WIREDGOV

The CBI called on the Government to step up the pace of action on community budgets, which could save local authorities around £18bn annually in England alone.

In a joint report with magazine The Municipal Journal, the CBI highlights the benefits of sharing resources and collaborating at a local level. It argues this will allow the Government to tackle complex social issues by coordinated action between health, education, police, probation and welfare services.

In Joining-up, joining-in, the UK’s leading business group calls for the Government to increase the number of whole place pilots and to introduce a presumption in favour of pooled budgets. If Whitehall departments are unable to produce the necessary step-change, the Government should consider requiring them to set a minimum percentage of their next funding settlement to be pooled.

Susan Anderson, CBI Director of Public Services and Skills, said:

“Community budgets have the potential to transform our public services, while saving taxpayers money.

“But for too long vested interests, unwilling partners, and a lack of political will have meant community budgets have yet to break out of the pilot phase.

“The Government has made an encouraging start, launching new pilots focusing on families with complex needs, but it should now step up the pace of action on the community budgets programme so its benefits can be reaped across the UK.”

The report includes contributions from key stakeholders, highlighting the benefits of community budgets. It shows how co-ordinated action at community level results in more joined-up services and shows how there is scope to do much more. For example, the case of a single family with complex social needs costing the taxpayer up to £300,000 a year, involving several government agencies. Meanwhile, in Dorset and Poole, the health charity the King’s Fund estimates that £18 million could be saved a year if just 15% of older people were able to receive medical treatment in their own homes or the community rather than unplanned hospital visits.

Michael Burton, editorial director of the Municipal Journal, said:

“We are keen to promote the community budgets and the 'whole place' agenda which is the future of local service provision. It means better joined-up services and greater efficiencies as this report with the CBI shows. But there needs to be much greater Whitehall buy-in to break down the departmental silos and help drive this agenda from the top as well as locally at the bottom.”

Adrian Ringrose, Chief Executive of Interserve and Chairman of the CBI’s Public Services Strategy Board, added:

“A joined-up approach will reduce duplication and transactional costs and reap benefits in terms of shared management, assets and services.

“But the real prize in financial terms is the social return on investment - the reduced cost to society from having more people in work and fewer families in crisis.”

Sir Merrick Cockell, Chairman of the Local Government Association, commented:

"The whole place community budget pilots present a once in a generation opportunity for really radical reform to put local communities in control of local services.

“Local leaders need to grasp this opportunity to show Whitehall that there really is a much better way to run public services."

Contributors to the report include:

• Eric Pickles MP, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
• Hilary Benn, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
• Sir Merrick Cockell, Chairman of the Local Government Association
• Sir Hugh Orde, President of the Association of Chief Police Officers
• Adrian Ringrose, CEO of Interserve and Chairman of the CBI’s public services strategy board
• Sir Stephen Bubb, CEO of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations

Notes to Editors:

The CBI is the UK's leading business organisation, speaking for some 240,000 businesses that together employ around a third of the private sector workforce. With offices across the UK as well as representation in Brussels, Washington, Beijing and Delhi the CBI communicates the British business voice around the world.