June 2015

For Councillors from the LGIU

www.lgiu.org.uk

Local growthBringing jobs to Essex

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Reserves dayServing community and country

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Domestic violenceTeam supports women

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deSpecIal featureElections

SpecIalfeatureElections

the c’llrprofIleGreg Clark: Communities Secretary

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Contents

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10 Special feature

Elections10 Jonathan Carr-West

reviews the result

12 Chris Game analyses the local election outcomes

15 An overview of the new council map of England

16 The map of council control

18 Ones to watch

19 Behind the scenes with two returning officers

20 Stories from election night

22 What have we learned from the opinion polls?

3 First wordsJonathan Carr-West on the elections aftermath

4 Chris Game’s local government marginalia

5 LGiU Impact report

6 Politics Carol Grant on devolution plans

7 Media WatchThe press and the elections

8 ProfileNew Communities Secretary, Greg Clark

24 Children’s servicesAward winner on putting families first

25 Domestic violenceOne-stop shop supports victims

26 Local growthBringing jobs to Essex

27 EnvironmentResilience is the way forward

28 Tackling extremismWaltham Forest’s Prevent programme

29 Health and CarePioneering innovation

30 Reserves dayServing community and country

31 Local economiesConference centre’s business boost

32 Another viewAlan Waters says keep the Human Rights Act

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Editor Alan Pickstock Deputy Editor Jane Sankarayya Design Whatever Design LtdCover image Dominic Lipinski /PA Wire

Local Government Information UnitThird Floor, 251 Pentonville Road, Islington, London N1 9NG020 7554 2800cllr@lgiu.org.uk

First words

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Devolution doors swing open

The new Conservative government brings with it a commitment to devolution. Jonathan-Carr West welcomes this approach but says it should include real fiscal devolution to local government.

It has been a tumultuous few weeks in British politics since the last edition of c’llr came out. We have seen the

Conservatives win a Parliamentary majority for the first time since 1992; they have tightened their grip on local government and taken control of the LGA. Meanwhile, Labour has failed to make many gains, with notable exceptions like Cheshire West and Chester and the Liberal Democrats have lost nearly half the councils they controlled and a third of their councillors. The general election result caught many people by surprise, and we should put our hands up and admit that in this magazine too we were discussing the possibility of a hung parliament and what that would mean for local government. That feels a long time ago now. There's much more analysis of the election results later in this edition, but one of the things we can see with the benefit of hindsight is that closer attention to previous local elections and to what the polls were actually saying, rather than what the newspapers said they were saying, would have given us a clearer idea of how the election was going to pan out.

What does it all mean for local government? Since assuming office, the government has left no doubt that it sees devolution as a key project for the coming parlia-mentary term. George Osborne's first major speech was a return to Manchester and a return to his Northern Powerhouse theme, promising cities greater control over transport, housing, skills and

healthcare in return for establishing elected mayors. The appointment of Greg Clark as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government underlines the stra-tegic importance of this approach, bringing CLG to the forefront of it for the first time.

At LGiU, we welcome this commit-ment to devolution. But we would like it to go further: to include real fiscal devolution, of the sort that our members tell us they want and need. And we would like it to go wider: to include counties and other non-metropolitan areas. We await the legislation, but at present counties are promised some variation of the city deal programme. It's important

that we find ways for that to encom-pass the same level of ambition that we see in the major cities.

We believe that for devolution to work in very different parts of the

country and to avoid a bureaucratic logjam in Whitehall, the govern-ment needs to adopt a more open,

deal based approach, so the task now is to think about how that can be achieved within the parameters set out by the legislation. We are working with councils across the

country and lobbying govern-ment to that effect.

That's a job for the weeks and months ahead but I would like to offer one further thought on the election

before we move on. Across the country hundreds of new council-lors have been elected and are now getting to grips with the nature of public office, but we should also spare a thought for the hundreds of members who have lost their seats. That's the nature of politics of course: it's a brutal business and elected politicians, by definition, put themselves up for the judg-ment of the public. But we should not forget that, whatever their politics, each of those defeated councillors has devoted a huge amount of their time and energy to public service. Without that dedi-cation, the country would, quite literally, grind to a halt. So while we should welcome all those new councillors, we should also take a moment to mark our gratitude to all those who are councillors no more.

Jonathan Carr-West is LGiU’s chief executive

“ We believe that for devolution to work in very different parts of the country the government needs to adopt a more open, deal based approach”

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Beware the praise of your enemies”, Pope Francis was warned by those suspicious of the effusive

reception his installation received from the non-Catholic world. I half-imagined Eric Pickles similarly advising Greg Clark, as the warmest welcome of his appointment as Communities Secretary seemed to come from local government and his political opponents.

“One of the few ministers who’d ‘walk the talk’”, “track record as localism champion”, and suchlike – from people who most certainly don’t share Clark’s unshakable belief in the elected mayoral model of city leadership.

I’m agnosticish myself, but I recall a recent Northern Echo article in which Clark mused about future mayors of great towns and cities having statues erected by public demand acknowledging

Chris Game’s

Mayoral statues

arginalia

their achievements. Now this bit I do like, for, sad fellow that I am, I have a modest photographic collec-tion of mayoral statues in which I know you’ll be interested. Here, then, are a few favourites:

1. GEORGE ARMITSTEAD (plus wife, wife’s parasol, and dog) – Mayor, Riga (Latvia), 1901-12. British-born engineer and entrepreneur, who as mayor so transformed Riga that he was offered, and declined, the mayoralty of St Petersburg.

2. FIORELLO (‘Little Flower’) LA GUARDIA – Mayor, New York, 1934-45. Wonderfully dynamic Greenwich Village statue of perhaps NY’s most charismatic, reforming, domineering (and diminutive – under 5 feet tall) mayor, capturing him passionately mid-stride, mid-speech, mid-gesticulation.

3. JAMES MICHAEL CURLEY – four-term Mayor, Boston, 1914-50. Hugely popular, albeit corrupt, Irish Catholic, whose decades of high public office earned him two bronze statues near the waterfront Faneuil Hall: the man of authority, standing, wearing a campaign button, and the compassionate man of the people, seated casually on a nearby park bench.

4. CHARLES BULS – Mayor, Brussels, 1881-99. Brussels’ ‘not-the-Mannekin-Pis’ statue, though it’s nearby at the Grand Place and water is involved. Buls is best remembered for saving historic Brussels from the edifice complex of Leopold II, and his ‘sit by me’ statue has the flamboyantly moustachioed mayor seated by a fountain, while his dog attempts to interrupt his reading.

5. CHEN YI – Mayor, Shanghai, 1949-58. Military commander, Shanghai’s first Communist mayor and subsequently China’s Foreign Minister. Atop its unsubtle red granite plinth his statue surveys the Bund promenade and what became the scene of December’s tragic New Year’s Eve stampede.

6. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN – Mayor, Birmingham, 1873-76, and yet the statue of my university’s founder is not in his home city but in the House of Lords library – SHAME!

Chris Game is with the Institute of Local Government Studies

Impact ReportHighlights from our work over the past few months include:

May2015

Members

Publications

Events

MediaNational

Regional Trade

Social

Visit the members area on our website:www.lgiu.org.uk/members

We've made member visits to:• Uttlesford District Council• Bristol City Council for an event on resilience• Kent for the Joint Chiefs planning session• Cambridge City Council for a roundtable on councils and house building

Welcome to our new members and subscribers including:• Bedford Borough Council• Leicester City Council• Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership• Education Welfare Advisory and Support Service

11 learning and development seminars

2 General Election Policy Officer roundtables

Key to Care: Commissioning adult social care in Norfolk

2 care provider failure workshops in London and Leeds for the project we are working on with ADASS

The Guardian, Financial Times (1), ft.com (3)

Jonathan Carr-West’s comments on George Osborne’s devolution deals appeared in Financial Times and ft.com

12 regional press hits since 1st April

29 trade hits since 1st April, including LE2015 coverage; welcoming new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, and commentary on George Osborne's devolution plans. LE2015 hits in MJ, Public Finance, lgcplus.com, LocalGov, Room151.co.uk, The Public Sector Executive

Our live coverage blog for LE2015 was popular with 2,466 unique page views

Twitter exposure of over 281,000 during the local election period

Our #TheOtherElection was picked up widely on social media with 783 Tweets sent by others

Over 20 new posts on the local democracy blog on issues including LE2015, GE2015 and health and social care integration

Essential Guide to Public Service Mutuals

Top member briefings:

1. Involving communities in difficult decisions

2. Manifestos: Conservative, Labour, Liberal

Democrats

3. Welfare reform: pre-general election special

4. Update on approaches to integrated care

5. Infrastructure Act

Our local election commentary garnered extensive national and trade coverage

Top 3 blogs posts:

1. Live blog coverage of local elections

2. Local election map of results

3. Local elections the results

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Politics

Two-speed devolution?

As Eric Pickles departs and Greg Clark arrives, Carol Grant says it’s another new appointment that may have the biggest impact on local government.

So farewell then Mr Pickles. Few have mourned his passing from the Cabinet. He never set out to make

friends, so there’s another tick on his final list of achievements.

My only regret at his passing is that he was that rare beast, a Cabinet minister who hadn’t been to public school. However I now have high hopes for the latest working class lad made good, Jim O’Neill. He has been appointed by the Chancellor as Commercial Secretary to the Treasury. One could argue that he’s now the real driver behind local government policy rather than Greg Clark, the new Secretary of State for Commu-nities and Local Government.

Mr O’Neill, son of a postman and former chief economist at Goldman Sachs, chaired the City Growth Commission which formed the basis of George Osborne’s proposals for the Northern Powerhouse. He will be responsible for public sector infrastructure and investment.

Devolution is now well and truly on the agenda. After the debates around Scottish independence, the dominance of the SNP in the General Election has further highlighted the case for devolution to English regions. As I wrote in the last edition, some areas have got off to a flying start, notably Greater Manchester. And now the Core Cities – the eight biggest English urban economies outside London, plus Glasgow and Cardiff – have launched their Devo-lution Declaration within a week of the General Election results and as the Conservatives retook control of the LGA.

A Devolution Bill is expected in the next Queen’s Speech. There are still points of issue – elected mayors for one – but things are moving fast. And as speed is gathering, some people are left behind.

Although urban political leader-ship is mainly a Labour affair, the national party is in disarray. It was wrongfooted by Osborne’s confident campaign to promote the Northern Powerhouse idea and there is no sign that it is ready to play catch up. There is a message about ambi-tion and aspiration that Labour singularly failed to seize during the election campaign. Appointing Jim O’Neill was a shrewd move by the Chancellor, for all sorts of reasons. Talking to the FT recently

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about the Northern Powerhouse Plan, he emphasised that the long term measure of success would be ‘reducing deprivation in large areas of Manchester and other northern cities’ rather than just putting up shiny buildings.

