Joint-working plan opposed

Brian Gibbons wanted extra powers

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Welsh ministers have been urged to drop a proposal to force unwilling councils to collaborate on service delivery.

The dispute has arisen over a shake-up of the Wales Programme for Improvement planned by Welsh social justice and local government minister Brian Gibbons, who has also outlined plans for legislation to end the Best Value system in the principality.

Mr Gibbons told an Association for Public Service Excellence conference that he wanted a reserve power "to direct collaboration between local authorities where it appears that citizens' or community interests would be best served by collaborative working".
But Welsh Local Government Association chief executive Steve Thomas has warned the assembly government that this power would undermine local democracy and sovereignty.

He said ministers might require councils to collaborate even when no sound business case existed.

"The WLGA cannot therefore conceive how such a proposed power could practically and successfully be implemented," Mr Thomas said.

Dr Gibbons later told LGC the power was necessary, but would be used sparingly and councils would gain a general power to collaborate voluntarily.

"Powers exist to intervene where the quality of service in a local authority needs it, and if they can be improved by collaboration it seems a reasonable step for us to be able to take," he said.

The minister said Best Value — introduced in 1999 — no longer fitted the way Welsh councils worked and restricted some attempts to secure improvement.

"It encourages short-termism and only focuses on incremental changes in measurable service outputs. This can lead to discouraging both longer-term strategy development and collaborative working."

Best Value would be replaced by a requirement on councils to seek improvement, compare their performance with each other and publish the results. Welsh ministers would set performance indicators where needed.

It is anticipated the new system would not lead to league tables similar to England's comprehensive performance assessment.