Guardian Public has published a report, Overlapping
Interests, on a roundtable discussion convened in
collaboration with Birmingham's local strategic partnership (LSP)
Be Birmingham and the Audit Commission.
They asked whether Total Place 'could be the "magic bullet" the
public sector needs to dig itself out of a spending black hole,
without a collapse in local service provision.'
Issues discussed included
- which authority should take the lead in multi-tier areas
- whether streamlining services and identifying savings would be
enough to compensate for anticipated funding cuts
- the relationship between Total Place and comprehensive area
assessment (CAA)
- the need for more evidence, as well as more analysis
- appropriate geographic boundaries for decision making
No definitive answers were identified, but the report makes
interesting reading:
4 November 2009