The other players in danger of missing out are districts and coun-ties. Their disquiet at the speed of the urban agenda was evident in the issue of the first joint statement from the County Councils’ Network and the District Councils’ Network

on the same day as the Devolution Declaration. They want in on the action too, yet so far they appear to be on the back foot.

Non-urban areas face their own share of problems with poor infrastructure, weak educational attainment and big skills gaps. What they lack so far is a

“ Are we heading for a two speed approach, where the louder, brasher, more confident Core Cities steal a march on their genteel rural neighbours?”

“ Are we heading for a two speed approach, where the louder, brasher, more confident Core Cities steal a march on their genteel rural neighbours?”

united voice and they are hampered by what looks like an increasingly antiquated two-tier structure. The Core Cities are likely to bow to Osborne’s demand for a single point of accountability in exchange for greater devolution of powers, but it’s not an option for districts and counties. I cannot imagine that anyone has the appetite for another round of debate on the merits of unitary government.

Are we heading for a two-speed approach, where the louder, brasher, more confident Core Cities steal a march on their genteel rural neighbours? Will it be a 21st century version of the industrial revolu-tion with the rural poor migrating to jobs and opportunities in the nearest urban centre? Tomorrow’s dark satanic mill may well be made of glass and steel.

Carol Grant is a director of Grant Riches

Chancellor George Osborne (2nd right) and Commercial secretary Jim O'Neill (2nd left) talk to workers during a visit to Farnworth Tunnel electrification works in Bolton. C

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Media watch

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So was it the Hastings Observer wot won it? Despite their parlous state, with plunging sales and a deeply uncertain future in the digital era, David Brindle says that newspapers played a key role in the May elections – with the local press breaking new and controversial ground in political advertising.

A ll the smart talk ahead of the campaign was that the key battles would be fought on

social media. Young voters would be won over by the sharing of US-style “attack” videos, made with none of the constraints placed on conventional broadcasts, while the sharpest and timeliest debate would be on political websites and incessant tweeting by candidates would be both de rigueur and decisive.

In the event, new media did have its moments: the online Huffington Post won plaudits for exploring issues like mental health and housing that were getting little exposure elsewhere; Ed Miliband’s interview on Russell Brand’s YouTube channel attracted 1.2 million viewers, few of whom were likely regulars in the Newsnight audience; and no doubt Buzzfeed’s take on the campaign (“17 Hot Men who Really Want You to Vote in the Election”, “13 Incredibly Awkward Pictures of Politicians Standing in Front of

Unfortunate Signs”) succeeded in its own inimitable way.

But the most striking lesson of the campaign was the continuing influence of print. The national titles rose to the challenge with unprecedented partisanship – even by the standards of the Sun’s notorious boast that it was its own efforts “wot won it” for John Major in 1992 – and one or two broadsheet journalists may reflect on their handiwork with not a little discom-fort. Eyebrows were certainly raised in the trade at The Times’s splash on election eve that David Cameron thought Miliband was “trying to con” his way into No 10.

By sales, the nationals divided more than four to one against Labour. That those sales were down almost 40 per cent since the 2010 elections seemed to matter little: witness the consternation in Labour circles when the Independent (sales now fewer than 60,000 a day) came out for continuation of a Conserva-tive-Liberal Democrat coalition.

Yet it was in the regional press, by tradition broadly neutral at

election time, that there was most dispute and recrimination. This was because a significant number of local weeklies decided ahead of polling day to accept paid-for “wraparounds” – four-page advertisements replacing but resembling the publication’s usual front and back pages - from one or other of the two main parties. Predictably, the papers concerned were overwhelmingly in marginal constituencies.

In places like Lancaster, Eastbourne and Lincolnshire, the wraparounds were bought by the

Conservatives. On the Wirral and in localities such as Hendon and Finchley, north London, they were a Labour initiative.

In all cases, the wraparounds carried a strapline denoting an advertisement feature or announcement – though some of these were more prominent than others. In a few cases, editors took the opportunity inside their paper to make clear they remained politically inde-pendent. But many readers will at least initially have mistaken the advertisements, set out as news pages below the title’s normal masthead, for usual content.

The decision of the Hastings Observer to accept a Conservative wraparound, in common with six other titles owned by Johnston Press, sparked a local protest and an e-petition calling for an apology from the paper.

Local resident Colin Gibson, who initiated the petition, accused the Observer of “prostituting your front page as a paid advertorial … disguised as news at a crucial time in the general election”. The paper’s editor-in-chief, Gary Shipton, wrote in response: “Had a similar request been received from

any other lawful political party, they too would have been entitled to purchase the advertisement on the same terms and conditions.” The Hastings and Rye constituency, which was a top Labour

target, stayed Conservative on election day.

Opinions in the industry were divided. Matt Cornish, a former editor of both the Daventry Express and Craven Herald, tweeted that the wraparounds were “inexcus-able” and that he would have refused to carry one.

On the HoldTheFrontPage website, one veteran hack lamented “a travesty of decision-making by the suits upstairs”. But other views reflected the grim commercial realities of the news-paper business. “The mistake was to allow the ad to mimic the paper’s front page,” said another old hand. “It seems almost anything is acceptable these days, provided it makes money.”

David Brindle is the Guardian’s Public Service editor

The politics of advertising

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“ The decision of the Hastings Observer to accept a Conservative wraparound, sparked a local protest”

Greg Clarke

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Profile

He’s been portrayed as a ‘back room policy wonk’, but Mark D’Arcy says Greg Clark comes to his new role as Communities Secretary well prepared, with a track record of having driven the government’s city devolution agenda.

A scant week after polling day, the new Communities Secretary, Greg Clark accompanied

the Chancellor, George Osborne to Manchester, to launch the beefed up new City Deal for Greater Manchester.

Moving so fast after a gruelling election was the clearest possible sign of the importance the Govern-ment places on its city devolution agenda. Clark, newly promoted to the Cabinet, has been the Govern-ment’s point man for five years. Throughout his ministerial odyssey through DCLG, the Treasury, the Cabinet Office and BIS, he has remained firmly in charge of the cities brief, criss-crossing the country, negotiating local growth deals with local authorities and businesses, handing control over local funding of national services, in return for a concrete plan to improve the local economy.

The Chancellor has provided the political driving force, the former Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Heseltine (who has been promoting the idea of muscular local govern-ment as an engine for growth for decades – and who has now been installed in an office next to Clark’s at DCLG Towers) has provided the charisma and intellectual sparkle. But it’s Clark who has done the hard yards, bringing the policy to fruition in local negotiations in town halls across the land.

One side effect of that process is that no Communities Secretary will ever have taken office with a more detailed knowledge of what’s going on in major local authorities. Not only has he dealt with every major

council leader and the movers and shakers in every LEP in England, his spell as Universities Minister has added in an appreciation of the importance of universities and science and technology as drivers of economic growth.

More than that, he has proven himself an effective negotiator, unafraid to crack the whip. “Greg does tough love,” says one admirer. Local authorities seeking control of training budgets have sometimes been firmly rebuked for their education performance, and faced pointed questions about why they think they deserve extra

power when their children are not emerging from school able to read, write or do sums. Similarly, authorities which have resisted quotas for new housing have been

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for an elected Mayor, so that they, too, can take control over central government spending in areas like transport, skills, and public health. The prize is considerable. The Manchester deal localises £2bn from Whitehall to Manchester – providing huge scope integrating services, and avoiding duplication, and using the money in ways which will promote growth.

The framework for this process will be in the City Devolution Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech. But there is nothing automatic about the transfer of powers – localities (and that means more than just the local councillors) will have to opt for a mayoral system, offer a convincing package of solutions to local problems, and demonstrate that they have the ability to deliver them.

And, of course, this is a political as well as an economic agenda. Empowering the city regions is one way to deliver devolution within England, and avoid the suggestion that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are getting a better deal than the English. The difference is that the deals are worked out on a case-by-case basis, and that English local authorities cannot – at least not yet – expect extra powers as of right, in the way that the devolved nations can.

There is also a much more hard edged political advantage to be had; plenty of North-Western Tory MPs, for example, believe they owe their survival to the Conservatives’ enthusiasm for the “Northern Powerhouse.” To be sure the rather abstruse issues of local devolution may not have had

told, unequivocally, that they’re part of the deal for local growth.

And there’s a warning shot there, for those authorities still to fulfil their obligations under the NPPF. Clark was the planning minister who introduced it. He has yet to set out his agenda, but looks unlikely to tolerate further foot-dragging.

Clark will bring a well-trained policy brain to bear on the some-times conflicting priorities in his in-tray. He served as a special advisor in the Major Government, was cabinet member for Leisure and Lifelong Learning at West-minster City Council, frequently a

training ground for Tory high-flyers, and then headed the Conservative Research Department – another traditional talent nursery. Since 2010 he has held down a series of policy-heavy ministe-rial roles. Along the way he became a convinced localist with a detailed agenda for opening up local authorities, to promote efficiency and innovation – an agenda he will doubtless return to, now he has the top job. But now he will need to square that localism with the need to address the housing shortage – will he be the minister who dares to undertake a little quiet erosion of

the London Green Belt?It is clear Manchester will be

just the first of a series of city devolution deals. Other conurba-tions will follow its example and opt

“ Local authorities seeking control of training budgets have sometimes been firmly rebuked for their education performance, and faced pointed questions about why they think they deserve extra power when their children are not emerging from school able to read, write or do sums.”

Profile

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“ Along the way he became a convinced localist with a detailed agenda for opening up local authorities, to promote efficiency and innovation – an agenda he will doubtless return to, now he has the top job.”

huge direct appeal, but those MPs say the results of those local deals certainly did please their voters.

The sight of concrete being poured in new projects, of builders buying bacon butties at local caffes, and the promise of more to come, was a key

part of the Conservative attempt to appeal to voters in cities and regions they had long failed to connect with.

So don’t underestimate the political pay-off of, say, Bristol’s Temple Quarter, Birmingham’s HS2 Hub, the Mersey gateway and all the rest. Having a hand in all of those and having spent five years walking local worthies through an assessment of local economic strengths, weaknesses and there-fore needs, Clark is well-placed to continue driving the City Devolu-tion agenda through.

