No one knows how to spend government cash better than those on the ground.
Levelling up, devolution, metro mayors, regional transport authorities, Gordon Brown’s new proposals for the Labour Party.
The right sentiment? Yes. Deliverable by people on the ground? Well ….
To paraphrase a favourite superhero: with great funding settlements comes great responsibility. In many cases the right people just aren’t there to deliver.
Over the last 10 years local government has lost 40% of its work force. Burnout, low pay, a lack of specialist skills. Nowhere is the problem more acute in social care.
In the last LGA survey many councils said they would have to cut staffing numbers further and that was before the inflation crisis.
A conversation with a colleague on the Household Hardship Fund spoke volumes. He said while the £420m fund’s guidance spoke of “discretion” for local authorities the framework DWP put in place was anything but. What’s more, the ‘in-house’ knowledge of engaging with the guidance just didn’t exist.
Consultancies can fill the gap but we are not the long-term solution.
Our responsibility is to leave your organisation better than we found it. To quite literally ‘level up’ your colleagues so they can deliver demanding workloads. Making recommendations as clear and actionable as possible.