Total Place

Bradford’s new philosophy

Posted on December 17th, 2009

The reason I was keen for Bradford to participate in the Total Place pilot programme was because it offered the chance to pursue some ideas that had been emerging in discussions with colleagues and partners in Bradford over recent months. It was an opportunity to step back and look at the organisations from a customer view point – end to end. And embark on a new philosophy of people and place; before institution.

There was a general view emerging that we needed to move away from a top down, prescribed and initiative led approach to public service delivery in this country to a much more flexible, empowering approach from central government, which allowed local organisations to come together, engage citizens in a more meaningful way and shape public sector interventions to secure the best outcomes for individuals and communities.

I have described this process as rethinking the relationship between citizens and the state at a local level. I think this has been an issue for some time, but the inevitable public spending crisis makes this reconsideration of the role of public services in people’s lives more urgent.

There is a key role, in my view, for local government to lead this process of change. Not by dominating the debate, but by bringing partners together and getting alongside people and communities, helping them to secure their wellbeing. Such a process would be less ‘paternalistic’ and would lead to informed and empowered citizens exercising real choice in the type, design and delivery of local interventions. This would also have the potential to shift the balance between the public and private spheres of peoples’ lives with more emphasis on personal responsibility.

A holistic view of the system is required. And Bradford is building a long term strategy, working with partners to create a method we can continue to use, in a holistic way. In Bradford, for example, research has shown a small proportion of citizens plan to re-offend in time for Christmas, because they have little (or no) outside support. The majority are re-offenders, costing upwards of £200,000. In cases like this, a holistic view is all the more important – taking an overall view.

Total Place offered the opportunity not just to test and develop the approach within a national pilot framework but to build a local methodology for deconstructing public services, putting service users centre stage and systemically improving the way we do things to secure better outcomes and/or reduce costs. What makes the Total Place approach different is that it allows us to build a robust business case to justify local action and to prove to government the case for change.

All of this is quite theoretical at this stage and it is early days in our pilot work. The signs, however, are positive with exciting and powerful issues starting to emerge and a real desire from Whitehall to engage in the process.

Tony Reeves, Chief Executive, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council

Category: leadership