Productivity Pitches #4: Local Government

Productivity in public services has never been more important. Most services are struggling to return to pre-pandemic performance levels, and the new Labour government have indicated that spending will remain tight. Improvements in performance will likely come from frontline workers finding new, innovative ways of delivering services. So what can be done to improve productivity? By highlighting outstanding examples of innovation across public services, Productivity Pitches, a series of events hosted by the IfG, aims to share and support ways to improve performance levels. This event was the fourth in the series and focused on local government. Each speaker had 10 minutes to present their innovation, followed by 10 minutes of audience questions. The chair and a guest from the Productivity Institute – who are kindly supporting this event series – then brought together the common themes from the pitches and discussed the lessons for improving productivity. The speakers for this edition of Productivity Pitches were: Gill Wilson and Tim Pearse, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, on joining up previously disparate datasets across the local authority to better understand the needs of their residents and forecast demand for their services. This allows them to support residents at an earlier stage and making the best use of scarce council resources. Vicky Schofield and Cheryl Whitehouse, Wakefield Council children's services, on the council providing residential care and improving outcomes for care leavers. With the cost of commissioning children’s residential care with private providers increasing rapidly, Wakefield decided to operate and run its own children’s homes, with more stable staffing and fewer restrictions than traditional children’s homes. As a result, the cost of providing care has dropped dramatically and children have far better outcomes. Cllr Bridget Smith, South Cambridgeshire Council, on the outcomes of shifting to a four-day working week. The Covid-19 pandemic led to the council changing the way that it worked, making better use of technology, flexible and home working. As a result, council employees now complete 100% of their work in 80% of the time. An independent evaluation of the reforms found that the council was performing better on 22 of 24 metrics, including a large drop in turnover and reduced use of expensive agency staff. The event was chaired by Nick Davies, Programme Director at the Institute for Government. Andy Westwood, Professor of Public Policy, Government and Business at The University of Manchester joined the discussion of common themes. Follow us on X (formerly known as Twitter) @IfGEvents or on Bluesky @instituteforgov.bsky.social, and join the conversation using #ProductivityPitches Productivity Pitches is kindly supported by The Productivity Institute.