The former chief executive of the London boroughs of Richmond and Hammersmith & Fulham, Richard Harbord, argues that in the case of the four-day week saga, government involvement may have gone too far.
I well remember as a fairly new chief executive being summoned to a symposium on accountability in the public sector. This was a weekend event, which took place in the splendid setting of Eynsham Hall in Oxfordshire. The hosts were the then Department of the Environment and the invitees included permanent under-secretaries, the Treasury (who do tend to get in everywhere) and chief executives or their equivalents in various strands of the public sector.
There are two things I particularly remember. Firstly, it must have been in winter because I remember wondering why the civil servants had rooms in the house and the rest of us had a very cold walk to the converted stable block. Secondly, we got really stuck on Saturday morning in an interesting discussion about who was accountable for the health service. I am sure that subsequent re-organisations have made that quite clear.
What I do remember was the conclusion about local authorities, which had no dissenting voices, that accountability was via the elected members and the ballot box.
Accountability via elected members and ballot box
I had a personal contribution to make to this as following two years of very low rates increases for the ratepayers of Richmond, I was forced in my first year as director of finance to propose a 35% increase. I agreed this with the majority party in a fairly difficult group meeting. It was not an election year, but the following year was, and they were very worried about the effect it might have. It had none, despite the use of it by the opposition parties.
The second example was the high rates levied by one London borough and the firm belief elsewhere that they would suffer at the ballot box. They did not because the extra services they provided for the money were valued by the electors. The basic tenet was however agreed upon by all.
That is why I feel that the government should not have involved themselves in an argument over a four-day week. The authority feels they have very good reasons to implement such a thing and it should be up to the electors to indicate at the next election that it has adversely affected services and they do not like it.
On the other little difficulties local authorities have got into, I still maintain that the result of accountability is the same. I also believe that intervention is necessary in some cases.
That is to say that the difficulties might be too large and require special regulation, which should be agreed by central government and the reference to the department allows an independent report on the position.
Section 114
As readers of these blogs know I do not believe that a section 114 notice is being used correctly. It was intended as a procedure to help section 151 officers who had not been party to decisions or whose advice had been ignored. It was to allow the officer to seek a pause by way of stopping whatever was going forward without a full discussion with the council. The s114 was a matter of last resort and was indicative of the fact that relations had broken down in the authority.
This year has seen a record number of threatened notices but so far not such a number have been actioned. However, there will have been considerable debate and articles in local papers.
If there has been a failure in judgement or process it is right that someone should be held accountable. Again, the final judgement should be of the elected members at the ballot box as to how the situation has been handled.
It is no different from dealing with central government. The electors take a view depending on what they believe to be the facts.
So, there are times when intervention cannot be avoided but as a general principal help should be sought rather than imposed.
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