Scottish Liberal Democrats conference: Localism 2.0

Date: 08.10.2011 12:30 - 13:30

Location: Vine Venue, Dunfermline

This event saw NESTA in discussion with John Seddon of Vanguard Consulting and Willie Rennie, leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats in Dunfermline at the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference.  NESTA's Graeme Downie chaired the event.

Graeme opened the event by outlining the need for a fundamental change in the way Scotland approaches the delivery of public service given the financial constraints of the current economic climate.  Involving communities in designing, developing and prioritising the services that they use is one means of changing the approach.

John Seddon was unsure if communities could rise to the challenge of designing their own services but did agree that co-production was valuable in very person centered services.  He was keen to point out that many big ideas for outsourcing and reaping the benefits of economies of scale had not actually delivered value for money.  His argument was that economies of scale may well reduce unit costs, but have been seen to deliver overall increases in costs as greater numbers of units are purchased.  Shared services could also be viewed as a false economy as it is often the case that the most efficient services look at individual's lives in the round rather than as a series of transactions with the state.

John views commissioning as a means to reduce costs as frequently lacking in the flexibility required to meet the variety of human demands placed on people centered services.  Equally, tariffs were viewed as arbitrary and incapable of contributing towards long-term avoidance of crises.

In saying all of the above, John was keen to acknowledge the need for auditability in services but rejects the idea that the only way to make a service auditable is to standardise it.

Willie Rennie MSP told conference that he had been reading John Seddon's work for some time and that he instinctively warms to it but at the same time finds it challenging.   He believes that some of the best use for John's work is that it can help councils to ask the right questions with which to challenge central government.

He disagreed with John in that he believes communities do have an innate ability to design the services that are right for them.  Unless we trust people to do something themselves, said Willie, they will always be waiting for the government to do something for them.

Willie was keen to point out the value of public sector workers and the expertise that they hold to enable better delivery of public services. 

Chair: Graeme Downie, Communications Manager, Scotland & Northern Ireland, NESTA

Speakers:

• Willie Rennie MSP, Leader, Scottish Liberal Democrats
• John Seddon, Vanguard Consulting
• Martyn Evans, Chief Executive, Carnegie Trust