LGiU Policy Briefings
Find a briefing:
LGiU briefings are available for all elected members and officers in LGiU member authorities. Check if your authority are members of the LGiU. Briefings can also be downloaded at a cost to non-members.
House of Commons debate : Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill 2013
June 19, 2013
* This briefing highlights the key issues affecting local councils raised in the second reading of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill 2013.
* The Bill received general support for its overall ambitions. Criticisms focussed on the efficacy of the new generic rather than ‘behaviour-specific’ framework. The details are now being considered by Committee.
* The anti-social behaviour powers will be available to unitary, county and district councils. Lead members and officers responsible for social care, children and young people, neighbourhoods/communities, environmental services and housing will all be interested in their development.
Outcomes of Ofsted school inspections – June 2013 data
June 19, 2013
• There is a noticeable rise (10 percentage points) in the proportion of formerly “satisfactory” schools achieving a “good” grade on reinspection under the September 2012 Ofsted School Inspection Framework;
• There is no evidence that Academy conversion increases the chance that a school’s Ofsted inspection grade will improve or stay the same on reinspection in comparison to LA maintained schools; if anything the evidence points to LA maintained schools achieving the same or improved grades on reinspection in comparison to Academies; and
• There has been a marked increase over the last year in the number of local authorities (51 – 34 percentage points) with fewer than 20% of their schools graded satisfactory/required to improve or inadequate.
Spending Review 2013 – Preview
June 18, 2013
• The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will announce the outcome of his Spending Review setting out departmental spending for 2015-16 on 26 June.
• He he has announced that half of the departments have settled early including the Department for Communities and Local Government (though not covering local government funding) representing a third of the overall savings being sought.
• The Institute for Fiscal Studies says that local government could face cuts up to 12%. While the prospects for significant decentralisation of additional funding through the Single Local Growth Fund and Community Budgets looks slim.
• This briefing will be of interest to all executive members, cabinet portfolio members and senior officers at all tiers of local government.
NHS Reconfigurations – beyond opposition to a proper debate
June 18, 2013
The NHS Confederation, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and National Voices have published Changing care: improving quality, a paper seeking to reframe the debate about NHS reconfigurations. The paper:
• analyses the types and drivers of reconfiguration
• advises NHS managers how to handle reconfigurations more effectively
• asks politicians to support major service changes when there is a strong case for change and significant support from local communities.
This briefing will be of interest to all councils, and particularly to those with health scrutiny and health and wellbeing board functions.
Government Response to the CLG Select Committee Report on Implementation of Welfare Reform by Local Authorities
June 17, 2013
The Government’s response the CLG Select Committee’s report on local authority implementation of welfare reform was published on 6 June. Among the items on which the Committee focused and expressed concerns were direct payments to tenants of housing benefit, the transfer of parts of the Social Fund to local authorities, the localisation of Council Tax Support, the ‘bedroom Tax’, and new administrative and financial burdens.
LGiU weekly policy summary – 14th June
June 14, 2013
This briefing includes:
- news from the LGiU team
- a review of recently published briefings
- local government news this week
- upcoming LGiU events
On Your Radar June 2013
June 14, 2013
On Your Radar provides regular updates on information from central government and other key organisations; looks back over the last period, ahead at what could be hitting the headlines and comments on issues relevant to local government that will be influencing the political landscape over the coming months.
Readers will have noted that we update information on key areas of interest from time to time, particularly consultations from government and other bodies, progress of legislation and select committee inquiries. From May’s edition these updates have been provided in each edition of On Your Radar.
This edition contains:
Upcoming briefings
Consultations update
Select Committees: reports, current inquiries and government responses
Legislation update – summary of progress of relevant legislation
Looking ahead to the Spending Review
The LGO and the future of local accountability: An LGiU Inquiry
June 12, 2013
This briefing outlines the findings of a new LGiU report, The LGO and the future of local accountability: An LGiU Inquiry. The LGiU carried out a consultation of the local government sector to find out how the Ombudsman might better use the information it holds to enhance local accountability. The report looks at how we can understand and assess the Ombudsman’s current offer, as well as how the Ombudsman might develop the provision of its support. The findings will be used to inform its future strategy.
This briefing will prove relevant to monitoring officers and members of overview and scrutiny committees.
School funding arrangements and changes for 2014-15
June 12, 2013
The DfE has published details of school funding arrangements and changes for 2014-15, along with findings of the review of new arrangements introduced in 2013-14, which inform the changes. This is part of the school funding reform process preceding the planned introduction of a national funding formula in the next spending review period.
The new social care: strength-based approaches
June 12, 2013
This briefing summarises and comments on a new pamphlet from the RSA, The new social care: strength-based approaches, produced in collaboration with Shared Lives Plus which examines strengths-based approaches to social care in light of changing social and policy trends.
Contributors to the document include Paul Burstow MP, Steve Reed MP and David Burbage (leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead). The full list can be found by opening the link to the pamphlet.
The pamphlet is particularly timely, given the Care Bill is now going through its parliamentary stages and has as part of its objectives the strengthening of asset based approach to social care, building on the experiences and skills of service users, their families and communities.
The briefing will be of particular interest to commissioners of social care, those individuals and groups involved in shared lives schemes inside the council and in the community and to councillors responsible for social care.