One issue for the future is that while some big cities are neatly delineated conurbations, like Manchester or Greater Leeds, where coterminous boroughs can

work together under a combined authority, under an elected metro-mayor, geography is not always so kind. Some of the areas that might benefit are a bit more diffuse, perhaps with a chunk of county council between a couple of cities – and the competition between local interests may prove much harder to finesse. These may be the places where the metro mayor model doesn’t fit the bill.

Perhaps the biggest challenge for Clark, though, may be taking a full front of house role. He will draw confidence from David Cameron’s judgement that he is not simply a backroom policy wonk, but someone capable of batting for the Government on the Today Programme or Newsnight. His personal style is polite and low key – more John Major than Eric Pickles. But his personal story, the Tees-side milkman’s son who rose

to cabinet office, could become a parable of Cameroon Conservatism.

Unlike his predecessor, he has never projected a gaudy political personality, and is certainly untainted by populism. Some mutter that he sometimes resem-bles an amiable curate in a Bronte novel. But that is to underestimate him – close allies say there is a necessary measure of steel, even of ruthlessness under his social carapace, and he will need that to win out in departmental turf battles and cabinet-level scrambles for the funding necessary to further the City Devolution Agenda. As he starts to fly solo, that assertion is about to be tested.

Mark D’Arcy is a Parliamentary Correspondent for BBC News

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On with the jobThe election results took a lot of people by surprise. For months we’d been told that Labour and the Conservatives were neck and neck in the polls and the last weeks of the election campaign were dominated by anticipation of a hung parliament. Jonathan Carr-West reflects on what the results mean for local government.

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National newspapers ran hysterical headlines warning of the “chaos” and “paralysis” that

would attend weeks of coalition negotiations.

At LGiU, we were never really worried about this paralysis because we know that most of the things that really matter to people: how will our elderly relatives be cared for? will

our children get a decent education? will our neighbourhoods be safe and clean? - all these things are deliv-ered by local government and all of them will keep happening whatever power games go on in the Palace of Westminster.

All of which makes it somewhat of an irony that all the focus was so exclusively on the general election, admittedly a dramatic one, with local

elections in 279 councils relegated to the background even though they are more significant in shaping the services that matter most to people in their everyday lives.

And that irony is even deeper, because the General Election result will have been a lot less surprising to anyone who’s been following local government elections over the last couple of years.

We have consistently seen the Conservative vote hold up better than predicted and Labour not losing much but failing to gain any ground outside London and the Northern Mets.

Looking at how people have actually voted in local elections rather than how they tell pollsters they are going to vote would have given us a much more accurate sense of what to expect.

There’s an under-reported symbiosis between local and national politics: national success is inevitably built on local founda-tions and increasingly it is at a local level than innovative policy is formed.

That’s why, at LGiU, we always provide live coverage and analysis of the local elections as they happen, live blogging all the results over forty-eight hours.

What we saw this year was the local and national results rein-forcing each other. A good night for the Conservatives, a bad one for Labour and close to a disaster for the Lib Dems

For the Conservatives it was not so much a surge as a squeeze with 25 councils that were previously under No Overall Control moving to Conservative majorities. They also took a handful of councils directly from Labour control.

Labour have not lost a great deal but they’ve made virtually no gains either. By and large they’re now

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“ We know that most of the things that really matter to people will keep happening whatever power games go on in the Palace of Westminster.”

ElectionsSpecial Feature

pinned back into their urban strong-holds in London and the North.

For the Lib Dems it’s all pain. They now control even fewer coun-cils than they have MPs. Given what a bad general election they had though, they’ll have been hugely relieved to hang on in places like Eastleigh and South Lakeland.

Although there were few surprises, these local results will have a huge impact on UK politics over the next five years. After a crushing general election defeat Labour will enter a period of soul searching at national level, but, if it is to be successful, that debate about purpose and policy must be shaped by the way in which the party operates in the parts of the country that it actually runs. Looking at the map we see the space between and outside their two clusters of power in the northern cities and in London is almost entirely blue. Its task now is to bridge that gap: geographically, politically and emotionally. If it is to do so, it must look to the hugely important and innovative work

that many of their councils are already doing to redefine social democracy in an era of austerity.

For the Liberal Democrats it’s more a matter of survival. Decimated in parliament, their

future as a party will depend in large measure on rebuilding at a local level but losing more than 300 councillors, a third of their total, will make that task much more challenging. None of their parliamentary seats overlap with the councils they control, will that prove a weakness or an opportunity? It’s worth noting though that, following the elec-tion their membership numbers have actually soared. A similar thing happened for the SNP after the Scottish Independence Refer-endum, raising the question of whether losing elections may be good for the health of your party in other ways?

The Conservatives will be delighted to achieve their first majority government since 1992, but they will still find that their time in office is shaped by local politics. The SNP’s overwhelming success in Scotland means that further devolution will have to be part of the political landscape. Councils in England will want their share of that and the government will come

under increasing pressure, espe-cially from the large Conservative counties, to open up their devolution offer which has been seen as too metropolitan, too Northern and too targeted at Labour councils.

In the run up to polling day, George Osborne was clear that he sees devolu-tion as a key unfinished project for his second term, and he returned to his Northern Powerhouse theme immediately after the election with promises of greater freedoms for those cities that choose combined authorities and elected mayors. But this model of devolution is very resource heavy. Delivering these benefits across the country will depend upon a much more open, deal based model in which local areas put forward their own models for the devolution they need.

That, in turn, puts an onus on local authorities to come up with realistic, well grounded plans for devolution and to put in place the local partnerships they need to deliver it. Crucially these plans must be as much about what they can deliver better as about the extra powers they need.

We face some vital challenges over the next few years: rebuilding local economies, creating sustain-able public services, defining our

identity as a nation and in Europe and the world. All these challenges must be met from the bottom up. All of them require local and national government to work together.

At LGiU we hear a clear message from our members about what local government wants and needs: fiscal devolution, more power in the hands of councils and communi-ties and respect (and space) from central government.

The new government is rhetori-cally committed to these things. Can it put its money where its mouth is?

Parts of this article first appeared in the MJ. Jonathan Carr-West is LGiU’s chief executive

“ We face some vital challenges over the next few years: rebuilding local economies, creating sustainable public services, defining our identity as a nation and in Europe and the world.”

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the forgotten local elections

ElectionsSpecial Feature

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This article is about some of the results and outcomes of May’s local elections.

It opens, though, with a jeremiad – partly because I like the word, but mainly because I really do find it depressing how the national media and, worse, most councils treat these events that constitute the very heartbeat of our local democracy.

This year’s was the fifth succes-sive General Election that’s been run alongside a set of local elec-tions – which meant our London-centric national media again had an additional excuse to do what they’d have done anyway, and ignore almost completely any local elec-tions that don’t happen to involve Boris Johnson.

Amongst the press, there’s really no difference nowadays between the so-called qualities and the tabloids. On the Saturday following Friday’s counts, only the Telegraph attempted to provide any local results at all. The broadcasters meanwhile spent £15m on one night’s sets, technology and staff, yet five days after the polls closed the BBC’s local results summary table was still incomplete.

Last year’s excuse was the Euro-pean elections. Next year it’ll be the London Mayor, Nicola Sturgeon and the Holyrood elections – anything rather than the locals. Which makes it all the sadder that most councils are so poor at even reporting – forget analysing – their own results.

Yes, you can generally, though

not invariably, get to the results with a few clicks from the council website home page, but you’ll be extremely lucky if there’s much more than the basic ward results in alphabetical order. Mostly, there’s no mention of percentage turnouts, ward or whole council; no clue to which seats changed party hands; of the parties’ seat totals, either before or after; or even of which party, following these elections, actually controls the council.

How is it, I annually wonder, that people actually working in local government, with a vested as well as citizen interest in these results, can’t grasp that local elec-tions aren’t just micro ward-level events, but about the macro picture of which bunch of elected repre-sentatives run our cities, towns and districts and spend our money? And if they can’t grasp it, how on earth do they expect us to care?

As it happened, this was the year in local government’s four-year cycle when there were an exceptionally large number of local elections to be ignored – plus votes for six mayors, for many parish and town councils, and the odd local referendum.

Those rash enough to try any kind of prediction generally started from the baseline of 2011, compared that year’s results with current national opinion polls, and reckoned that this year Labour would be the net winners, the Liberal Democrats might not suffer “too badly”, and the Conservatives would be heaviest losers.

In short, predictions for the local elections echoed those for

the General Election – and so did the outcome. The Conservatives were unambiguous winners of these local elections too, gaining a net 30 additional councils and over 540 seats – more councillor gains than any party in government has managed since the 1970s. Labour lost both councils and councillors, while the Lib Dems suffered as painfully as they did nationally. UKIP advanced, but less than it hoped, and the Greens flatlined.

For the Conservatives, their more than 30 gains would have taken the headlines, had there been any. Two particularly satis-fying results, though, must be the retained control in their only two metropolitan boroughs – Solihull and Trafford – both with additional seats.

Newly Conservative unitaries include Basingstoke & Deane, Poole, and Bath & North East Somerset, where there are now two Greens, but 14 fewer Lib Dems and a first-time Conservative majority.

Labour too had unitary gains: Cheshire West & Chester from the Conservatives, although it took a suspended recount and overnight rest, and Stockton-on-Tees, where it had previously had a minority

administration. But they were more than balanced by Walsall, where Labour had taken minority control only last August; Stoke-on-Trent, where it remains the largest party but in opposition to an alliance of City Independents, Conservatives and UKIP; and Plymouth, where, despite making no gains, the three UKIP councillors emerged as potential kingmakers between Labour and the Conservatives.

Among the districts gained by

the Conservatives were Hinckley & Bosworth from the Lib Dems, Rich-mondshire from the Independents, and Amber Valley, Gravesham and North Warwickshire straight from Labour, the latter providing the proverbial icing on the party cake, with Craig Tracey having comfort-ably held on to one of Labour’s ‘must win’ parliamentary seats.

Districts previously at least arithmetically under No Overall Control and now Conservative include traditionally Independent Babergh, for the first time in its history, Gloucester, Lewes, St Albans, Scarborough, Winchester, and Worcester.

Boston and Tendring, both strong UKIP hunting grounds, made the reverse journey. Boston Borough

“ The broadcasters spent £15 million on one night’s sets, technology and staff, yet five days after the polls closed the BBC’s local results summary table was still incomplete.”

the forgotten local elections

Chris Game is unhappy that councils, as well as the media, don’t do enough to draw attention to the local election results.

ElectionsSpecial Feature

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council was run before 2011 by the Boston Bypass Independents and since by the Conservatives. This time, Conservatives and UKIP finished level on 13 seats – until a UKIP member went for the early defection record, leaving the Conservatives to form a ‘soft coalition’ with the rump of the Independents, their former sworn enemies.

