Local Government In England Research Articles

More open, more democratic or better at hiding? Two decades of local government transparency in the UK

ABSTRACT Local government has long been the site of experiments and innovation in transparency. Since the 1990s waves of reforms have sought to open up local government in Britain, from the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act in the 2000s to Open Data in the 2010s. This paper looks across the evidence to see how well these new transparency tools have worked, who is using them and why. It then moves to analyse what impact the changes have had on local government, in line with hopes of campaigners and fears of (some) politicians. Have reforms succeeded in making local government more open, more accountable and more participative, and in what situations? Or have they, as some claim, simply driven decision-making into other arenas, and made local bodies ‘better at hiding’? Finally, how does transparency sit with the fragmented and disjointed landscape of local politics today, from outsourcing and devolution to financial crisis?

Information, Institutions, and Local Government in England, 1550-1700: Turning Inside

Information, Institutions, and Local Government in England, 1550-1700: Turning Inside

Public acceptability of proposals to manage new takeaway food outlets near schools: cross-sectional analysis of the 2021 International Food Policy Study

ABSTRACT Global trends indicate that takeaway food is commonly accessible in neighbourhood food environments. Local governments in England can use spatial planning to manage the opening of new takeaway outlets in ‘takeaway management zones around schools’ (known sometimes as ‘exclusion zones’). We analysed data from the 2021 International Food Policy Study to investigate public acceptability of takeaway management zones around schools. Among adults living in Great Britain (n = 3323), 50.8% supported, 8.9% opposed, and 37.3% were neutral about the adoption of these zones. Almost three-quarters (70.4%) believed that these zones would help young people to eat better. Among 16-17 year olds (n = 354), 33.3% agreed that young people would consume takeaway food less often if there were fewer takeaways near schools. Using adjusted logistic regression, we identified multiple correlates of public support for and perceived effectiveness of takeaway management zones. Odds of support were strongest among adults reporting that there were currently too many takeaways in their neighbourhood food environment (odds ratio: 2.32; 95% confidence intervals: 1.61, 3.35). High levels of support alongside limited opposition indicate that proposals for takeaway management zones around schools would not receive substantial public disapproval. Policy makers should not, therefore, use limited public support to rationalise policy inertia.

‘What I really want is academics who want to partner and who care about the outcome’: findings from a mixed-methods study of evidence use in local government in England

Background:Local government (LG) is ideally placed to influence the determinants of public health (PH) and reduce inequalities, but opportunities are routinely missed. Aims and objectives:The aim of the Local Authority Champions of Research (LACoR) study was to explore ways to embed a culture of evidence use in LG. Methods:Five linked work packages were undertaken using mixed methods. In this paper, we report data from semi-structured interviews with UK local authority (LA) staff (n=14). Findings:Findings show a changing culture of LG: embedded researchers can enhance connectivity and interaction, build linkages, use levers of influence, and learn alongside LG navigators. Understanding the diverse microcultures of evidence use in LG is critical. Research champions can help to navigate the social, financial, political and regulatory context of LG and academia, influencing change dynamically as opportunities emerge. Discussion:Changing organisational subcultures is ambitious and unpredictable given the complexities of, and variability in, local contexts. Cumulative changes appear possible by recognising existing assets, using relational approaches to respond to LG priorities. In-house capacity remains underestimated and underutilised in efforts to embed evidence use in LG decision making. Co-located embedded researchers can use contextually specific knowledge and relationships to enhance evidence use in LG in collaboration with system navigators. Conclusions:There is a need for academics to adapt their approach, to take account of the context of LG to achieve meaningful health and social impacts with LG and test the contribution of embedded approaches to wider system change.

Typology of how ‘harmful commodity industries’ interact with local governments in England: a critical interpretive synthesis

IntroductionIndustries that produce and market potentially harmful commodities or services (eg, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, less healthy foods and beverages) are a major influence on the drivers of behavioural risk factors...

An Assessment of the Resilience of Local Government in England: Was it Well‐Equipped to Overcome the Covid‐19 Pandemic?

