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Policy Review

Policy is not just an abstract - it affects the services which your members may receive from public bodies, how public money is spent and much funding for voluntary and community groups can be shaped by local and national policy.

The first step is to know, the second to understand and the third to change policy.

Policy Review August 2010

By Stephen Blann, CLB Policy & Networks Officer; for information on any of the contents email Stephen Blann or phone: 020 8315 1907.


This edition’ contents fall into 3 groups – the prodigious  output of the new  government,  consultations and plans coming from the Mayor of London  and  some items of note form previous reviews that are still of interest  or have been updated.

The New Government

  1. Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS – white paper
  2. Comprehensive Spending Review
  3. Big Society
  4. Coalition Programme Published
  5. Queen’s Speech

MAYORAL STRATEGIES

ISSUES STILL CURRENT FROM PREVIOUS POLICY REVIEWS

The New Government

The new government has been particularly active in developing and consulting upon new policies here are a selection of them:

Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS – white paper

Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS is the title of the new NHS white paper containing a number of proposals for change. It is accompanied by a series of linked consultations. This briefing will cover the headline issues and issues for the voluntary sector and then the content of the main white paper in more detail followed by the accompanying consultations. Generally commentary rather than summary is in italics.

The consultation runs until 5th October (11th October for the accompanying consultations).

Broadly the headline issues are:

The white paper is broken down into a number of chapters:

  1. Liberating the NHS
  2. Putting patients and the public first
  3. Improving healthcare outcomes 
  4. Autonomy, accountability and democratic legitimacy
  5. Cutting bureaucracy and improving efficiency
  6. Conclusion: making it happen which also includes an implementation timetable

You can download a copy Stephen Blann’s full briefing and also his briefings on each of the accompanying consultations

Comprehensive Spending Review

The Comprehensive Spending Review, a consequence of the emergency budget in June, is due to be published on 20th October. The headline is that all departments with the exception of overseas aid and the NHS must make cuts of 25% - and some have been asked to produce options for 40% cuts.  In the meantime the government is looking for your ideas on where the cuts should fall – they have launched “Spending Challenge” with the stapline “help us get more for less”. Public sector employees had until the 9th July before the general public were allowed to comment.  Join the Spending Challenge.  

The Empowering the Voluntary Sector joint project of NAVCA, NCVO and others has produced a special edition of its newsletter on the coming cuts  - setting out Compact  and public law positions and also highlighting a wide range of resources.

You may also be interested in “Coping with Cuts” from NCVO http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/advice-support/coping-with-cuts

Both ACEVO (Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations) and the Guardian newspaper have launched “Cutswatch” sections.

Big Society

The Conservative’s idea of the Big Society has been adopted by the new Coalition Government. The Government has published a short statement – Building the Big Society which has five sections:

Download a copy of Big Society not Big Government  
Download Stephen Blann's Big Society Briefing 177KB
Read more on the Cabinet Office website

Coalition Programme Published

The coalition agreement will form the basis of the legislative programme of the government for the next 5 years. It is sub-titled Freedom, Fairness, Responsibility.
There are 31 different sections in all - each fairly short, introduced with a statement of political belief, then simple statements of intended action.

There are particular sections on Communities & Local Government and on Social Action that are directly relevant to voluntary and community sector as a whole as well as sections on Children and on Social care that will be relevant to many organisations.

Download Stephen Blann's Coalition Programme Briefing 173KB

Queen’s Speech 2010 – Full list of Bills

You can get an idea of what more is planned in the coming year by looking at the Queen’s Speech.  The first Queen’s Speech of the new coalition government was delivered on 25th May 2010. It sets out the legislation that the government will introduce in the coming parliamentary year (actually nearly 18 months). It is described as being based on the principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility and the government’s first priority is to reduce the government deficit. On this matter see the separate article on the treasury’s planned £6bn spending reductions in this financial year.

You can read a copy of the speech and get background information at the Number 10 website. The list of planned legislation appears below.  Click on the links to find out more about each bill. 

You can read NCVO’s response to the Queen’s Speech.

