Relational Practice X Place-Based Budgeting

In this article, Andrew Laird argues that the public service reform we all want to see will only happen if Place-Based Budgets are multiplied by Relational Practice.

The drive for more relational practice in public services feels like it is reaching a tipping point.

Relational practice is about getting past siloed thinking and seeing the whole person or family in front of you. A major blocker to this is obviously siloed budgets working their way down from Whitehall and how these unhelpfully twist and block how services are delivered.

But don’t despair! Place-based budget pilots were announced as part of the recent budget with the simple aim of bringing funding streams together around the needs of a place rather than the boundaries of individual departments.

Place-based budgets can only deliver the transformation we all hope for (and the efficiencies Finance Directors wish for) if they are combined with a genuine commitment to relational practice across local public services.

The flexibility of Place-based budgets can create the conditions for better collaboration and relational practice, but they do not guarantee it. This will only happen if the funding flexibility flows through Mayoral Strategic Authorities (the government’s chosen landing spot) to the point where support meets a real person.  

A relational renaissance

There has been a lot of focus on relational public service this past year. We have had conferences, many thought-pieces (books even!) charting the history, making policy suggestions and providing practical advice. On the deep-thinking side of things, particular honours have to go to the amazing Policy Evaluation and Research Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University (Hannah Hesselgreaves, Toby Lowe, Chris Fox, Rob Wilson and Mark Smith to mention a few). Their Towards Relational Public Services conference earlier this year was a highlight for me. I recorded an episode of the #RadicalReformers podcast there if you are interested to delve a bit deeper.

I enjoyed reading the brief history of relational practice by Becca Dove, Simon Parker and Ben Taylor. Joe Badman and Denis Vergne also have a book in the making - “The hidden history of Relational Services” – look out for that.

Our team at Mutual Ventures, working with Prof Donna Hall, Mark Smith and Georgina Cox are attempting to make our own contribution through our Radical Place Leadership work.

This work is focused on creating the enabling environment for relational practice.

Plenty has been written on this! Enough people now get that this is the antidote to the problematic incentives of New Public Management and the only way forward for a lot of public services.

We have reached an intellectual tipping point – but budgets and regulation remain a blocker.

Total Place 2.0 AKA Place-Based Budget Pilots

And so we have the much longed for Place-Based Budget Pilots, which were announced in the November budget. Hats off to Nick Kimber and others in the Test, Learn and Grow community who argued and cajoled for this.

FYI - my colleague Elizabeth Roe wrote about some of the lessons which can be learned from the first Total Place – Liz takes a dive into some of the pilot areas and it’s well worth a read.

We all know that England’s public service landscape remains dominated by tightly prescribed national funding streams, each with its own objectives, reporting requirements, and governance arrangements. It’s frustrating, infuriating even. Blah de blah - We all know this! The place-based budget pilots aim to cut through this by pooling budgets at a local level and aligning them with shared priorities across organisations. It follows that this could lead to better collaboration, reduced duplication, and the focusing of resources where they can have the greatest impact.

The Limiting Factor: What if power and resources are not shifted close enough to real people?

So far so good. And I’ll admit to being excited about this.

But there is a risk that this ends up only a partial reform—an administrative shift that moves Whitehall’s silos to a different tier rather than dismantling them. Unless these pilots go beyond technical budget alignment and empower the people and organisations who actually work with communities every day, the impact will be limited.

I am not suggesting for one second that Mayoral Strategic Authorities will collect these pooled budgets from Whitehall and proceed to focus on their own priorities and in effect reestablish siloes before passing the funding on to those who operate on the front line… I wouldn’t dare cast such unfounded aspersions… but they might do that…

Practical Recommendations: Turning Regional-level place-based budgets into transformed public services

Mayors and Mayoral Strategic Authorities need to be brave, bold and resist trying to control the system, instead focusing on convening, enabling and liberating it. They can model a new culture of place leadership that is collaborative, humble and relentlessly focused on outcomes for residents.

To ensure place-based budgets deliver more than administrative reform, Mayoral Strategic Authorities should:

1. Understand their role is to empower and enable not command and control!

   
   

2. Design governance that genuinely pushes power down to neighbourhood level - there is plenty of good thinking going on with Neighbourhood Area Committees (part of the local government re-organisation furniture) and the neighbourhood governance required as part of the Pride in Place programme. Let’s carry this good thinking into other reform areas like this!

   
   

3. Adopt shared outcomes frameworks with constituent councils and resist the establishment of performance regimes which pull teams back into siloes.

   
   

4. Insist that councils employ relational practice with the passed-down funding and support it through the provision of coaching and learning from programmes such as Changing Futures and business as usual models such as the Wigan Deal.

   
   

5. Insist on the creation of a genuine test and learn culture where staff are supported to use judgment, learn from mistakes and form genuine relationships with those they are supporting. The #TLG Network is growing and this should now be seen as less risky than more rigid ways of working.

   
   

Relational Practice X Place-Based Budgets = Real Change

Place-based budget pilots represent the most significant opportunity in well over a decade to redesign how public services work with people and communities. But this opportunity will be wasted if the focus remains on structures rather than behaviours, and on governance rather than relationships.

Put simply, budget flexibility is great - but relational practice is what gives purpose and coherence to budget flexibility. One without the other will not deliver the transformation we all want to see. At the end of the day, the needs of a "place" are nothing more than the combination of the needs of individual people and families.

Please do get in touch if this chimes with you or if you would like to share your own experience – andrew@mutualventures.co.uk.