Tendring is UKIP MP Douglas Carswell’s constituency base of Clacton. With 19 net gains, UKIP now has 22 seats on the 60-member, 7-party council to the Conservatives’ 23, and there were few early clues as to the eventual administration.

It was Thanet, therefore, that became the history-maker, giving

See pages 15, 16,17 for more anal-ysis and a map of council control

UKIP, now with 33 seats to the Conservatives’ 18, its first principal council – just as, down round the Kent/East Sussex coast, the Greens were losing theirs in Brighton & Hove to Labour.

Good Lib Dem news was at a premium all round, their car crash symbolised by the loss of their 13-year hold on Watford Council, and their Mayor Dorothy Thornhill’s weak third place in the parliamen-tary contest.

Their most positive result was perhaps Dave Hodgson’s unthreat-ened re-election for a third term as Bedford mayor. In other mayoral votes, Peter Soulsby was re-elected for Labour in Leicester, Gordon Oliver for the Conservatives

in Torbay, and Mansfield’s three-term Independent Tony Egginton was succeeded by his Mansfield Independent Forum colleague, Kate Allsop.

Another Independent, Mike Starkie, was elected as the first mayor of Copeland in Cumbria, while in Middlesbrough three-term Independent Ray Mallon has retired and is replaced by Labour’s Dave Budd – though only after a second preference count and the rejection of large numbers of spoilt ballots, presumably from the many Labour members who, despite the result, want the mayoral system abolished.

We’ll hear more than enough about mayors in the months to

come, so let me conclude by drawing attention to the highlighted figures in the results table. Over three-quarters of both councils and seats in Great Britain are now held by the two major parties, for the first time since the 1970s’ reorganisation – which at the very least is an interesting statistic to lob into any debate on the future of our two-party system.

Chris Game is with the Institute of Local Government Studies

2015 English elections All GB councils post-elections

Councils won

+/- Seats won

+/- * Councils Seats

No. % No. %

Conservatives 163 +30 5,521 +541 192 47.4 8,840 43.7

Labour 74 -3 2,278 -203 114 28.1 6,808 33.6

Liberal Democrats 4 -5 658 -411 6 1.5 1,808 8.9

UKIP 1 +1 202 +176 1 0.3 499 2.5

Greens 0 0 87 +10 - - 179 0.9

Independents/Others 1 -1 580 -132 8 2.0 2,118 10.4

No Overall Control 36 -22 - - 84 20.7 -

279 - 9,326 - 405 20,252

*Column doesn't balance perfectly because of boundary changes, changes in council sizes, etc

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We also offer bespoke inhouse learning and development sessions for larger groups of councillors and staff. You can commission training based on the sessions we already have

designed or we can create bespoke itineraries. Email alan.waters@lgiu.org.uk or call him on 07825 745620 to discuss your requirements.

ElectionsSpecial Feature

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This year’s local elections have redrawn the map of council control in England. Here, Jen Pufky provides an overview of the map of control that you can find on the next page.

The local elections saw a marked increase in Conservative council control, alongside a

reduction in the number of authorities without a majority. Labour made few losses, but failed to make many gains either. The Liberal Democrats fared worse, suffering losses to their already dwindling number of councils. The local elections were a mixed bag for England’s smaller parties, with UKIP taking control of its first council and the Greens losing their Brighton and Hove minority government to a Labour minority government.

The Conservatives have tight-ened their grip on English local government. The party now controls well over half of England’s 353 local authorities. The Tories gained control of 30 more councils, taking their total up to 193. 25 of these gains came through Conservatives increasing their share of seats in councils with no overall control in order to secure a majority. The Tories did, however, capture some councils from other parties, many of which were in the Midlands. For example, Amber Valley and North Warwickshire went from slim Labour majorities to slim Conservative majorities. Hinckley and Bosworth went from Lib Dem to Tory.

Coalition and minority govern-ment proved the night’s biggest losers. There are now 47 councils in England with no overall control, compared to 58 before the local elections.

By contrast, the total number of councils under Labour control remained remarkably steady. Labour saw a net loss of just 2, securing 76 of the councils up for election. Labour now control a total of 102 English local authorities. The parties’ failure of make gains (expect for a narrow win from the

Conservatives in Cheshire West and Chester alongside new majorities in Allerdale, West Lanca-shire and Stockon-on-Tees, which were previously under no overall control) has now placed Labour firmly hemmed within its heartlands. Red blocks remain in the North East, the North West, and in Yorkshire and the North Midlands. Outside of London (which had no local elections this year, but did see parliamentary results echoing the popularity of Labour govern-ment in the capital), Labour doesn’t have much pres-ence in the South. Labour-held metropolitans do continue to scatter Southern England, with Exeter remaining the last red fleck on the map as you head into the West Country.

All change!

It was bad news for the Liberal Democrats, who now have even fewer councils than they do MPs. The Lib Dems control just seven English councils, which is down from 10. They lost Hinckley and Bosworth to the Conservatives, while Three Rivers and South Somerset both switched to no overall control. The Lib Dems will have been relieved to retain control of East-leigh, Watford, South Lakeland, and Oadby and Wigston.

The local elections were largely disappointing for the smaller parties. UKIP returned a smaller number of councillors than expected. They did, however, snatch their first majority local government in Thanet, despite Nigel Farage’s failure to grip Thanet South’s parliamentary seat. UKIP are also now the joint largest party in Boston, alongside the Conservatives.

The Independents in Richmondshire lost their control to the Conservatives, making Epsom and Ewell the sole Independently-controlled English council.

The Greens lost their grip on Brighton and Hove, which they had previously controlled

as a minority government. Brighton and Hove remains under no overall control, but

Labour is now the largest party. The local elections concluded with

the Conservatives taking control of the Local Government Association (LGA), vindicating the idea of a Conserva-tive local government squeeze. The Tories gained 498 councillors across England, making them the largest party in the LGA – they

now represent 40.6 per cent of the population

of England and Wales, while Labour repre-sent a close 40 per cent.

Jen Pufky is LGiU’s external affairs manager

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ElectionsSpecial Feature

Ones to Watch

Every batch of local elections there are a number of results that are worth following up. Maybe they remain finely balanced, or maybe a change of control tells us something interesting about the national mood. Here’s the c’llr pick from this year’s elections.

Amber Valley Borough Council Tier: DistrictTotal number of councillors: 45Conservative - 24Labour – 21 One to Watch: Amber Valley is a true bellweather for national political trends – it would be diffi-cult to get more ‘middle England’ than this semi-rural borough positioned just North of Derby. Previously under the narrowest of Labour majorities, this council has now a slim Conservative majority.

Boston Tier: DistrictControl: NOCTotal number of councillors: 30Conservative – 13Labour – 2UKIP - 13Independent – 2One to watch: UKIP and the Conservatives are neck and neck with 13 seats here. There are many possibilities for coalition and contest: will we see a Con Lab Independent alliance? Watch this space – we think Boston will prove interesting.

Brighton and Hove City Council Tier: UnitaryControl: NOCTotal number of councillors: 54Labour – 23Conservative – 20 Green – 11Brighton and Hove was the sole council with a Green government. The Greens lost their position as minority leaders and the council is now run by a minority Labour administration.

Cheshire West and Chester CouncilTier: UnitaryControl: Labour Total number of councillors: 75Labour – 38Conservative – 36Other – 1

Cheshire West and Chester was Labour’s only win from the Conservatives. The council is now under an extremely narrow Labour control.

Eastleigh Borough Council Tier: District Control: Liberal Democrat Total number of councillors: 44Lib Dem – 38Conservative – 6 One to Watch: Eastleigh was a strong hold for the Liberal Democrats. The party may have had a bad night in both the Locals and the General, but they remain firm favourites in Eastleigh.

High Peak Borough CouncilTier: District Control: Conservative Total number of councillors: 43Conservative – 24Labour – 17Liberal Democrat Focus Team – 1Independent – 1One to Watch: High Peak has moved from no overall control (NOC) to Conservative majority government. High Peak is a middle England council, both socially and geographically, and exemplifies how the Conserva-tives have tightened their grip on local government by making steady gains in the middle ground.

Plymouth Tier: UnitaryControl: NOCTotal number of councillors: 57Lab - 28Con – 26UKIP – 3One to watch: Labour lost their control of Plymouth. For a while there seemed the faint possibility possibility of the first Con/UKIP coalition; but Labour and Conserv-atives have now hammered out a power sharing deal.

South Lakeland District Council Tier: DistrictControl: Liberal Democrat Total number of councillors: 51Conservative – 15Lib Dem – 32Labour – 3Independent - 1One to Watch: South Lakeland was another hold for the Liberal Democrats, with the party showing a net loss of just one seat. The Lib Dems remain comfortably in charge, but are not quite so dominant as they are in Eastleigh.

Thanet Tier: District Control: UKIPTotal number of councillors: 56Conservatives – 18Labour – 4UKIP – 33Independent – 1 One to Watch: Thanet is the first council to be run by a UKIP majority. Watch this space to see how UKIP rise to the challenge of local government.

Worcester City CouncilTier: District

Control: Conservative Total number of councillors: 35 Conservative – 18Labour – 15Green – 1Independent – 1One to Watch: Worcester also moved from no overall control (NOC) to Conservative majority government. Worcester is another middle England council, exemplifying the Conservatives’ advance. Worcester’s position in the South West Midlands shows how widespread the Conservatives’ spread is.

YorkTier: UnitaryControl: NOCConservative – 14Labour – 15Lib Dem -12Green – 4Independent – 2 One to watch: York is one of the few three-way split councils in England. Labour and Conservative are neck and neck with the Lib Dems not far behind; the Tories and the Lib Dems have since struck a coalition deal to take control of the council.

Nigel Farage failed in his bid to be an MP, but his party won control of Thanet council

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ElectionsSpecial Feature

Many happy returns

A fixed term parliament provided one certainty ahead of this years general election – and that was the date it was to be held. For many of us, the election boiled down to the count, but for councils across the country the preparation work was a vital, but largely unseen part of the process. Rob Green reports.

Returning officers across the country had know for five years that 7 May was the key date and

according to London Borough of Westminster's Chief Executive and (Acting) Returning Officer Charlie Parker that has been a help in planning terms.

He said. "The nature of fixed term parliaments enabled us to start our planning many months in advance. In our case this was nine months ahead of polling day. Potential staff were alerted to the day of the elec-tion and polling place owners were alerted likewise and asked to let us know if they foresaw any problems in respect of our use of their premises. Draft guidance for candidates and staff was put in place six months or so before the election and then fine-tuned when final regulations were laid. Project planning – with proper risk management – was key. In lay persons terms every action or step needed to have a plan B or a plan C."

