This is from the council's own briefing document
9.2.5 The Future Shape of the Council programme aims to develop these green shoots of ‘next practices’ that are already emerging across Council services and within the wider public sector. However, the current shape of the Council means that it is trying to do all of the following:
• Seeking continually to improve the cost and performance of all services
• Working with partners to ensure that priorities are aligned and services combined to achieve the best value for customers and tax payers alike
• Keeping track of how the borough is changing and the experiences of old and new communities within Barnet
• Understanding how to ‘transform’ services so that they fit the busy and complex lives of Barnet residents and businesses
• Working out how to intervene early in situations to prevent the need for costly service provision at a later date
• Finding ways to encourage self-help and develop networks that build social capital in the borough
• Making the best use of resources and dealing with budget constraints
• Constantly looking to the future to anticipate and manage the risk presented by changes in demography, technology, expectations, etc
I'm not going to add a comment right now, I'll let you all draw your own conclusions, based on their past form.
4 comments:
I think it is a really interesting concept and I am looking forward to seeing how this progresses!
"Do call me dave"
At the same time that you left your comment, the "Rubbish" counter on the blog went up by one.
Given that I'd pasted the blog verbatim without comment, how can you think it's "rubbish" and "really interesting" at the same time?
Unless you've been on the Crack again! You'll get the FOF's a bad name
A lot of this report is about packaging. They keep packaging what they are doing as a big burden, at the same time as they also have to present themselves as having done a good job up until now. You can't really square these things. That's why they keep throwing in bogies like waste - yes, we'er drowning in it - and lots of new social care demands: OK, so people are living longer, and there are going to be a few more children around in the next few years. Both good things, no? I think they are IDEOLOGICALLY committed to privatisation; they will use whatever fear tactics they can to sell it to us. I actually find a lot of this report quite sinister. Their view of Barnet residents is:
- they are customers constantly demanding more and more personal attention
- they have complex needs and at the same time must learn to be more resilient
- what we have in common is less and less important; we are atomised.
I'm going to analyse it in more detail when I have time, but I think the report should be widely available (fans of the council be honest: it's not widely available, is it?). If people can find their way through the management speak I think they will find they do not like this vision of the future, and they do not like the solutions that the council is proposing.
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