I've spent a few evenings reading through the Total Place pilot evaluation reports, and will write more about them over the next few days.

But to begin with, here's a list of the main problems they identify, most of which are cited time and again in the reports. Some arise from local failures and some from problems in central government.

Reading them, it's almost hard to imagine how anything works at all – and not at all hard to imagine how much waste and inefficiency there currently is.

Structural

  • Organisations failing to share information and work together.
  • Buck-passing between organisations.
  • Targets pulling organisations in different directions.
  • Different data collection methodologies, even when two agencies are working to the same target.
  • The burden of inspection, evaluation and compliance regimes.
  • Complexity in systems causing problems for the public and staff.
  • Lack of co-ordination mechanisms at sub-council level.

Service delivery

  • Limited flexibility to meet needs.
  • Failure to fully analyse problems.
  • Lack of prototyping in service design.
  • Citizens forced to become experts to make the system work for them.
  • Failure to fully and effectively evaluate services.
  • Too many unsatisfactory contacts with the public.
  • A focus on administering a service rather than problem solving.
  • Lack of continuity in relationships between citizens and public sector employees.
  • Poor at dealing with complaints.
  • Slow to notice problems and understand the issues facing citizens.
  • Systems that are built to meet rules and requirements rather than serve people.
  • Services only available in inconvenient locations.

Communication

  • Citizens unaware of the services available.
  • Lack of information about available services.
  • Too many sources of information about the services available.
  • Poor communication between agencies as citizens are transferred between them.

Engagement

  • Not seeing the public as a resource/active participants.
  • Lack of public involvement in service design.
  • Lack of awareness of the people and communities that services are designed for.

Personnel

  • Lack of familiarity with the roles and responsibilities of other agencies.
  • Problems with staff training.
  • Poor motivation and a lack of initiative-taking caused by assumed constraints on what can be done.

Legal

  • Data ownership, storage, confidentiality and sharing protocols.
  • Restrictions on property transfers, for example into a single local property vehicle.
  • Restrictions on staff transfers, for example into a single team dealing with a given issue.
  • Existing out-sourced contracts which lack flexibility.

Technological

  • IT systems which don't communicate with each other.
  • Different data formats.

Financial

  • Ring-fenced budgets forcing money to be spent in areas where it is less cost-effective.
  • Payment tariffs which focus on symptoms rather than causes.
  • Money provided for services rather than outcomes/solutions.
  • Difficulties with pooling/aligning budgets.
  • Disincentives to spend money when the benefits accrue to another agency.

On the basis of this list, the question I'll be considering in the next post will be: Is the British state unfit for purpose?

Politics Blog
, , ,