And while knowing the date in advance helped in the planning process, this year saw added complexity in the form of individual electoral registration. The new system does away with the 'head of the household' registering voters in a house and puts the onus on individuals making sure they are registered. Cambridge City Coun-cil's Chief Executive and returning officer Antoinette Jackson says IER presented a significant challenge.

"It was particularly difficult for a city like Cambridge that has so many students, who in their three years might move around to different addresses. We have post-grads and a lot of researchers who may come and stay only for a short time. We have a lot of population churn, so it was particularly notice-able in the wards where we have a high proportion of student accom-modation that we were getting much lower match rates."

Cambridge City Council worked with universities and student bodies on communications campaigns, including issuing bike seat covers with key messages printed on them. Westminster's own work saw around 6,000 names added to the national resgister.

An increase in the number of people applying for postal votes also creates its own problems as authori-ties must ensure polling cards and postal votes are issued in time. And while IER was an extra consideration this year there are many aspects of the process that are tried and tested. Antoinette said: "We start very early on making sure polling stations are available. We have 47 polling stations and most are not in buildings we own, so we need to make sure that they are available and booked. We try to avoid schools because it really disrupts pupils. As far as possible we try to work with the same venues. It means voters get used to where the polling station is in their ward."

The other major resource for the day is staff – both at polling stations and for the count that follows. Most of those working will be volunteers from within the council (or former council employees) and many will have done it before. However there will need to be some training in place to ensure current regulations are adhered to.

Once polls close at 10pm, there is a two-step process to the count – verification that the number of votes cast tally with information from the polling stations; and then counting in favour of the candidates. When a general election is held there is pres-sure for national results to be called first and so they takes precedence.

In Cambridge's case the parliamentary result was called at 5am. Staff then went home before returning at midday to carry out the count for the local election.

Both Charlie and Antoinette agree that the key for any successful polling day is having a well-planned strategy and the resources to deliver it. '

"The hub of the operation is the electoral services team – and you need to make sure that this core team is fully resourced, made up of knowledgeable and tenacious people who won’t take no for an answer," said Charlie. "If the building blocks are in place and you have proper project and risk management then all but the most unlikely and unexpected of events can be adequately addressed. If there has not been sufficient planning and preparation then you leave yourself open to nega-tive issues revealing themselves at times during the statutory timetable when you are least able to take corrective action. Once voters and the political parties lose trust in what you are doing then there is likely to be a ripple effect of the loss of trust for other key component parts of your elec-tion delivery."

Rob Green is a freelance journalist

Out for the count

On the biggest election night for years – well, five years at least – we asked some of the many thousands of people who were at counts around the country for their impressions.

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Bluntly, the world’s press would not normally have beaten a path to the Indoor Athletics Centre

at Brunel University, to cover the count for the three safe-ish parliamentary seats in the London Borough of Hillingdon. But, this time, Boris would be there.

Within 48 hours of his election – a dead cert in a Tory stronghold like Uxbridge and Ruislip South – the expectation was that the new MP would either be a candidate for the leadership of his party or a senior figure in Government. As things turned out, he became neither – although he will sit in on David Cameron’s political cabinet meetings, while serving out his mayoral term.

Hillingdon handled the unaccus-tomed level of media interest with brisk efficiency, and its counting team delivered the results early, to the universal joy of the press corps – who were interested not in the detail of the voting figures, but in what Mayor Boris would say once he was unleashed.

The instantly-recognisable blond mop appeared, shortly after the polls closed, at 10pm. Bathed in TV lighting, the Mayor almost blundered into the press pen, only to be wrenched back on track by a member of his retinue. After about half an hour inspecting early progress at the count, he adjourned to the Uxbridge Conservative Club, where the menu includes a Boris Burger and a Cameron Curry.

News-starved journalists tried to conjure some significance out of the fact that he had the curry.

The press pack barely blinked when the results in Hayes and Harlington and in Ruislip, North-wood and Pinner were announced, and Labour’s John McDonnell and the Conservative Nick Hurd resumed their Commons careers. By that time Boris was back in the hall, his hair a distant golden gleam as he prowled among the counting staff. The wily Mr McDonnell scored points by making a Boris reference in his victory speech – challenging his new neighbour to match his promise to lie down in front of the bulldozers to prevent the construc-tion of a new runway at nearby Heathrow.

When the Uxbridge result came, his speech started against a background of chuntering from rival candidates about whether he would keep his promise to serve out the remaining year of his mayoral term. The Mayor, now the MP, ignored them. But he did take the pledge to lie in front of the bulldozers at Heathrow.

A Government decision on airport expansion in the South East cannot be delayed much longer, but any actual bulldozer-blocking may be postponed by years of legal chal-lenges. His immediate post-election future may be less exciting than he might have imagined, but there’ll be no mud in Boris’s hair quite yet.

Mark D’Arcy, Parliamentary Correspondent for BBC News

ElectionsSpecial Feature

I help people who live or work in Kirklees to tell the story of our elections through the Elec-tion Tales project. Throughout election night, we shared videos, photos and twitter updates. We filmed Deputy Returning Officer David Smith around 3am, still smiling as he explained the schedule for people following us online (our local count would resume at 4pm). Dawn was already creeping in at the edges before we declared our first result, Huddersfield. I staggered off to the bus stop at 8am for my two hours’ sleep, knowing that people who’d just woken up would be able to find a clear story online. Diane Sims, Kirklees Council

Going into the count I was filled with trepidation given the national results in my area. Sampling though showed that our worst fears were not to come true. Labour was doing well in town and city, while the Conservatives were entrenching in the rurals and leafier suburbs. Our local Independents, the MBIs (who aren't independents in the real sense) were about to have a very bad day indeed. The Liberal Democrats for some time now have failed to trouble the scorers and that pattern remained. UKIP were the unknown quantity, but in spite of a good showing in the national election, this did not translate locally. After what seemed like days at the count, I wish I was joking, we finally had the full result: Lab 29, Con 19, Green 9, MBI 2, Ind 1.

Councillor Darren Clifford, Lancashire County Council

“Computer says No”…With 100,000+ ballot papers to verify because of district council elections and a town council election, we started counting Parliamentary ballot papers shortly before 2am. Why does Parliament think it is a good idea that humans should try accurately to count thousands of bits of paper in the middle of the night, when we should be asleep? About 5.30am we were closing on a declaration only to find that there was a mismatch between the number of votes counted for the six candidates and the verification total on the computer system. Trust the paper, as Obi-Wan Kenobi almost said. I did and, following a further check, was able to assure the candidates and agents that the totals were correct. Declared result at 6.50am. The mismatch was explained later that day, when we counted the votes in the local elections: some numbers for the local elections had inadvert-ently been included in the spreadsheet.

Ian Miller, Returning Officer, Wyre Forest

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37-hour election marathon…Elec-tion Day for me started at 5am with a dawn raid on target homes. By 10am I stopped for a short breakfast, took time to vote and then called on voters for the rest of the day. Feedback was encouraging so by early evening I stopped for a meal before making my way to the count. Verifying the ballot papers took over four hours giving me a fleeting glimpse of the votes in my ward. With 13 candidates it was impossible to see any pattern in the votes and my confidence slumped. The parliamentary seat was declared for Mark Harper at 8am so I had breakfast, watched the national result and grabbed two hours’ sleep before heading back to the District election count at 12 noon. My ward took a frustrating three hours to count during which I convinced myself I had lost. In the end after the final count I was elected as councillor again. Exhausted but happy I looked around to find many colleagues also winning seats and by 6pm had secured three extra seats and a chance to run the council for four more years.

Councillor Brian Robinson, Forest of Dean District Council

I have been a Borough Councillor for three years and have helped at elections for the past 10 years. From previous experience, I knew that counting wouldn't start until well after midnight, so I arrived at the count at 1:30am. Things were going very slowly and sorting had barely started. However, instead of finding a lot of disgruntled and bored people waiting for the results, I found a mixed group of all parties clustered around the TV monitor – everyone absolutely astounded at the results that were beginning to emerge. The atmosphere was electric and the emotions were so varied: Lib Dems and UKIP supporters gazing in disbelief at the way things were going; Labour supporters incredulous and the Conservatives amazed and jubilant. Our popular Conservative MP, who had sadly suffered really bad press recently, was re-elected but with a reduced majority, and the count was finalised just in time for an early breakfast! At 70, I'm a bit old for missing out on a night's sleep - but it was definitely worth it!

Councillor Sandra Kyriakides, Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council

The count is always a curious affair. You stand next to people whose politics you loathe for six to eight hours, rubbing along with each other while the truce lasts. But going to the local council count the day after the national election results are known can be a draining affair, particularly when your party lost, as mine did this time.

Candidates, political party officials and supporters are strung out around the hall where the count is being held, facing the tables and the tellers who will count the votes on the ballot papers. Their job is to watch how the tellers do their job and query any dubious marks on the ballot papers which are overlooked by the tellers – they rarely are. This is a long and inevitably boring task.

The unofficial job of candidates and supporters is to make disparaging remarks to their oppo-nents. It’s easy and fun to do and when you’re

on the losing side, this covers up the immense sadness you feel. You can use a particularly good put-down, or a deprecating fact about your oppo-nent’s policies, and walk away with a triumphal smile having won the argument, while hiding the real hurt you feel.

The count is also a public show of a private event. We are rightly scathing of our opponents and sad for the effect their policies will have on people we hoped to represent but the count is democracy in action. You have to show respect for the outcome and be thankful for all the votes you won, even if they were not enough to bring victory this time.

Tom MellishLabour candidate in the Canterbury City Council elections

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Challenging times

T here’s no doubting the fact that the result of the General Election came as a surprise to

most people. We at ComRes had warned early on in the campaign that despite the “dead heat” narrative, the Conservatives were in fact leading in the polls. However, the 12 seat Conservative majority came as a bolt from the blue for perhaps even the most ardent Conservatives. Or did it?

The ComRes councillors survey conducted in February found that 21 per cent of Conservative councillors said that a Conserva-tive majority was the most likely result of the General Election. Whether this was pure optimism, simply toeing the party line or genuine conviction we don’t know but their self-assuredness would have paid off handsomely at the bookmakers.

While there may have been some political optimism among Conservatives, the results of the councillors survey shows opti-mism is scant across local govern-ment with regards to the next few years. The expected budget cuts designed to reduce the deficit will hit local authorities. The challenge is now there to continue delivering high quality services with less at your disposal.

