What can we learn from the Community Budget pilots?

Tony Wilson

Inclusion

David MacDougall

Avanta

Introductions

 Tony Wilson

Director of Policy Inclusion

 David MacDougall

Head of Research & Strategic Development, Avanta

Background to Community Budgets

 What are Community Budgets?

    Less ring fencing and direction over budgets Localisation and redefining service delivery Pooling and aligning of budgets of local partners Builds on LAA’s, Total Place, co-design pilots, Family Intervention Projects etc   Initially, with a particular focus on supporting Families With Multiple Problems (FWMP)...

... With new pilots looking much wider and/ or deeper

Why?

Long-running concerns around:  Multiple funding streams and accountabilities  Overlapping or duplicated provision  Services organised by provider rather than user/ beneficiary  ... And Families with Multiple Problems a perfect example!

Community Budgets and FWMP in Numbers

 £8bn estimated spend on FWMP – ‘ welfare millionaires ’  120,000 FWMP in England  First 16 pilot areas cover 28 Local Authorities – 25% of English population  10,000 families supported by end of this Parliament  ... But 3.9m households where no-one in work

What are they hoping achieve?

Step change in the way that services are commissioned and funded – route for delivering on localism and devolution Testing ground for Payment By Results (PBR) Repositions policy to consider models of non traditional family New approaches – prevention, early intervention, outcomes

  

An in-depth example

Avanta is working in partnership with Manchester City Council to maximise synergies between the Work Programme and local services through the joining up of local service provision and funding.

This concentrates on helping workless families through targeted interventions designed to break the cycle of intergenerational unemployment and chaotic lifestyles.

Stabilizing chaotic lifestyles is the key. Addressing barriers including addiction, homelessness, skills and other interrelated barriers. A “family Solution” is required to break the cycle of benefit dependency.

Priorities for Avanta

Culture: Contestability Early Intervention Not more Money! Bonds and PBR Data Sharing Free Schools

What lessons?

 Best Community Budgets: – Build on existing partnerships – Align objectives and accountabilities, not (just) funding – – Based on shared evidence, systems and data Strong local leadership – buy-in So... not about accounting and finance – focus on families: “Community Budgets as a term is misleading. It is not about one big budget nor is about the whole community. It is about making services more effective and efficient for those with the greatest need”

The next wave...

Broader: four “Whole Place” Community Budgets:  Cheshire West and Chester  Greater Manchester  West London  Essex Deeper: ten “Neighbourhood” Budgets:  Neighbourhood control, launching Apr 13

Implications for the future

 Radically different public service model?

 Maybe... But even if not: – – – – More focus on sharing practice and working across sectors More co-design, co-commissioning Better and more consistent use of data Evaluation – understanding what works, but more importantly why?

Which means:

 Developing innovative and flexible partnerships between the private, public and voluntary sector  Need to be more ambitious and to move at a faster pace to reflect public sector reform and the need to gain greater value for money.

 From intervention to saving to re-thinking service provision

Discussion and Questions

Conclusions

Tony Wilson Inclusion

Contact Details

David MacDougall Avanta Tony. [email protected]

[email protected]

M: 07504 054407 M: 07824816391