Transcript Partnership in Practice - Working with Local Government

Partnership in Practice - Working
with Local Government
Kevin O’Leary, Director of Environment
and Regeneration
Sarah Price, Director of Public Health
Introduction
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Background about Islington
What has worked well
What hasn’t worked
Lessons learned
Going forward
Local Government in Islington
• Ambitious – most improved council
• Liberal Democrat controlled
• Partnership working well established in adult
services, beginning to work well in childrens’
services, leader is a non-exec of PCT
• One Islington – what the community wants and
needs is a driver for coming together and coterminosity is seen as the vehicle for this to
happen
What has worked well
• Being part of the local authority team
• Adding the health dimension to general
discussion e.g. ASBOs, decent homes
standards, licensing, leisure strategy, green
travel plan
• Understanding where the benefits are to both
sides – CPA and health targets coming together
but more powerful in the longer term
• The development of trust
What has happened
• Health priorities for council – smoking, housing,
health of the workforce
• Departmental plans – E&R health section
• Scrutiny – stroke and childrens nutrition
• Smokefree Islington
• The Local Area Agreement
• Housing - overcrowding
What has not worked so well
• Different teams have different levels of
commitment to health issues
• Organisational barriers e.g. CPLNHS
• We don’t always have the same objectives
– Financial position, voluntary sector
• Timescales – it always takes longer than you
think
• Outcomes?
Lessons learned
• You can’t expect everyone to have the same level of
enthusiasm, but you need some champions
• You need some common points of reference
• You have to put the leg work in – but you can’t go to
everything
• Relationships are important
• Politics with a big P
• The municipal timetable
• Clean streets and crime come top of the list
Lessons learned 2
• No ideal structure to make it work – councils are
thinking about what they should look like too
• Can’t be prescriptive
• What should the relationship be in the longer term?
Councils will not take on responsibility and
accountability without the funds to deliver
• Appetite for joined up service delivery e.g. LAA (now
and in the future)
• Your role is not the same as being a director in the
PCT but it is important to have a high profile leader
Going forward – why should you
do it?
• You won’t have the same impact on health
without the local authority
• Residents don’t understand why it doesn’t
all come together
• Without co-terminosity it would be almost
impossible