Council eyes 'next generation' model and retained organisation with 150 staff

Northamptonshire County Council has outlined plans to become a ‘Next Generation Council’ with a small retained organisation that would ‘right source’ outcomes through a federation of bodies spun out from direct council control.

The local authority’s Council Draft Plan says these bodies might be mutuals, community interest companies, social enterprises, public:public, public:private or private businesses.

According to a report on the BBC, the plan – if implemented – could see all but 150 council staff transferred to these organisations.

Northamptonshire said the retained organisation would “oversee ‘right sourcing’ of Safeguarding and Wellbeing outcomes and hold the responsibility for statutory duties, Quality Assurance and the democratic interface between elected members and their constituents.

“The retained Northamptonshire County Council will also be responsible for ensuring we have viable markets that are sustainable and are growing in the right areas for the services our consumers require in areas such as Adult Social Care and Health. It will also ensure we are gathering and using data and knowledge gathered from increasing wider sources to inform commissioning decisions so that we have service providers and partners that can deliver the right outcomes we need for the right price.”

The Draft Council Plan identifies four principal bodies that are likely to be created:

• A Child Protection Services Mutual;
• An Accountable Care Organisation: this would see the council’s care management teams evolve into a separate organisation based on a model most commonly used in the US;
• A Wellbeing Community Organisation: this would be commissioned by the council to deliver public health and wellbeing outcomes either by itself, in partnership or through a network of right sourced suppliers;
• A Northamptonshire Place Shaping Partnership: this would be commissioned to deliver outcomes aimed at improving Northamptonshire as a place, including aspects of planning, environmental and waste disposal and transport and infrastructure delivery.

The county council suggested that these entities would be able to “accelerate innovation, pursue investment from non- traditional sources and to focus on the best ways of delivering positive social impact and outcomes”.

Its Draft Budget document said: “The outcomes we want to achieve remain the same, yet the way we are set up to deliver these, needs to be fundamentally re-drawn. The old model of local government no longer works neither financially nor for the rapidly changing needs and requirements of the people and communities we serve.”

The authority said it would be reviewing how its new approach to delivering outcomes would be reflected in the 2015-16 to 2019- 20 Council Plan that will be published following the consultation on its proposals at full council in February 2015.

Northamptonshire said citizens would interact with the council through a redesigned ‘front door’ and market place for public service. This would in part help meet increasing demand for real-time transactions as well as rising expectations for choice and quality.

The plans have been published as part of Northamptonshire’s 2015/16 budget proposals setting out further savings of £66m.

The council predicted that over the next five years the cost of providing services, due to increases in demand and other pressures, would rise by £99m while the money given to it by government would reduce by £81m.

Cllr Jim Harker, Northamptonshire’s Leader, said: “Our council plan and our previous budgets have made it quite clear that on top of these budget proposals we are working on longer term plans which will make us more financially secure in the future. What this budget does is ensure that while these longer term plans are developed we continue in our work to protect those front line and critical services despite the huge wave of budget reductions we are having to implement.

“Once again those services which are so treasured by our communities and help their wellbeing such as libraries and country parks are protected – which is not the case across the country. Once again we are investing in core safeguarding services to make sure we are still doing all we can to protect society’s most vulnerable.

“But of course when you are taking this sort of money out of services we are having to make tough decisions which we know will not be popular. We are having to look at the fees and charges we apply to people who use our services, partner organisations and others who operate in the county such as utility companies.”

Northamptonshire’s Draft Budget, Council Plan and other documents can be found here.