Comments on: A post bureaucratic Barnet?

By: matthewtaylor

matthewtaylor — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:48:14 +0000

I agree Rich. There is a lot more to Barnet than extra charges.

By: Rich Watts

Rich Watts — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:14:08 +0000

The talk of Barnet as an ‘easyCouncil’ has been flippant – I don’t think it is an understatement to think that the vast majority of all top-tier local authorities are looking to see how their transformation initiative works in practice.

For me, a lot of the principles to be found in social care — a personalised system that responds to people’s choices over what care and support they need; good provision of information, advice and guidance from a variety of sources (including the third sector); and access to high quality advocacy; making the most of the social capital within a locality — are being applied by Barnet to the whole scope of a LA’s services. Furthermore, problems that have arisen because of choice in other policy sectors because of choice / personalisation (e.g. admissions in schools, choice in healthcare) are also being addressed by Barnet.

It will be interesting to see how it all goes…

By: matthewtaylor

matthewtaylor — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:09:11 +0000

I agree Michael. The challenge is that the benefits of the strategy are long term and the budget cuts short term.

By: matthewtaylor

matthewtaylor — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:05:45 +0000

Thanks David. Interesting

By: matthewtaylor

matthewtaylor — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:05:28 +0000

I agree. In fact most of the Barnet plan could come from any progressive think tank discussing the way forward for public services. The explicitly right of centre bits, if there are any, are the emphasis on cutting costs (but as we now know all parties agree on that) and the lack of concern about having some two tier services (which is a more difficult issue).