Other items in the Queen’s Speech
Besides setting out proposed legislation the speech also discussed other policy matters not the immediate subject of legislation. You can click on the links below for supplementary information on the Number 10 website.

General Election Special - April 10

Stephen Blann compiled a policy briefing with analysis of the implications of the three main party manifestos on the voluntary and community sector. You can see how government and opposition are keeping their promises.

Mayoral strategies

Not to be outdone by this activity the mayor of London Boris Johnson has been consulting on or publishing final versions of a variety of strategies:


Mayoral strategies have an impact in two areas –

  1. on those London wide issues which the mayor is specifically responsible for
  2. in setting policy where others are responsible - most notably planning and housing where local councils must act within the policy set by the mayor.

Being in the middle of his term of office the mayor has now consulted on and adopted many of the statutory and other plans that he is responsible for. Some of these are discussed in this section.

London Plan

This is a Spatial Development Plan -what sort of development can or should take place in which areas and why. The plan is strategic. It gives general guidance on what sort of developments - for example tall towers – are appropriate for the city as a whole and identifies some key locations where London wide rather than local policy is needed. Councils still produce their own local spatial plans but if there is anything covered by the mayor’s plan then local plans cannot conflict with this.

The draft replacement plan was published in October 2009.   Following comments the mayor has produced a “schedule of early suggested textual changes”.  This is as it suggests  just a list of  proposed changes  - not  a new  draft document  and so is hard to follow without the original. The  plan now  goes  for a full examination in public – a formal process for  plans  such as this  and this is expected to run until October 2010. 

This is closely linked with two other strategies –

Transport Strategy

The Mayor’s transport strategy was published in May 2010 and can be downloaded as series of sections from the GLA website as well as the background drafts and consultation responses.

executive summary and priorities and context
The transport strategy then has six goals to achieve the mayor’s vision:

  1. Support economic development and population growth
  2. Enhance the quality of life for all Londoners
  3. Improve the safety and security of all Londoners
  4. Improve transport opportunities for all Londoners
  5. Reduce transport’s contribution to climate change and improve its resilience
  6. Support delivery of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and its legacy

Below are some of the chapters you can download from the GLA website

Economic Development Strategy for London

This covers the work of the London Development Agency and other work to ensure economic development in the capital and has 5 objectives.

  1. To promote London as a city that excels as a world capital of business.
  2. To ensure that London has the most competitive business environment in the world.
  3. To drive London’s transition to a low carbon economy and to maximise the economic opportunities this will create.
  4. To give all Londoners the opportunity to take part in London’s economic success, access sustainable employment and progress in their careers.
  5. To maximise the benefits to London from investment to support growth and regeneration, and from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and its legacy.

There is a substantial concentration on financial services, and in regaining and retaining London’s role as a world financial centre rather than diversifying. Conversely there is also support for tackling poverty and improving education and training and concentrating on job retention not creation.

There is a commitment to a London Living Wage - considerably above National Minimum Wage. Much of the low carbon economy focuses on economic opportunities rather than emission reduction- thought there is target of 60% reduction by 2025. Unlike the previous 2005 strategy there is no specific mention of VCS within the economic strategy. Indeed there is a statement that projects requiring prolonged resourcing are unlikely to be cost effective so not supported.

Many VCS organisations working with disadvantaged communities may need long term support and can contribute towards the strategy’s objectives (especially 4). [Recent reports on the effectiveness of job brokers getting long term unemployed and those with disabilities were failing to meet targets but that VCS providers did better]

Health Inequalities Strategy

Following consultation the Mayor has published his health Inequality strategy. You can download the strategy and some background information from the GLA website. The Mayor has also produced a document called “First steps to delivery” setting out how the strategy will be implemented. LVSC has produced a briefing on the strategy and some of the actions identified in the delivery plan. There is a recognition of the  contribution of the  voluntary and  community sector  throughout  and also proposals  around London wide  commissioning for  some public  health issues and particular  communities. Some of these proposals in relation to public health may already be difficult to implement following the new Health White Paper and its proposals on public health and commissioning (see above) .

