News
Insight: essential youth sector analysis and reflection – Issue 6, 6 October 2010
06 October 2010
Localism
What is localism?
Localism describes a range of political philosophies which prioritize the ‘local’ over the ‘national’, or the ‘global’. Localist politics have been approached from different directions by different groups. Generally, the concept supports local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and local culture and identity.
The concept has been used in association with a range of public services (e.g. police, health) and sometimes in association with the idea of choice for service users and personalisation.
Why are we talking about it now?
Localism is not a new concept, but has been a political buzzword since the election of the Coalition Government earlier this year. The Communities and Local Government Committee is conducting an inquiry into the Government’s plans for localism and decentralisation of public services, for which the consultation period ended last Friday 1st October.
The localism bill, due in November, has gained press attention, together with the communities and local government secretary behind it, Eric Pickles, who has heralded a “new golden age”. As part of this, Pickles has promised new legislation to introduce referenda on the election of mayors in each of England’s twelve largest cities. These mayors would have increased spending powers and be expected to create savings through pooling budgets.
The number 10 website promotes some of the main benefits of the bill as:
- Empowering local people.
- Freeing local government from central and regional control.
- Giving local communities a real share in local growth.
- A more efficient and more local planning system.
Elements of the bill include:
- Greater financial autonomy to local government and community groups.
- New powers to help save local facilities and services threatened with closure, and give communities the right to bid to take over local state-run services.
These elements link to ideas expressed under the banner of the ‘Big Society’ of more autonomy for local authorities and local services. Within the emerging key themes of the Big Society, a NCVO briefing identifies proposed powers, including:
- A ‘community right to buy’ scheme and a ‘right to bid’ for communities to take over local facilities.
- Neighbourhood grants for the UK’s poorest areas to encourage people to come together to form neighbourhood groups and support social enterprises and charities in these poorest areas.
These ideas are consistent with a Community Empowerment white paper (published July 2008) from the last administration which announced the creation of the Asset Transfer Unit to provide information and support for local authorities seeking to transfer assets or the management of assets to local community groups. In a comment piece for Children and Young People Now earlier this year, the chief executive of the NYA made the point that local authorities will be transferring capital assets as one way of supporting a movement of voluntarism.
What does it mean for services for young people?
It is difficult to predict at this stage how localism will shape our communities and services. However, the Coalition Government’s vision, together with the pressure on public finances, is likely to lead to changes in the way services for young people are funded and how they are delivered. How local decision-makers decide on priorities and how these priorities are presented to the public in a local authority area will be important.
The intention is ostensibly to ‘empower’ citizens to make decisions that affect the areas where they live. In theory, these opportunities should extend to young people.
Local authorities will be expected to become more accountable to local “residents” and “voters” rather than central government, the communities secretary has said. These phrases do not tend to include young people under the age of eighteen years. Young people are recognised as having a role to play in the Big Society, with National Citizen Service being the cornerstone of youth policy for the Coalition. It is designed to support young people to become active citizens in their local communities.
Perhaps the most extreme proposal to date, providing an early indication of potential interpretations of localism elsewhere, was recently voted through by councillors at Conservative-controlled Suffolk County Council. It is to proceed with plans for a "virtual" council that could outsource all public services to social enterprises, the voluntary sector or private companies. The aim is to turn the authority from one that provides public services itself, to an "enabling" council, which only commissions them. The council hopes that off-loading services could shave 30% off its £1.1bn budget, as part of the government's drive to reduce the fiscal deficit. Children's Centres in the county will be among the first to be handed over, probably to social enterprises, alongside other potential "early adopter" services, ranging from libraries and parks, to youth clubs and independent living centres. The rest will be divested in three phases from April 2011, as reported in The Guardian.
According to Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), commenting on an Ipsos Mori survey, there is public support for devolving power but not a great deal of support for the “postcode lotteries” that result. Young people living in local authority areas with the desire and ability to think further ahead may well find themselves with different services to those living in areas more inclined to make decisions driven by shorter term interests.
|
Next week there will be a bumper issue of Insight which will explore thinking around youth policy accumulated from the three party conferences. |