is this co-incidence and co-evolution of administrative and political reforms that make for the peculiarity of Germany's current modernization trajectory, distinguishing it from the Anglo-Saxon and, to a lesser degree, from the Scandinavian modernization paths.     

Audit Committees and Accountability in Local Government: A National Survey

Abstract

Financial scandals in city governments have received increased publicity in recent years. Audit committees have been suggested as a way review and improve standards and procedures for financial accountability. Audit committees assist local government managers in overseeing and monitoring the financial accounting and auditing process. They provide a communication link between elected officials, municipal managers, and independent auditors. This study relies on national survey data to examine the prevalence, role, and composition of audit committees in cities with populations over 65,000 and the conditions affecting their use and effectiveness. Interviews and a brief case study supplement survey data to provide richer detail regarding the performance of audit committees in ensuring improved accountability.     

The Local Government Review: An Inter-Organizational Perspective

This article uses Benson's 'political economy' model of inter-organizational relations to interpret inter-authority relationships during the course of the local government review process in England (1992-95) and in particular to explain the preparedness of large numbers of district councils to support proposals which implied their own destruction. Six more specific influences are identified which led to this outcome:
(i) The changing pattern of expectations and perceived possibilities as the Review progressed.
(ii) The conflictual context of relations within the network linking individual counties and districts, and their respective associations.
(iii) The influence of the districts' national representative body - the ADC - which was arguing strongly for a 'super-district' solution.
(iv) The plausibility of the view of some mergers as de facto takeovers of one authority by another.
(v) The special nature of local authorities as (party) political institutions as well as public sector bureaucracies.
(vi) The rationing of information through central-local networks, in the context of 'unclear rules'.
It is concluded that with certain modifications Benson's framework provides a helpful explanatory mechanism.     

Local Politics,Central Power: The Future of Representative Local Government in England

When Labour took power in 1997, local government was battered and bruised, but it had survived, and indeed retained much of its vitality. What would happen next? Where the Conservatives had used the language of competition, New Labour promoted its policies around an ideology of modernisation, and rapidly introduced a new legal framework, new powers and strong incentives to improve performance. But by 2004, in the run-up to another general election, Labour increasingly emphasised the rights of consumers to choose providers of services, and the value of involving the private sector in public sector provision. There were proposals to take the finance for education and social services out of local authority control. A complex geography of partnerships and networks had developed, which required small executives of salaried councillors, far fewer than the large numbers needed by the committee system. But turnout in local elections remained low, and membership of both Labour and Conservative parties declined. The paper uses a simple stakeholder analysis to show how councillors and local activists were marginalised. It suggests that the government has a choice: it could either accept that the era of multi-skilled councillors responsible for the multi-purpose local authorities is ending, or it could radically rationalise the present quangos, partnerships and other governance structures to re-create it.