The strategy has 5 objectives, each with a series of 5 commitments 

You can see what each of these commitments is in the expanded summary – if that is not a contradiction in terms 

To carry this out the Mayor needs partnerships with NHS and borough councils (and local Strategic Partnerships) and the voluntary sector in their capacity as employers, service commissioners and providers and as “corporate citizens”. The Mayor has identified ten challenges to leaders of public, private and community organisations, employers and service providers. These concern healthy workplaces but also wider social issues that affect long term health and well being. The full 10 commitments can also be seen in the expanded summary
The strategy also contains the Mayor’s ‘Big 10’ challenge to all Londoners to contribute to the strategy. So it’s over to all us on the big 10:

  1. Eat well and indulge moderately:
  2. Regular physical activity: Activity reduces stress and the risk of developing major chronic diseases.
  3. Reduce risks: stop smoking, reduce alcohol intake and practice safer sex.
  4. Prevention is better than cure
  5. Get the help you need and are entitled to: For example, the right amount of benefit or extra help to keep your house warm.
  6. Get involved: If you don’t like what is happening locally join a campaign or start one yourself.
  7. Make a contribution: Rewarding work (paid and unpaid) is good for health. Find out about volunteering opportunities to help others and yourself.
  8. Learn and achieve: Learning enhances confidence and self esteem.
  9. Family health
  10. Enjoy and look after the environment around you: get out and about and be active; maintain your local area, report any damage to public areas.

Mayor’s housing strategy

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson produced a draft housing strategy which was consulted on last summer and published earlier this year. It will be the first statutory strategy (as opposed to guidance). There have been changes to the previous mayor’s strategy - such as scrapping the 50% affordable new homes target and more flexibilities for boroughs. You can download the strategy as well as a range of supporting documents including a delivery plan.

Mayoral strategy on violence against women

The Way Forward - Taking action to end violence against women and girls
Final Strategy 2010 – 2013 was published in March 2010 after a round of consultation.The strategy has five specific objectives:

It is accompanied by an Action Plan  covering

Recommendations include

Other Mayoral strategies currently being consulted on

Being a busy man the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority are also consulting on a variety of new plans and strategies.  Some of these close within a soon whilst others run over the summer. 

The following close shortly:

Other consultations closing later are:

Issues still current from previous Policy Reviews

 Bromley Children & Young People’s Plan 2009-11

We are midway through the Children & Young People’s Plan for Bromley 2009 -11.  Much of the plan relates to the Building a Better Bromley and Local Area Agreement priorities and has input from the Voluntary Sector Children & Families Forum.
You can download a copy of the plan on the Bromley Children and Young People’s Trust website . There is also a summary ‘Priority Framework’ . You can also read  Stephen Blann, CLB’s Policy & Networks Officer’s summary briefing on the DRAFT plan our website – but  bear in mind the were changes in reaching the final plan. As well as an overall plan there is a number of subsidiary plans dealing with specific issues.  These include:

Second Laming report - Child Protection in England a progress report

The second Laming report was published in 2009 and since then the government and others have been working to put the recommendations into effect.  The department for Children Schools and Families has now issued a consultation document called Working Together to Safeguard Children - Consultation Document. It is subtitled “A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children”. It is a very detailed lengthy document. The consultation continues until February 2010. This is alongside proposals to reform Children’s Trust to have greater duties of co-operation and information sharing. Linked to this is the National Safeguarding Delivery Agency Interim Progress Report & Work Programme 2009-2010  
On a related matter there will be new vetting and barring schemes for those working (including volunteers) with children and vulnerable adults from October 2009. You can download a briefing from Children England. Locally you can get information from the Bromley Safeguarding Children Board

What the Laming report had to say -

central point is that child protection is about more than process, good systems do not of themselves lead to good outcomes s, although poor systems often lead to poor outcomes. The report starts with setting out progress since his last report and then issues that remain. There then follow a set of chapters analysing in detail with specific issues -

It has a total of 58 recommendations grouped into the same specific categories. Examples include:

You can download the report by clicking the download button in the box at the bottom – or you can order hard copies).

