Towards a Brave New World

In these tough financial times Local Authorities are under immense pressure to provide the same for less. In reality, the very fabric and identity of the Local Authority is changing. Savings, efficiencies and cuts to services both now and in the near future mean that the scope and range of local authority activity will be dramatically and permanently curtailed. It remains to be seen whether these structural changes will prove a catalyst in translating the government’s ‘Big Society’ rhetoric into the reality of families, networks, neighbourhoods and communities with more power and more responsibility to help themselves.

Many LA employees are surely going to pay for this shift of power with their jobs. However, the brave new LA world that emerges from this structural upheaval will present massive opportunities for those who survive to provide more for less – if strategic leaders model, embrace and facilitate the development of wider collaborative networks and 21st century ways of working, listening and communicating.

Both David Cameron and Paul Blantern, the Chief Executive at Northamptonshire County Council, have asked for ideas from public sector workers regarding our current ‘Spending Challenge’ or ‘how to save money and deliver more for less’. It seems appropriate somehow, as Harnessing Technologies Manager, to blog my two-penneth worth on the subject over the next few days – adding my own views to the local and national crowdsourcing pots.