Latest on RPA and local government

As part of the ongoing review of the Review of Public Administration begun by the Northern Ireland Executive PriceWaterhouseCoopers have been asked by government to carry out a consultative exercise to come up with a vision for local government. At a recent event in Belfast PWC set out what they have been hearing so far.

Emerging themes

Themes which emerged from the stakeholder engagement exercise included:

• community involvement and user engagement,
• service delivery,
• modernisation and
• the relationship between local and central government.

Consultees envisaged communities that are sustainable, vibrant, healthy, prosperous and stable.

Key principles

The emerging shared vision set out the following key principles:

• The interests of the citizen should be at the centre
• The focus should be on improving the quality of life, health and well-being of the community
• The vision should influence the functions and the numbers
• The vision should be closely linked to a vision for the NI public service as a whole
• Greater efficiencies and effectiveness through partnership working
• Councils should be empowered to respond flexibly to local need
• A vision should be evolving rather than fixed
• A vision should build on the existing strengths and successes of local government

Concerns

Those present at the feedback event added a range of views to those already gathered, including the concerning absence of democracy, equality and good relations, and representativeness from the vision.

The general sense of chaos and uncertainty around the whole RPA process at the moment was stressed as was the lack of a vision for Northern Ireland itself which might form a context for local government. The forthcoming Programme for Government should provide this overall context within the next few months.

Transfer of functions to local councils

Work is going on simultaneously within government to review the functions which might be handed over to local government and the number of councils. There is some concern that new Ministers may be reluctant to transfer any of their departmental functions to new local councils and thus that the role of the new councils might be somewhat more limited than the initial RPA proposals were suggesting. Although there still seems to be an appetite for the introduction of community planning, this might restrict the role which councils can play within it, or at least reduce any leverage they are likely to have.

What's next

Decisions are expected from the Northern Ireland Executive on this and other aspects of the RPA including health and education by the end of this year.