Transforming Social Care – Personalisation

LLB Bromley has received a Transforming Social Care Grant - to enable it to pilot the “personalisation” agenda. Personalisation is the phrase used to describe changing social services - away from designing services t and assessing people’s eligibility towards identifying what each individual needs and identifying where to buy services to suit them. People will be allocated a budget - but this may not pay for all the services they need. This will be a major change in attitude and way of working for social services, voluntary sector and service users and carers.

The programme in Bromley is known as Supporting Independence in Bromley (SIB) and is lead by programme manager Jean Penney. There has been a range of briefings and leaflets produced by the council explaining SIB and personalisation.  There is more information on the council website including supporting documents and fact sheets  and a variety of briefings. 


By March 2011 a third of social care service users should have a personal budget. However to have a personal budget with the council people will still have to be assessed as being eligible to support. The majority of people will still be responsible for funding their own provision.

2 levels of service will be available - “universal” which covers a wide range of support services and targeted - specialist social care services for those that need them. Developing a new mixed economy of public private and voluntary sector provision will be important. Brokers will be important in assisting clients – whether council funded or otherwise – to build up the right package for them.

It will also mean a change in the way the council buys services - as units to make up a package rather than as block contracts. This will have a long term impact on the council’s wider commissioning approaches. 

A key part of making personalisation a success is brokerage - linking people with social care needs with potential providers. Currently both Age Concern Bromley and Bromley Mencap have brokerage programmes.

The following is extracted from LVSC policy bulletin –

“Individual budgets are of particular interest to VCS groups working in the health and social care or support field, as they will produce a major change in the way these services are funded. Organisations will need to ensure they develop a business model that markets their service to individuals, rather than social service departments, and can cope with different levels of demand.

“The Department of Health has now published its response to the evaluation of the first individualised budgets pilots Evaluation of the pilots of this scheme demonstrated that holding an individual budget was associated with better overall social outcomes and higher perceived levels of controls for those using them. However, the report identified there were significant barriers to take up of the scheme amongst people with mental health problems and older people had less positive findings than other groups. Amongst older people qualitative interviews suggested that many did not want the additional burdens that they associated with planning and managing their own support. Significantly the evaluation showed that the cost of service packages under individual budgets was slightly lower than standard packages (£280 per week versus £300 per week)”.

As well as progress on personalisation in social care there are proposals to introduce personal health budgets .

Personal budgets in health

Pilot schemes for personal health budgets similar to personal social care budgets were run under the last government. (See more detail on this website). They won’t cover emergency care and there will be restrictions on how it can be spent – specifically not on alcohol, gambling or anything illegal!  The department of health produced a leaflet setting out how this might work.  The new government in its white paper has committed itself to continue and expand personal budgets in health.

Bromley PCT Provider Unit  

Bromley Primary Care Trust “externalising” its community provider unit as “Bromley Healthcare”. All Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) were to  have their community services run by a legally separate body from 2010, but the provider unit at Bromley PCT is currently being run  as a separate arm of the PCT from commissioners. This covers all sorts of community services from district nursing to occupational therapy and chiropody (but not GPs themselves).  Given the radical changes proposed in the white paper  and the abolition of PCTs from 2013 this is beginning to look academic.  Nonetheless Bromley PCT board is continuing to review the progress of Bromley Healthcare.

It was decided to create a new social enterprise led by local GP practices to be called Bromley Healthcare. This would be a private company, but in the form of a Community Interest Company, making profit which it will be obliged to re-invest in services. Not all GP practices would be members - though all would be invited to be. The PCT board had some reservations about this option but agreed to it on the understanding that (quoted from the letter from PCT to Bromley community groups) -
… “the leadership of Bromley Healthcare and Bromley General Practitioners to work in partnership with the PCT to define more precisely how the new organisation would work to improve health and the delivery of health and social care services in Bromley.
“The PCT Board has requested that a clear project plan be developed to clarify the service, financial, structural and governance arrangements as well as the implications for staff currently employed by the PCT. In doing so it indicated that the plan should be capable of forming the basis of a full business case for its consideration and a final decision later in the year”

There will be further discussions at the September 2010 PCT Board meeting.

