Irish Regions Office Website

December 08, 2009

UK trials 'whole area' approach to public services

A new British local government pilot programme is looking at how a ‘'whole area' approach to public services can offset the impact of the economic downturn by uncovering radical new solutions to not only achieve better value for money, but also better local services more tailored to local needs. The Total Place approach seeks to identify and avoid overlap and duplication between organisations, delivering a significant change in both efficiency and service improvement between the different agencies at local level, as well as in their interaction with central Government.

Thirteen pilot areas in England are adopting at least one of the various themes for investigation in order to explore in more detail how public money flows into a place and how the delivery system can be improved regardless of institutional structure. The pilots aim to identify and make widely available innovative models to deliver better, user-led local government services for less outlay. They will also identify ways in which central Government’s delivery structures could be changed to remove obstacles to frontline collaboration and innovation.

Further information

Posted by iroronan at December 8, 2009 02:22 PM