Partner Article

Stronger leadership needed if ‘Big Society’ is to work

A new report has suggested that stronger leadership and clarity are needed from the government in order for localism and the ‘Big Society’ to work.

According to business advisory firm Deloitte Eighty per cent of councils do not have a specific strategy in place to address localism.

This is despite its central position in the government’s long term public service reform plans.

Paul Thomson, partner and head of Deloitte’s public sector practice in the North, said: “From the beginning, what the government means by the ‘Big Society’ and localism has, to some extent, lacked clarity.

“This has had consequences: people don’t understand it so they ignore it or they interpret it in a way that suits them. “

The survey which interviewed the chief executives of 15 local authorities, collectively managing over £7.4 billion and employing more than 100,000 people, finds that the engagement of local communities is seen as the primary challenge; in particular how to introduce governance and accountability mechanisms for local activity.

The Deloitte report, A Little Local Difficulty also reveals that the localism agenda could be constrained by a mix of capability challenges, varying degrees of community participation and uncertainty around governance and accountability mechanisms.

This may mean that localism could be limited to a few flagship reforms that have concrete policy direction, such as health and education.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .