Tag Archives: communities
Scrutiny: unleashing the power of individual voices
Jessica Crowe, Executive Director of the Centre for Public Scrutiny, talks to LGiU about what makes ‘good scrutiny’.
Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill 2013
* This briefing summarises the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill 2013 which is now before the House of Commons.
* The Bill introduces a suite of new powers, rationalising and extending local authorities’ capacity to tackle anti-social behaviour. It also gives victims and local people a greater say in the approaches being taken locally.
* Other measures in the Bill relate to dangerous dogs, forced marriages and firearms, and policing standards in England and Wales.
* 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 need to keep abreast of the changes.
Social Justice: transforming lives one year on
* The document: Social Justice: transforming lives one year on (available here), is an update to the original document published in 2012. It is in part a progress report and in part a re-iteration of the guiding principles of the Government’s strategy for social justice.
*Key to the strategy is local delivery, with civil society playing a central role. There is an update on progress in developing what is described as a ‘social investment market’, including the creation of social impact bonds and the Big Society Capital Group.
*The strategy is aimed at families, young people, helping people into work, and disadvantaged adults, with a particular emphasis in the last of these on tackling drug addiction and rehabilitating ex-offenders.
*This briefing will be of particular interest to members and officers involved with children and families, social care, housing, employment issues, voluntary and community groups, and strategy.
Individual Electoral Registration: An Update
The introduction of Individual Electoral Registration has begun, and the first steps are being taken to ensure the scheme is in place by the end of 2014, with some important landmarks this summer.
This briefing provides a snapshot of the current position, and revises the outline of what can be expected over the next 2-3 years given in an LGiU briefing in August 2012 (which can be found through the accompanying link).
It will be of interest to all elected members, and officers with corporate community and electoral responsibilities.
Much ado about…whole place community budgets
‘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. They also tend to be supported enthusiastically by local government in both community leadership and local results delivery roles. This briefing looks at the progress made (or lack of it) on community budgets since the submission of the four whole area pilots business cases in October 2012 – covering the:
- Business cases themselves;
- ‘Scaling up’ and analytic work undertaken by, amongst others, the LGA and NAO;
- Response from the government around the Budget; the launch of the government’s ‘transformation network’; and
- Issues being raised regarding the role of community budgets in the impending Spending Review, due to be announced on June 26 2013.
It then considers the implications of the results to date for local government as a whole, and individually. This briefing will be of interest to senior politicians, officials and our partners across the local government ‘family’, as well as specifically for policy officers involved in community budget and related work streams.
2013 local elections & the five key questions
There’s just a week to go until the 2013 local elections. May 2nd 2013 will see elections in all the county councils, plus seven unitary authorities and one Welsh unitary authority. Interest in local elections tends to see them …
The Big Lunch: Feeding Community Spirit
Since 2009, LGiU has been analysing the social impact of The Big Lunch. We wanted to understand where Lunches took place, who participated and the difference that this made in communities. What we discovered was profound. Through the simple act of …
User-driven commissioning – report by Disability Rights UK and Shaping Our Lives
A recent report considers three means of enabling users of health and social care services to have greater control of how services are commissioned: pooling personal budgets; drawing on service users’ own choices and insights to inform commisioning; and developing peer support from service-user and staff-led mutual organisations.
C’llr Awards 2013: Judges’ Special Award for Contribution to Local Government
Political achievements need not always represent a momentous turn of events. Not every political victory is a landslide election or a transformative legislative development. Sometimes, political progress is far subtler than this; incremental rather instant. The Judges’ Special Award goes …
Rural Statement 2012
* This briefing summarises the Rural Statement 2012 which sets out the Government’s agenda for rural England. It has three priorities: growing the rural economy, engaging with rural communities and supporting rural people’s quality of life.
* The Statement highlights Defra’s role, championing rural needs across Government and engaging rural stakeholders. It aims to enable local authorities to deliver services more effectively and, above all, empower communities to identify and address their own local priorities.
* All local councils with rural catchment areas will want to ensure that they have the strategic mechanisms in place to take advantage of the Statement’s broad, mainstreamed approach.
