Lowdown on Community Budgets & City Deals

Irrespective of the political colour of Government, public service reform continues apace in the UK. UNISON members are caught in a vortex of reconfiguration and transformation of public services. The latest incarnation of initiatives to join up or pool the budgets of local authorities and other public services is Community Budgets and its City Deals offshoot. The Commons Library has published a useful note on the progress of the four ‘whole place’ pilots and the nine smaller ‘transformation network’ pilots:
http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN05955/community-budgets-and-city-deals
http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN05955.pdf

Community Budgets backed as new model for public services

The House of Commons Communities and Local Government (CLG) Committee has completed its second inquiry into Community Budgets - an approach whereby services are integrated across public service organisations and municipal boundaries. The CLG Committee report assesses the outcomes of the four Whole Place Community Budget pilots launched in 2010 and concludes that 'community budgeting provides an effective model for the future development of public services and should be rolled out nationally as soon as possible'. This policy has cross party support and, if implemented, could lead to large scale reconfiguration of public services at local level with massive implications for UNISON members and union structures:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmcomloc/163/163.pdf

Community Budgets & public service transformation

Since October 2012, in four areas of England, ‘Community Budgets’ pilots have been underway which could radically transform the funding and structures of public services.
  With local/national cross party support and based on the New Labour concept of ‘total place’, the LGIU reports that ‘whole place community budgets have been lauded by the coalition government as a flagship policy to put major principles of localism, ‘customer first’ service integration, public services reform, and deficit reduction into practice.’ The LGIU has published an important briefing ‘Much ado about…whole place community budgets' reviewing progress made (or lack of it) on the four pilots:  http://www.lgiu.org.uk/briefing/much-ado-aboutwhole-place-community-budgets/ (subscribers only). For more on Community Budgets pilots read here:
http://unisonactive.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/4-community-budget-pilots-confirmed.html