A majority (59 per cent) of councillors appear prepared for the tough times ahead, acknowl-edging the need for further cuts to local government in order to cut the deficit. However, there is evidence of a battle to come with a significant minority (38 per cent) disagreeing on the need for these cuts.

However, as three in four (75 per cent) councillors that expect their own local authority will struggle to provide services to the standards expected by residents, we expect to see the debate about joint working growing. Whether it’s working with voluntary services or joint working across groups of local authorities, the challenges facing local government will need to be met with new, innovative ideas for delivery and provision of services. Of course, what works for one council or groups of councils does not mean it will be successful everywhere.

Which leads neatly into the other big issue bound to rear its head during the course of this parliament: devolution. A look to the Conserva-tive manifesto suggests a significant move of power down to a more local level, devolving “far-reaching powers over economic development,

transport and social care to large cities which choose to have elected mayors”. As well as implementing DevoManc and “delivering more bespoke Growth Deals with local councils, where locally supported, and back Local Enterprise Partner-ships.” The manifesto was perhaps

“ A majority (59 per cent) of councillors appear prepared for the tough times ahead, acknowledging the need for further cuts to local government”

There’s a good deal of embarrassment among polling organisations over their general election predictions, but Tom Mludzinski of ComRes is clear that polls show there is a major challenge for local government in the next parliament.

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“ A recent poll ComRes conducted for the BBC suggested that four in five (82 per cent) adults in England support giving more decision making powers on issues such as tax, education, policing to local areas”

written with a coalition in mind with the assumption that not everything will make the cut, but we can expect these moves to greater localisation to be high on the agenda for Greg Clark as he takes over from Eric Pickles at DCLG.

If these moves do happen they will likely come with strong public backing. A recent poll ComRes conducted for the BBC suggested that four in five (82 per cent) adults in England support giving more decision making powers on issues such as tax, education, policing to local areas.

While the funding challenges

for local government are clear, the Conservatives’ pre-election pledges to transfer powers down to a more local level may shift some of the parameters. Increasing the powers at the disposal of local government could lead to more tailored service delivery as befits the needs of each area. Whether or not they will have the money and resources to deliver the additional responsibilities remains to be seen.

The public case clearly is still to be made as there is a distinct lack of willingness to let the bar for quality slip, despite the current financial climate. 57 per cent say

they are not happy to accept less from local councils to help pay off the national debt.

Warning signs are there, however. Eight in ten councillors (79 per cent) believe that the scale of cuts necessary post-election means that whoever leads the next government is likely to become unpopular. The fine line between making cuts and upholding delivery to the standard expected by residents will need to be treaded carefully.

Tom Mludzinski is Head of Political Polling, ComRes @tom_ComRes

Putting families first

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Children’s services

Imagine you’ve just taken on a portfolio for children’s services, without much prior experience, only to find yourself with more children in care than almost any other council … all at a time of stringent budgets cuts. Elizabeth Thompson takes up the story.

This is the scenario faced by Val Gibson when she took up her Wolverhampton City Council cabinet post

in 2013. Her approach to dealing with the crisis mixed meticulous attention to individual needs with a willingness to muck in and do things differently. All of this has led her to be named c’llr’s innovation champion 2015.

“From 2009 our numbers of looked-after children started rising

rapidly,” Val explains. “It was a trend across the country but by the end of 2013 we had the second highest number per 10,000 popula-tion in England. We started by asking why we were taking children into care and if we were taking them into care appropriately. There was a cost driver too; this was becoming really very unaffordable.”

In response Wolverhampton’s children’s trust board, of which Val was chair, launched its Fami-

lies r First (FrF) programme. It aimed to bring better outcomes for children at a lower cost by building resilient families and enabling more children to remain at home safely. Key to the initiative was early intervention.

Social worker caseloads were reduced by appointing more staff, so those working in the city’s priority areas could spend more time on each family. Everything was evaluated and with proof that early help was working, further social workers were recruited.

The council’s existing contract for recruiting foster families was having little success, resulting in a need

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children themselves and using what she hears. “Little things come out of that forum, like young people who’ve had their social worker changed again, without senior management realising this

is happening. To be able to listen to children’s voices first hand, to be able to learn from them – I just think that should be done more.”

Is there one piece of advice she can give from the Wolverhampton experience? “Find out who your looked after children are; their profile, age, ethnicity, experience of care, and work out the lessons that you might learn from each one. Get to know how much each child costs the local authority and ask if they could have been better looked after for less.

“Also change the culture of social work from one that’s risk adverse. Don’t come with the view ‘this child has a problem’. Instead ask ‘how can we change things for the child, for the best outcome.’”

Elizabeth Thompson is a freelance journalist

for expensive agency carers. The service was brought back in house and a major campaign was launched spearheaded by Val. The number of foster carers recruited grew from just five-a-year under the old system to 23 in 2013-14, following the first stage of the campaign.

One goal has been to move children out of residential homes and into foster care. “We recognised that there are some children who are better off in a resi-dential environment, but a lot were going into residential care because we couldn’t find foster homes to take them,” says Val. “We launched our recruitment imita-tive, and as we got more specialist foster carers, we began to close down our residential units.” By buying in residential care for the few who need it the council aims to offer better care, without the cost of maintaining buildings.

Before FrF there were 781 children in care in Wolverhampton. Numbers were rising at such a rate that it was predicted there’d be 861 looked after children by December 2014. The programme succeeded in halting this rise so that in March this year the number had fallen to 774.

Val puts her motivation down to a passion for improving children’s lives, and a desire to work with social workers rather than direct from above. A regular at the city’s children in care council she is a strong believer in listening to

“ Val puts her motivation down to a passion for improving children’s lives, and a desire to work with social workers rather than direct from above”

Domestic violence

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One-stop shop helps victims

Cll'r achievement award winner Ellie Robinson has worked tirelessly to get the issue of domestic violence on the political agenda in the London borough of Newham, reports Elizabeth Thompson.

This year’s c’llr awards wellbeing champion, Ellie Robinson was instrumental in setting

up an effective one stop service for victims and has put Newham at the forefront of tackling female genital mutilation (FGM).

“People were coming to my surgeries for things like housing but there was often a domestic violence element,” says Ellie. “We have very high levels of domestic violence, switching between the highest and second highest in the country, and there have been six domestic homicides since 2011, so there clearly was an issue. Myself, and other councillors, we felt strongly that we wanted to get to the bottom of it.”

She explained the background to the one stop shop: “When we went out to focus groups one of the

main things was that victims don’t want to keep repeating their story. They don’t want to be passed from pillar to post; from a third-sector organisation, to housing then to the police then a solicitor… Now people turn up any time and see a range of professionals, and get things dealt with much more smoothly.”

In the year the service has been running the results are impressive. It has supported 100 women through the legal system and answered over 1,500 calls. “That’s more than we were expecting and I hope it’s improving life for those women and their families,” she says.

Newham’s ground-breaking approach to FGM brings together a 24-hour helpline, casework and awareness-raising. Teachers are trained to look out for possible signs – sudden trips abroad or girls needing the toilet more frequently, for example.

“And we’ve just trained all of the maternity units at the local hospi-tals, so hopefully that will bring forward more victims or potential victims” says Ellie. “ If a woman comes to give birth, and has had FGM done to her, and then has a

baby girl we’d probably want to be having conver-sations about whether she feels that practice is appropriate for her daughter.

“As far as I’m aware there still hasn’t been an FGM conviction in this country. I would like to see that happen and hopefully this service can gather the

evidence. It’s really not a nice thing because a lot of the time people’s mothers have been involved. It’s about supporting women quite sensitively though those dynamics.”

Ellie’s next priorities are around conviction rates for domestic and sexual violence and working with perpetrators. “We have a strong

service when it comes to supporting victims but not when it comes to prosecuting the perpetrators or changing their behaviour.”

“We’re working with the police on gathering evidence so we’ve commissioned them to have body cameras. Domestic violence is one of the few crimes where you don’t need victim evidence to go to court, however, your case probably won’t be strong enough if you don’t. We’re hoping the body cams might provide evidence so we can prosecute further down the line.”

Ellie combines her commitment to improving victims’ lives with a realism that requires every scheme to prove its worth (her cabinet post involves overseeing oneSource, Newham’s shared back-office service which has saved the council £4.1m in a year). But she accepts that councils also need to take

risks and be innovative. “With huge funding cuts you need to back up what you do with evidence. But sometimes you need to take a punt too and hope that it will work.”

And next on the agenda? “We’d like to do some kind of gender equality campaign, that gets to the root of why people think it’s ok to commit domestic violence and targets those attitudes at a much younger age.”

Ellie is keen to here from other councils about things that have worked, and haven’t, in the area of domestic and sexual violence. She is also happy to share Newham’s learning around FGM – ellie.robinson@newham.gov.uk.

Elizabeth Thompson is a freelance journalist

Putting families first

“ Ellie’s next priorities are around conviction rates for domestic and sexual violence and working with perpetrators.”

Ellie Robinson (left) with the team at Newham’s one-stop service

Local growth

Bentley means business

Kevin Bentley’s contribution to the growth of Essex’s economy won him this year’s CCLA Local Growth Achievement of the Year Award in the LGiU c'llr Awards. Mark Smulian reports.

Essex might be thought of by outsiders as a relatively prosperous part of the country, but its economy

is highly diverse, stretching from urban Basildon in the south to the county’s deeply rural north.

Kevin Bently combines being Essex County Council’s Conserva-tive deputy leader, with cabinet member for economic growth, infrastructure, waste and recycling.

His award nomination said he had helped to bring thousands of

jobs to Essex, with one of his main achievements having been the creation of the Essex Employment and Skills Board (ESB).

This body has since April 2013 overseen the provision of an evidence base of skills to identify gaps in provi-sion and has supported employers to recruit and train people.

It has also developed an Essex Careers programme with the promotion of qualifications to respond to unmet needs such as a bespoke nursing qualification for the care sector.

Kevin has also led the county council's apprenticeship programme, which last year took on its 3,000th apprentice in five years.

As council leader David Finch said in the nomination: “Kevin’s

enthusiasm and leadership involved many councillors visiting businesses across the county, and large scale events covering busi-ness networking and EU funding.”

Councillor Finch added: “He is not a councillor that steamrollers his agenda, but one that builds relationships and leads others into new and exciting approaches to economic growth”.

Yet for much of his career Kevin was on the other side of the fence as a BBC local radio and television jour-

nalist, reporting on the activities of local politicians until “I stopped and thought ‘I could do that myself’”, he recalls.

He left the BBC to set up a communica-tions business, of which he remains chairman, and stood successfully for Colchester Borough Council later becoming a cabinet member.

