News

Tension between councillors and managers has emerged as new unitary authorities decide whether to collaborate on certain services Philip Whiteley and Natalie Valios report

The fear that the smaller new unitary authorities could be unviable has been a consistent theme for social services since local government reorganisation was proposed.

Now, as expected, the Audit Commission has found many services have been left intact, being run jointly by the authorities which replaced the old counties.

An examination of the 35 new Welsh and English authorities found around 40 joint agreements between 22 of them.

The extent of joint agreements varies considerably. For example, the four unitary authorities succeeding Cleveland County Council have agreed joint arrangements for 11 service areas.

Arrangements between all four unitaries, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland, Stockton and Hartlepool, include a remand service for young people, the emergency duty team, and the guardian ad litem and reporting officer service.

Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland have collaborated on a youth justice team, registration and inspection and hospital social work.

David Behan, social services director for Middlesbrough, said: 'There is no reason to suspect that they are not working but we need a year under our belts to know. The true test is whether clients get the right services and whether authorities renew the contracts year on year.'

In the five authorities covering the former Gwent area, there are five services provided jointly between the new authorities.

These are sheltered employment, registration and inspection, out of hours emergency social work, the area child protection committee, and training.

'How long some of these arrangements will persist is more open to doubt,' said Tom Begg, director of Newport social services.

'The registration and inspection unit is being kept on board pending the Moving Forward review [by the government]. Changing it once with the possibility of changing it again pretty quick didn't seem right.'

The arrangement for the area child protection committee will be reviewed before the end of the year.

'A lot of the emphasis was on continuity because it wouldn't have been possible to split it up within the time given,' said Begg.

Management arrangements vary. The sheltered workshop service has a management committee comprising elected members from the five authorities. The area child protection committee is run collectively, with Newport running the administration.

Begg denied the extent of joint arrangements meant new authorities had little autonomy. 'It sounds like a long list, but they're not necessarily huge in volume terms-[compared with] the bread and butter care assessment, management of provision and purchasing of services.'

Over the Severn Bridge the situation is different. The four unitary authorities replacing Avon have just one major service shared between them - the emergency duty team.

Arthur Keefe, social services chairperson in Bristol, said councils had been keen to establish their independence.

'Authorities outside Bristol did not want to be beholden to their larger neighbour and wanted to develop their own local services.

'And there was a degree of resistance from Bristol to entering into arrangements if there were no clear benefits to Bristol.'

Even the joint emergency team will be subject to review, though Keefe added: 'My hope is that it will continue in perpetuity: I don't believe the four can provide a cost-effective and adequate service on their own.'

There are also informal agreements, such as Bristol's decision not to charge North Somerset for use of a day centre by some of its residents, as there was a roughly equal flow the other way for a North Somerset service.

In some unitaries joint arrangements have already fallen through.

North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, Hull and East Riding, the four unitaries derived from Humberside Council, had a joint arrangement for an area child protection committee.

But this created problems over local accountability and ownership, said Bozena Allen, social services director at North East Lincolnshire.

The authority now has its own ACPC, because it was unclear which would be the responsible authority in certain situations.

'It's easier, clearer and simpler,' Allen said.

In North East Lincolnshire there will be a review after six months to examine whether the joint arrangements are working.

'We will look at needs of the area, access to services, and value for money,' said Allen. 'We are a stakeholder and we have to ensure our part of the whole jigsaw meets our requirements.'

All joint arrangements between the four unitaries in the Humberside area are for 12 months. Six months' notice is needed if one decides to pull out.

The emergency duty team, guardians ad litem, and inspection and registration have a four-way agreement.

North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire have a partnership for fostering and youth courts.

At Powys, social services director Tim Brown has noted what he described as 'a feeling by elected members that they wanted to run their own show but I think the feelings have mellowed a bit'.

Although the council has just one joint arrangement, Brown would be open to discussion with neighbouring authorities on other areas.

'I'm in favour of joint arrangements, bearing in mind that some authorities are quite small.'

Powys has a partnership arrangement for the guardian ad litem panel. This is shared between the four authorities resulting from Gwent Council's split and the three authorities which replaced Mid Glamorgan Council.

In north west Wales, the three counties replacing Gwynedd County - Ynys Mon, Conway and the new Gwynedd authority - have only one fully joint arrangement: the emergency team.

The new councils started with a list of no fewer than 26 areas of potential collaboration, but there was a strong push by councillors for local autonomy.

As in other areas, the situation is kept under review. Nonn Williams, Gwynedd's social services director, said: 'None of the arrangements are set in concrete: we are keen to co-operate but the process is difficult.'

Williams has ordered an independent review of the viability of the registration and inspection unit.

'Recruiting the right skill mix for each team is difficult,' she said. 'There are several issues to do with economies of scale and having enough numbers in the teams to make them viable.'

Also there are two-way agreements. For example, Ynys Mon and Gwynedd jointly pay for the social work element of the multi-disciplinary children's guidance service covering the area.

They also co-operate to arrange services for people with sensory impairments. In this service area, such consortia are not unusual, even between larger councils unaffected by reorganisation.

The one common theme across the different areas was the need to review the situation constantly.

This could be positive, as a way to ensure users of services get the best service.

But the early indications are that it may simply reflect a struggle between politicians wanting control over services and managers seeking value for money by pooling resources.