A look at some data on poverty and unmet needs

London Poverty Profile

City Parochial Foundation and a think tank called the New Policy Institute have conducted considerable research into poverty in London and produced a range of resources including a website and also produced a summary report of their findings and a full report (warning this is 9mb!)
One purpose of this is to allow local voluntary and community groups to identify information which they can use in support of funding applications. The resources contain information comparing different boroughs against measures of poverty and also with other parts of the country. The findings show that as expected Bromley has relatively low levels of poverty in terms of unemployment and dependence on benefits, but does have high levels of income inequality – nearly a fifth of the jobs in Bromley pay less than £7.50 per hour. This is above the National Minimum Wage but below Mayor Boris Johnson’s “London Living Wage” of £7.60 per hour.

Young Foundation

The Young Foundation is Think Tank which is particularly interested in how to create a fairer more equal society and in education (Michael Young whom the foundation is named after was responsible for the establishment of the Open University). They have produced a very detailed report into social inequalities and unmet needs in modern Britain. It is called Sinking or Swimming - Understanding Britain’s Unmet Needs. It provides an overview of where the most acute needs are in Britain today, and which needs may become more pressing in the future. It looks at why some people can cope with shocks and setbacks and others can’t, with many case studies, and at the implications for policy, philanthropy and public action.
You can download the report here. It is quite lengthy so you can read a summary.

Partnership and representation - Health Social Care and Housing Partnership Board

New voluntary sector representatives to the Health Social Care &Housing Partnership Board took up their places in September. Three nominations were received for three places so an election was not required. You can read to supporting statements here. They are required to prepare a report following the meetings. If you would like to receive copies of these by email contact Stephen Blann Policy & Networks Officer at Community Links Bromley.
This board is part of the Local strategic Partnership Structure to see a structure diagram go here .
Many important plans and policies are decided by this multi – agency partnership structure. To find out more go to  detailed article and diagram. These new representatives will report back to, and consult with the Voluntary sector reference group and through that to various forums. Click here for more detail

 Local Authorities - Duty to Involve

The legal “duty to involve” placed on local authorities comes into force on 1st April 2009. In essence local councils must allow local communities a say in decisions that affect them. It is contained in the Local Government Act 1999 as amended by the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007.   
Of course some of this overlaps with the Big Society and the ‘localism’ agenda of the new government – but the idea of legal duties and top down targets and enforcement less so. Until things become clearer the duty remains so here’s some information about the Duty to Involve. 

The Government has also produced statutory guidance for local councils on their responsibilities around partnership, community engagement and sustainable communities act. It is called Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous Communities.
Neither the Acts nor the guidance specifies any particular ways to fulfill the duty - the important this is that councils do what works best for them and their communities. Similarly it does not specify any sanctions for failure to satisfy the duty or how citizens may take action to enforce the duty. However it is likely that the new Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA - the way the Government measures councils’ effectiveness) conducted by the Audit Commission will consider how well councils are discharging their duty to involve as part of its broader assessment.

Extract from Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous Communities, statutory guidance for councils –
“The duty requires authorities to take those steps they consider appropriate to involve representatives of local persons in the exercise of any of their functions, where they consider that it is appropriate to do so. It specifies the three ways of involving that need to be covered in this consideration:

“Local persons” are not just the residents but a whole range of bodies such as charities, community groups, businesses and others that might be affected. Once people are invited to take part the extent to which they can affect the outcome should be made clear. However if a council consistently invites people to take part and says that their input will make little difference then it may not be meeting the duty or showing bad faith. If there is more than one stage people should continue to be involved - but this doesn’t mean that new people should be excluded.

”Authorities regularly need to make decisions about how best to engage their local community. In terms of fulfilling the duty we would expect authorities to consider Accessibility, Proportionality, Coordination, Partnership-working and Timing”.
NOTE: much of this may be overtaken by Big Society initiatives
Stephen Blann,
Policy & Networks Officer,
Community Links Bromley
August 2010

Page updated: 6 August 2010