Local Government Reorganisation - An opportunity For Radical Place Leadership

In the first in a series of three articles, Mark Bandalli and Andrew Laird explore how LGR is an opportunity for radical transformation - not just transactional structural change.

Since the English Devolution White Paper was published in December 2024, a huge

amount of time and energy has already been invested by council leaders across England. Key issues include: the population size of any proposed new unitary authority; financial stability; political alignment between places; and identifying the right blend of urban and rural populations / economies. The added complexity of the potential footprints of new Strategic Authorities is also causing some head scratching.

Changes of this scale are always complex and always messy - so we should take that as a given.

However, councils and their system partners in integrated health and care systems should not allow this process to be become overly transactional where the outcome is nothing more than a “safe and legal” compromise. This is an opportunity for genuine transformational change on how a place works together.  

Mission-led Government > Racial Place Leadership

Much has been made of the Government’s mission led approach and the setting of clear, bold and ambitious national targets. The aim is to encourage more collaboration around a non-departmental or organisational specific issue at a national and local level.

These missions can’t be achieved at a national level. When it comes to public services, all delivery is local. So, the creation of new unitary authorities represents an opportunity to adopt a new Radical Place Leadership approach, which supports the Government’s stated missions, but also has a laser focus on a place’s local priorities.  

A clear set of local priorities/missions/goals (what they are called is less important), developed with place-based partners and local citizens; informed by the views and lived experiences of the communities and businesses, has the potential to galvanise not just the council, but local businesses and the wide array of partners that operates across a place’s complex web of public, community and voluntary services.  

Establishing a set of missions would help a new unitary council define what it is there to do and what can be expected of it. The mission led approach in Camden, the Wigan Deal and the emerging City Goals in Sheffield are examples of establishing “social contracts” between councils, their partners, local communities and businesses. The creation of new unitary councils provides a timely opportunity others to consider similar approaches.

This approach would also strengthen local accountability, requiring council departments to work together to achieve a common cause, while also creating conditions for collaboration between the council and local partners.

Long-term mindset to tackle long-term challenges

Annual budget-wrangling has hamstrung councils for years. Fortunately, the Government have made it clear that councils will now receive multi-year settlements. Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities will receive integrated settlements, establishing a more solid basis for Mayors and councils to collaborate to address both local and regional challenges simultaneously.

This should support a longer-term mindset and new unitary authorities should start by looking years ahead. Local decision makers should commit to missions designed to address generational inequality, underinvestment and to (finally) start to shift the balance of resources towards prevention.

Establishing structures that support a long-term approach

How newly established councils are structured will partly determine how well equipped they are to realise meaningful and long-term change.    

Mutual Ventures Non-Exec Director, Professor Donna Hall’s ‘Ten questions to help make public services fit for the future’ provides a helpful framework for those considering the future focus, structure and functions of new unitary authorities. Although written before the Devolution White Paper was published, Donna raises questions that are immediately applicable to LGR:

 "Whatever resources are channelled into public services, it’s vitally important that we don’t just rebuild the status quo. It doesn’t matter how much additional money is made available if we don’t address underlying issues of the pressures of citizen demand and an old fashioned, silo-based organisational rather than a people and community focus…… there are real opportunity for a radical redesign of the role and purpose of public services in relation to the people they serve."

This is why local leaders cannot allow LGR to become just a transaction – it must be transformational. We think there is an opportunity for a Radical Place Leadership approach that focus on collaboration between public and community services and gives people the support they really need. You can read about our Radical Place Leadership approach here.

New unitary authorities will, given their scale and range of responsibilities, have a more pronounced place leadership role. Incentives across a council and its partners will need to be aligned. This type of Radical Place Leadership won’t just happen automatically because of a structural change. The leadership and organisational culture of the newly formed unitaries will be critical and was a key success factor in places like Wigan. This is not an easy change to make and training and support for council leadership on effective place leadership may be required.

Retaining place leadership expertise, networks and an understanding of what works

Local government reorganisation involves an enormous amount of change. There will rightly be a focus on Target Operating Models (TOMs), leadership structures, service models and ensuring service continuity (safe and legal). But it the rush to get the transaction done - it is easy to lose sight of what already works locally.

There is a danger that we focus on reorganising a model of New Public Management to fit the technical White Paper requirements but lose the importance of the huge culture shift required at all levels, both nationally and locally, to make real change happen.

One of the most frequently raised concerns regarding reorganisation surrounds the ability of a new unitary authority to ensure the distinctiveness of their places is understood and retained within a new footprint serving a minimum of 500,000 residents.

District councils and their leaders have been at the forefront of place leadership for decades. They have developed real expertise and specialisms through their close connections with local residents, businesses, other public services and community organisations. They have a uniquely deep understanding of the specific local challenges and opportunities in their area. Undertaking LGR with a Radical Place Leadership mindset will ensure that local knowledge and expertise is not lost but rather placed centre stage in a new unitary model.

These are challenging times for councils and for many a top-down push for reorganisation will feel like the last thing they need. But it is a unique opportunity to reset and transform - so don’t allow your own LGR journey to be held hostage by the transactional process and instead embrace the opportunity to deliver tangible lasting change for, and with, communities.

To learn more about our work and the themes in this article, contact Mark Bandalli.