Kevin joined Essex in 2009,

representing the Stanway and Pyefleet division, and took his present positions in 2013.

“There are very different economies in Essex and we have to represent business generally, not just big firms,” Kevin says.

“We set up the ESB after businesses told us they could not get people trained in the skills they needed.

“The Essex Apprentice Scheme ensures young people can get a start. Firms tell us they want to take a young person on and we will meet half their pay for a year. It comes from taxpayers’ money but it’s an investment in the county’s youth.”

Kevin thinks councils should take over the entire skills programme from central government, as “we would do it much better because we

have that local knowledge and can respond to local business needs, and I’ve been banging away about this for some time with ministers”.

His main focus is on the four growth sectors identified for the local economy.

One is offshore wind equipment at Harwich, for which components are made at various places in the county and assembled and sent out to sea from the port.

He also seeks to promote the care industry, present across the county but notably in its resorts, making sure “people have the right skills and are also paid a proper wage, which I think is very important in that sector”.

Manufacturing is important across Essex, including the E2V imaging and semiconductors firm in Chelmsford, which built some of the space station.

Pharmaceuticals will he hopes become more important through the Medical Technology Innovation Centre being developed at an enter-prise zone in Harlow, in a partner-ship with Anglia Ruskin University.

“Those are the planks on which our economy will grow,” he says.

“Essex County Council does not create jobs; we create the condi-tions in which others can do so.

“I enjoy this role because while you can make a difference to people's lives as a ward councillor, at this level in the cabinet you can make a difference to a lot of people's lives, people who may never know who you are.”

Mark Smulian is a freelance journalist

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“ Kevin thinks councils should take over the entire skills programme from central government, as “we would do it much better because we have that local knowledge and can respond to local business needs”

Environment

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21st Century Resilience

Resilience has recently become an important concept for local governance. We talk a lot about resilient communities and resilient high streets, but what does it really mean? Andrew Walker demystifies the topic.

The Rockefeller Foundation has established a network “100 Resilient Cities” that seeks to investigate and

to share ideas about how urban governance can best ensure that it survives and thrives in the face of stresses and strains.

It defines resilience as the capacity of citizens, communities, companies, and governance to respond to, anticipate and poten-tially benefit from shocks and stresses. These include emergen-cies such as floods, epidemics and earthquakes, as well as to adapt to the stresses and strains like long-term demographic change, slow economic growth and poor access to housing or infrastructure.

It tends to treat these trends in isolation, however, rather than taking a holistic view of a place, with all the complexity and intercon-nected challenges it may contain. It also tends to see technocratic solu-tions to individual problems, rather than seeing democratic collabora-tion between state, civil society and citizens as the means for enacting lasting, meaningful change.

This is a relatively “thin” concept in that it refers to “the ability to thrive when bad things happen” in key areas and in the short-term. It imagines that serious events like a flood can be addressed in isolation from their wider socio-economic context.

But there is also a “thick” understanding of resilience, which is more holistic, positive, proactive and oriented towards the longer-term. This “thicker” resilience needs to draw together a wider range of actors to engage commu-nities in their own governance, to share information, make decisions and control resources.

If resilience is about a better understanding of the vulnerabili-ties of a place, as some research argues , then it has to be less of a

technocratic exercise and more of an exercise in democracy.

In our recent paper “Managing Floods”, we discussed how a tool like RainGain, a European tool for more accurate flood predic-tion, could lead to more resilient responses. We investigated how it could be implemented through local partnerships between coun-cils, communities and citizens by combining radar, rain gauges and surface water modelling in a single, useable programme.

We have subsequently found that flooding tends to be treated in isola-tion from the wider context of a local area, making the case for a tool like RainGain more challenging.

The relationship between citizens and the state is still undergoing quite profound shifts in the early 21st century, while local government is adjusting to new demands and challenges. At

the same time there are profound changes taking place in technology that present challenges, as well as enormous opportunities. In this context resilience should involve a more profound rethink of how we collectively approach infrastruc-ture, development and growth.

Rather than coping and surviving in a crisis, LGiU would suggest that resilience could be about shaping and designing places. It should build the capacity to create new systems when ecological, economic or social structures make the existing system unworkable.

Resilience in the 21st will be a useful concept if it encapsulates how institutions, communities, and citizens are interconnected across and within places. It is where these three areas come together that complex local challenges are solved and it is here that we can start to build up a deeper, more positive,

proactive and long-term oriented idea of resilience.

Understanding resilience in this way brings another inter-esting dimension to the devolu-tion debate, which is the central debate in British politics today. By giving people greater control over decision-making and by organising governance in a manner less dependent on an outmoded and sclerotic framework that holds all power in the centre, we can seek to develop the adaptability, intel-ligence, and interconnectivity that resilience is founded on.

An upcoming LGiU paper will look at institutions, communities, and citizens in turn in order to pose questions about what resilience might mean for each of them.

Andrew Walker is an LGiU policy researcher

“ Resilience should involve a more profound rethink of how we collectively approach infrastructure, development and growth.”

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Tackling extremism

Prevention better than cure

Liaquat Ali says that Waltham Forest is proud of its vibrant community, but having such a mix of cultures means it must be especially vigilant to the threat posed by radicalisation and extremism.

Being home to people from all different backgrounds and walks of life gives Waltham Forest a cultural

diversity that helps make the borough an exciting and friendly place to live.

As a Council, we’ve been proac-tively involved in the Government’s Prevent Strategy since 2011 and our work has tried to keep pace with the times. We’ve been recog-

nised nationally for tackling the issues at grass roots level, with a well-established digital resilience programme alongside education sessions in primary and secondary schools to help both our children and teaching staff understand what radicalisation is and the dangers associated with it.

We’re hosting a ‘Prevent in Schools’ conference to share good practice developed in the education sector with other local authorities and interested agencies, debate issues and possible solutions and enhance relationships with those working towards the same goal. Taking place on 7 July, it’s open to school leadership teams, local authority Prevent managers, local authority heads of education,

Prevent practitioners and policy-makers across the country.

All of this work is in response to the changing nature of radi-calisation – a change that local authorities must adapt to whilst maintaining relationships with their different communities.

That’s why we think it’s vital the new guidance for local govern-ment in the Counter Terrorism and Security Act 2015 helps us continue

to play an effective part in tackling extremism and supporting national security.

The Act places a statu-tory duty on councils to have due regard to stop people from being drawn into terrorism as we carry out our everyday functions, and naturally this requires resources. Some local authorities like Waltham Forest already receive Government funding to

support this work and have been able to develop the skills needed to carry out this duty, however the vast majority do not.

We’re urging the Government to ensure all local authorities receive sufficient funding to fulfil the Prevent duty and their safe-guarding responsibilities. Failure to do so will have serious impli-cations for authorities that are not currently funded as Prevent Priority Areas.

Developing the skills of all front line staff to recognise the warning signs of radicalisation is a huge task in itself – and one which inevitably will raise concerns about how such specialist training can be delivered on such a large scale. Consider the need to reach

staff across a range of services and settings, along with the provision offered by training providers – and how quality will be assured and accredited as the need for this type of training grows – and the size of the task ahead becomes clear.

The new Prevent duty also high-lights the need for the Counter-Terrorism Local Profiles (CTLPs) to be enhanced. As these profiles help the police and local partners understand and prioritise threat and vulnerability in a given area they must be fit for purpose. There-fore, we should take this oppor-tunity to improve consistency of CTLPs across areas, include more

specific details to enhance their use, produce them more frequently so that the information they contain is relevant and increase their circu-lation as there is a need for elected members and senior officers to be aware and understand risk.

We all want to protect our resi-dents, but to be effective in our shared bid to counter radicalisation and combat terrorism it’s imperative that local authorities have the resources, tools and training necessary.

Liaquat Ali is Waltham Forest Council’s Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Cohesion

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“ We’re urging the Government to ensure all local authorities receive sufficient funding to fulfil the Prevent duty and their safeguarding responsibilities”

Health and care

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Pioneering integration

There is no denying that as people live longer, new solutions must be found to care for our older people. But what is the best way forward? Iain Malcolm describes how South Tyneside brokered a partnership approach to deliver integrated services for residents.

Older people make up almost one fifth of the population of South Tyneside and it’s a

figure that’s rising. We know our position is not unique. Across the UK, an ageing population and the inevitable questions of how best to care for them has become one of the most pressing issues of our time. However, what is different is South Tyneside Council’s innovative approach to dealing with it.

Against a backdrop of some of the harshest cuts faced by any local authority in the country, we are revolutionising the way our services are delivered – and with significant success. As one of the first local authorities to form a Health and Wellbeing Board, we acted swiftly to put partnership working firmly on the agenda, inviting not just commissioners, but also providers, to help us deliver our objectives. By collaborating with our partners at the CCG, the local NHS Foundation Trust and the Northumberland Tyne and Wear Mental Health Trust as well as third sector partners, we are forging stronger links within the public sector.

One of the ways we’re doing this is through our flagship Inte-grated Care Services Hub which is currently being built on a site at South Tyneside District Hospital. This £9m hub, which we believe will be the biggest of its kind in the UK, has been designed to support adults with dementia and offer support to their families and carers. With a whole-person approach, this facility will offer support to enable older people to live as independently as possible in their community, for as long as possible, using techno-logical aids to support independent

living. South Tyneside Foundation Trust was selected to build and deliver a range of services from the Hub which is testament to its own commitment to the integration agenda. By working together on this ambitious project with our primary local health service provider, we are not only strengthening South Tyneside’s health and social care economy, we are also developing our already productive partnership.

As one of just 14 health Pioneers across the UK, we understand that changing behaviours is as important as changing how health and care services work together. By promoting self-care we are helping to give our communities more control over healthcare through shared responsibility and making use of their insights into what works and what doesn’t.

In the move towards greater co-ordination of people and services, we have established integrated teams in two of our towns which are delivering positive changes to people in our Borough. The new

teams are made up of district nurses and community matrons from South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust and South Tyneside Council’s social workers and occupational therapists and include a social navigator to help people understand and access other support available in the community. We are looking to roll out this integrated way of working across the whole of our Borough in the summer.

As part of our move towards greater collaborative working, we recently secured £1.3m of funding to develop an Integrated Digital Care Record. This will facilitate the sharing of information quickly across multi-disciplinary teams and deliver best quality information at the point of care. By connecting the information held on various systems used by social care teams, GPs, telecare, out of hours and mental health services, we will be able to build up a comprehensive picture of each person’s overall care needs and provide more appropriate, effective care.

