Total Place

Making the most of ‘whole place’ Community Budgets

18 October 2011 | John Tizard

The upcoming ‘whole place’ Community Budget pilots need to focus on delivery, not on making a case for change that has already been made Read more

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Public services white paper: how open, how radical?

11 July 2011 | Kate Blatchford

The PM’s  launch of the open public services white paper has created a wide range of challenges to the way services are delivered   Read more

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A brave approach for Scotland, by Don Peebles

7 April 2011 | Don Peebles

The silence is deafening.  Amidst the gently developing election ‘noise’ in Scotland where party manifestos are now beginning only slowly to emerge, a little known independent inquiry (the Christie Commission) is quietly carrying out its work on the future delivery of public services. Read more...

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An accounting challenge, by John Tizard

10 January 2011 | John Tizard

The government may have dropped the national drive for ‘Total Place’ but increasingly local authorities and their public sector partners are either adopting or exploring the opportunities for what might be seen as Total Place approaches. Read more...

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Have FDs been found out? By John Tizard

12 December 2010 | John Tizard

The Localis survey of local authority finance directors showed an amazing insight into local authority management if it is accurate.  Can it be accurate? Surely not. Read more...

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D-day for localism, by John Tizard

5 December 2010 | John Tizard

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Entente frugal, by Judy Hirst

4 November 2010 | Judy Hirst

Necessity is the mother of invention. So, with revenue funding for local government cut by 26%, all sorts of things that were once unimaginable suddenly look eminently doable. Read more...

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Community budgets: a compromise too far, by John Tizard

26 October 2010 | John Tizard

Last week, in advance of the Comprehensive Spending Review, I wrote a piece for the Public Finance blog contemplating whether it would rejuvenate Total Place. Post CSR, my blunt answer has to be ‘no’. Read more...

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Will the CSR rejuvenate Total Place? By John Tizard

18 October 2010 | John Tizard

Speculation and leaks abound about the content of Wednesday’s Comprehensive Spending Review.  Until the chancellor has spoken and the Treasury has published the statement and accompanying documents, we will not know the precise content. I suspect that it could be two months or so before we comprehend the detail of what the review means for specific services and the people they serve. Read more...

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Time and the place, by Barry Maginn

4 October 2010 | Barry Maginn

Over the course of the previous Labour government, service provision became increasingly centralised with little room for variation to accommodate local priorities. While Labour ministers eventually began to accept that funding should be more flexible and focused on the needs of service users, it is only now, with the new coalition government committed to decentralising power, that there is a real opportunity to consider radical alternatives. Read more...

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