‘A one public sector approach’- The Borg?
Second aim outlined in the Cabinet Future Shape report (July 2009)
Apologies to those of you who are not Sci Fi fans. The Borg are known to take over other species through forced assimilation. Those of you who have been on the Chief Executives Road Show will have seen one of the slides which refers to the Borg.
‘One public sector’ the second of three aims outlined in the Cabinet Future Shape report. This aim has its origins in what is called Total Place .
Total Place’, is “an ambitious and challenging programme that, in bringing together elements of central government and local agencies within a place, aims to achieve three things:
1. To create service transformations that can improve the experience of local residents and deliver better value
2. To deliver early efficiencies to validate the work
3. To develop a body of knowledge about how more effective cross agency working delivers the above”
In ‘plain english’ terms it means looking at total public sector spend across an authority. To see if money can be spent more effectively to achieve better outcomes.
Total Place reared its head in Sir Michael Bichard’s work on the Operational Efficiency Programme (February 2009) which looked at the scope for efficiency savings in the public sector.
The question is how much will the other public sector bodies ‘buy in’ to this approach to delivering better outcomes for Barnet residents. Will they voluntarily sign up to the ‘one public sector approach’ or will we need the Borg?
