Long term aims for Total Place

Now the dust has settled on the Total Place pilots, until conclusions are aired in the Budget, the next question is, inevitably, ‘what next?’

There are various answers. One is that nothing happens next unless the Government coughs up a few bob for another round of pilots, and councils come rushing to the trough in the time-honoured tradition of only responding to initiatives with cash attached.

An alternative response will come from those councils and their partners which maintain they are already involved in Total Place because they say so, even though their projects were around long before the words ever existed.

Yet a third response comes from those councils and partner agencies who not only grasp the philosophy behind Total Place but are evangelical about it, and are already deep into implementing its principles on the ground, and certainly do not need the Government.

A fourth group, of mainly Conservative councils, will regard Total Place as an interfering New Labour plot, even though they agree wholeheartedly with its aims.

In short, there is no single answer to ‘what happens next’, because while most authorities will claim they are signed up to the principles, in practice, the roll out is extremely mixed. It is also true that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and that while a thousand flowers need not bloom, there will certainly be various paths.

But the real nub of the issue is just how ambitious the public sector should be with Total Place. If the concept is to be a repeat of the shared services debate, trundling along at a snail’s pace and easily prone to be knocked off course because managers and members find it too difficult, then it will be a failure.

If it is just to be a selection of projects, then its potential will be squandered.

If, as Sir Michael Bichard has stated on many occasions, the current system is inefficient and expensive, then Total Place needs to be ambitious, bedded into the corporate psyche and here to stay not for a year or two but for 10 years.

The answer, therefore, is not ‘what next?’ but ‘where do we wish to be in 2020?’