We’re only part of the way along our integration journey but already we are seeing positive results. We are keen to use examples of international best practice to help us achieve our ambitions and recently hosted a visit of health professionals from New zealand who transformed their health services using a similar approach. By building on the experience and knowledge of those who are already ahead of the game, we can harness this new way of working. We can engage local people to help them manage their own conditions and create a pathway of care focused on their needs. Despite the current difficult economic climate, we are demonstrating that by building on the skills and expertise of our own staff and partners, we can deliver enhanced, seamless care and make savings without compromising on quality.

Iain Malcolm is Leader, South Tyneside Council

Reserves Day

For council and country

Taking place on 24 June this year, Reserves Day aims to raise the profile of the men and women who use their spare time to serve alongside the regular armed forces. Elizabeth Thompson spoke to a councillor who is a reservist.

R eservists join the army, navy, RAF and Royal Marines in roles that have seen them

supporting the fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone, contributing to global counter terrorism operations, assisting with disaster relief and preventing piracy at sea.

The event is part of the run-up to national Armed Forces Day on 27 June, and many reservists will use the opportunity to wear their military uniforms to work, raising awareness about their role and the opportunities it offers. The day is also a chance to highlight the challenges presented by balancing civilian and military careers.

This is something which won’t be lost on Nottingham County Council’s Ian Campbell, who joined the RAF Reserves in 2014. As well as holding down a full-time job, Ian is has been an independent councillor since 2010.

For the 28-year-old joining the reserves came from a similar impulse to the one that led him to stand for the council five years ago. “I went into politics mainly to change things for my local community and

to represent younger people on the council, as well as those who are already represented very well,” he said. “The reasons why I went into politics and the reasons why I went into the reserves – helping my community and my country – they fit hand-in-hand really.”

Ian had planned a full-time mili-tary career but a knee injury early in his training put this on hold. “I came out [of the RAF] and my inten-tion was to go back but I got a job working in Parliament and never did. So the reserves presented a good opportunity to have the best of both worlds.”

“I wanted to do something in my spare time and gain extra skills and qualifications,” he explained. “The local RAF reserve unit was recruiting. I saw all the adverts on TV and thought I’d have a look. I went to a presentation and thought, ‘yes this is something I’d like to get involved with’.”

“I joined in February 2014 and started my training straight away. I did full-time training; joined the regular guys down at RAF Halton, which reserves don’t normally do, but I had the time and completed that earlier this year. I’ve

attended parades, done live firing and parachute training. I’m not flying yet, but it’s something I would like to get involved in.”

It helped that Ian’s day job is branch support officer for the RAF

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Association. But how does it fit with his responsibilities to his constitu-ents? “We train one weekend a month but it balances quite well and hasn’t conflicted. When I did my training, I was away for a number of weeks but was responding to residents’ queries in the evening, when my training had finished. If I was to be deployed that would be something I’d respond to as and when it happened.”

On the upside, Ian sees the role as enhancing the qualities he needs to be an effective councillor –strategic and leadership skills, plus the ability to get on with a wide range of people. And it has other benefits too. “Being a reservist helps you get a sense of what military life’s all about. It certainly helps you understand what people in the military are

going through, the pressures of the lifestyle.”

For Ian the role is definitely to be recommended to anyone considering the move: “I’d say jump at the chance. There are very few spare time positions out there that offer you qualifications, new skills, adventurous training, travelling, the chance to meet new people … For me it’s been fantastic, I’ve not regretted a minute of it and I’m looking forward to the future.”

You can help support the work of Britain’s reserve forces by tweeting about Reserves Day with the hashtag #ReservesDay.

Elizabeth Thompson is a freelance journalist

“ The reasons why I went into politics and the reasons why I went into the reserves – helping my community and my country – they fit hand-in-hand really.”

Local economy

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As the Harrogate International Centre (HIC) prepares to welcome the 2015 LGA conference and exhibition on June 30, the venue’s director, Simon Kent, writes about balancing the business demands of this iconic facility with the expectations of Harrogate Borough Council and local residents.

It’s now well over a century since the North Yorkshire town of Harrogate began hosting conferences and exhibitions

in the opulent surroundings of its Royal Hall theatre.

Opened in 1903, this grand multi-purpose venue was a place of entertainment for the many wealthy visitors who were heading to Harrogate for the health benefits of the town’s spa waters.

Then, as now, the Royal Hall was operated by the local authority, but the venue has since become an inte-gral part of Harrogate International Centre (HIC Yorkshire) one of the biggest event centres in the North.

This 13,000 square metre facility welcomes hundreds of thousands of business visitors every year, worth an estimated £60m to the local economy annually.

HIC Yorkshire was established and developed to boost the local economy through visitor spend and there’s no doubt we do that, but we have to pay our way too.

We operate as an ‘arms length’ organisation within the council and the expectation is that we should be recovering our operating costs.

There’s no denying it’s been tough, especially through the reces-sion. There are a growing number of event venues in the UK so you have to be on top of your game to attract new business and keep regular clients coming back to you.

A new approach has seen the business bring in more consumer experience events such as the BBC Good Food Show, while there has also been a focus on PR, making use of social media and grabbing

exposure in magazines and news-papers. April saw HIC report its first profit since 2009.

I think during the recession the business was a little complacent. The focus was on bringing in big events to maximise economic impact for the town but there wasn’t enough attention to our own bottom line so two years ago we put in place a plan to take a much more commercial approach.

HIC is a real mix of venues; the Royal Hall and the Sun Pavilion are primarily for community use and aren’t run for a profit. But the last year has been very successful for us, even if you take into account the running costs of the Sun Pavilion and Royal Hall we still made a profit of £150,000.

In fact last year turned out to be a very good one for the whole town, with the Harrogate hosting the spectacular first day of the Tour de France , including the race’s VIP dinner in the Royal Hall. HIC also welcomed a number of high profile public events such as the BBC Good Food Show and the month-long International Gilbert Sullivan Festival. The year finished with victory for the HIC team in the Business Tourism category of Welcome to Yorkshire’s annual White Rose awards.

Over the next couple of years we will continue to focus on the core business of bringing more large exhibitions to the venue because of the significant economic impact.

Another key goal is to start putting some concrete develop-ment plans in place for the next five to ten years. It’s about providing confidence to clients.

Our long term clients need to know we can continue to grow their event. That means us working closely with partner industries in the town. There has to be a synergy between us and the hotels, restaurants, shops and bars in town. Our goal should be an event at HIC Yorkshire every day of the year.

Simon Kent is the HIC’s venue director

Centre of attention

“ HIC Yorkshire was established and developed to boost the local economy through visitor spend and there’s no doubt we do that, but we have to pay our way too.”

Setting a ‘Gold Standard’ is an instantly recognisable phrase, a ringing endorsement of something

that is solid and true; the best you can get. John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole of the Bailey had his fictional character wax lyrical about the ‘Golden thread’ of the Common Law that upheld the liberties and freedoms of the citizen. The aristocratic state that Plato idealised, composed of three castes, envisaged a ruling class of philosopher –kings as having souls of gold while the soldiers and common people had respectively souls of silver, bronze or iron.

However the Gold Standard is not always unquestionably the best. In medicine and statistics, a gold standard test usually refers to a

diagnostic test or benchmark that is the best available under reason-able conditions - an "imperfect gold standard" or "alloyed gold standard’. The phrase is therefore ambiguous and its meaning should be deduced from the context in which it appears. Part of the ambiguity stems from its usage in economics, where “gold” does not imply “best” but is merely one of many possible standards. On an economic theme, the return to the Gold Standard by the British Govern-ment in 1929, as a response to a

deepening economic depression, made things worse. Tony Blair’s dismissal of the Tomlinson Report as threatening the “Gold Standard” of ‘A’ levels consigned this report to the bin within a day of its publication.

A ‘Gold Standard’ is in play again over whether Britain should scrap the Human Rights Act and withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and instead introduce a British Bill of Rights. In the latter case the influence of Aristotle’s gold, silver, bronze and iron is reflected in the suggestion that human rights are not universal but conditional: the rights of any individual depending on whether they are a British citizen (full funda-mental rights), an EU national (fewer rights) or a foreigner (basic rights).

In response, supporters of the Human Rights Act (HRA) and the ECHR might take care in using the ‘Gold Standard’ as a measure of its value, given the qualified nature of what this measurement means in practice.

It is the ambition of the new Conservative Government to have

a replacement for the Human Rights Act on the statute book early on in the new Parliament. There will undoubt-edly be a torrent of supporting tabloid press headlines to give the process a fair wind. While Parliament debates and the media amplifies competing arguments, local government has a crucial and measured role to play in highlighting the benefits of the Human Rights Act as currently framed. Two publications (both available on-line) are a reminder of the applicability and value of the HRA to the work of

local government and the citizens it serves: Human rights: human lives – A handbook for public authorities 2008 (Ministry of Justice) and ‘Human Rights – Improving public service delivery’ (Audit Commission 2003) provide councillors and local authority officers with an excellent primer. Further case studies can found on the British Institute of Human Rights (BIHR) website including the find-ings from the ‘Human rights and local government project’. These publications provide strong evidence of the benefits that human rights can bring to users of public services and as drivers for greater fairness and equality across local communities.

Beyond the sound and fury of some parts of the media and exotic examples of apparent abuse of the HRA, which seems to be mostly on a theme of terrorists not being deported because the HRA took into account the fact that a distressed pet would be left behind, there seems little appetite to strike down the HRA. The human rights lawyer Philip Sands observes in a recent newspaper article, “I served on the last government’s ill-fated

Another view

A ‘Gold Standard’ for local government?

Alan Waters argues that we should keep the Human Rights Act and that local government has a crucial role to play in highlighting its benefits.

www.lgiu.org.ukThird Floor, 251 Pentonville Road,London N1 9NG020 7554 2800

commission on a bill of rights, set up by Cameron and Nick Clegg. Our commission engaged in a wide-ranging consultation, which made crystal-clear the overwhelming public support across the UK for continued adherence to the conven-tion and the aims of the 1998 Act. We also found no strong objection to the Strasbourg court, given the vital role it plays in guarding against abuses of the kind that plagued Europe in the 1930s and 1940s”.

As one participant in the ‘Human Rights and Local Government Project’ observed:

“We should be confident about the role of local government in strengthening and defending human rights for all”.

Not a bad ‘Gold Standard’ to set ourselves as we engage in one of the most critical debates of this Parliament.

Alan Waters is LGiU’s learning and development manager. The views in this column are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the LGiU.

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“ Beyond the sound and fury of some parts of the media and exotic examples of apparent abuse of the HRA, there seems little appetite to strike down the HRA.”

Court of Human Rights