AbstractThis article explores the resilience of local government in England and its ability to cope during the Covid‐19 pandemic. The resilience of local government is explored in three areas: its ability to cope financially; contain and manage risks; and promote civic engagement and collaborations with other sectors. By drawing on the evolutionary perspective of resilience, the article explores whether local government in England was well‐equipped to overcome a crisis of such scale. In particular, it does so by exploring the institutional context of local government and how it shaped the resilience of local government and influenced its ability to develop the type of resources needed to cope with the Covid‐19 crisis. The analysis shows a mixed and complex picture. While there is evidence that points to the ability of local government to contain the risks of the pandemic, protect their communities and engage in innovative practices, there is also evidence that points to the fragility and vulnerabilities of local government. The article concludes that local government was not well‐equipped to overcome the pandemic crisis, thus affecting its ability to provide a better response to, and management of it.

Ideational bricolage as a route to transforming local institutions for heat decarbonisation: heat networks and local government in England

ABSTRACT Heat networks could play a significant role in energy system decarbonisation. Unlike much energy infrastructure, heat networks are developed at a local-scale, raising questions about which actors and institutions, at which scales, will most effectively deliver networks. This paper examines different ideas about the role of local government and the translation of those ideas into the institutional framework for heat networks in England. The paper applies a discursive institutionalist approach to analyse ideas and discourses across three case studies and at the national level. We argue that there is a push back by local governments against the UK government dominant discourse of the efficient market in respect to heat network development. This model constitutes the role of local governments as enabling and convening actors, while emphasising techno-economic feasibility and private finance. There is, however, evidence of local governments specifying a more central ensuring role and incorporating local public goods beyond financial returns. We highlight ideational bricolage as a process by which the local state can mobilise ideational power to challenge dominant discourses. This demonstrates how powerful institutions, and their discursive components, can be disrupted – and potentially displaced – by locally led emergent, and perhaps only partially coherent, assemblages of ideas.

Enabling cyber incident collaboration in UK local government through fast-time communication

This paper brings together concepts and ideas to support organisations in implementing cyber incident response and coordination, especially focusing on the need for fast-time communications. Normal business operations are slow-time communication, with the shift to fast-time communication occurring during an operational incident. A good example of fast-time communication is instant messaging as opposed to slow-time e-mail. We are proposing a number of strands to formulate an approach. We realised the standard Playstation 3 theme (P3T) approach applies to fast-time communications and can be augmented to provide a novel application of the P3T. We propose to add governance to ensure that the scope application and use is appropriate, within the scope of a threat profile. We also propose to make use of the consequence relevance acceleration severity and harm (crash) gate framework which facilitates the definition of trigger points for escalation in cyber incident response planning and response. We will present some use cases and explain how to integrate them into existing operating processes and procedures. The temporal activities matrix is discussed, which explains the different slow-time/fast-time activities in a cyber response team/security operations centre (SOC). This paper comes at the end of a three-year work programme for local government in England led by MHCLG which focused on cyber resilience from the ICT side and started to build an approach and capacity within the Local Resilience Forums (LRFs). The work delivered a wide range of workshops and cyber exercises for the English LRFs. There was also a similar programme run by the Welsh Government for the wider public sector in Wales. Finally we explore future research considering an additional application around smart cities, incorporating zero trust architecture.

National policy piloting as steering at a distance: The perspective of local implementers

AbstractThis article contributes to the literature on tools of governance by examining the role of national policy pilots from the perspective of local implementers, using interviews with directors of adult social services in elected local government in England. Previous research in the same settings has shown that local actors often find the experience of participating in national policy pilots frustrating. This article attempts to explain why local authorities volunteer for such schemes. Drawing on the literature on the varieties of experimentalism and Anglo‐Governmentality, the article explores the ambiguous role of piloting in multilevel governance and reflects on its implications for policy implementation and local service development. Findings suggest that participating in national pilots provides local authorities with access to ideas and resources, and with a mandate for change, which motivates them to voluntarily subjugate themselves to being “steered at a distance” as they align themselves with central government's policy goals.

Service Evaluation of the English Refugee Health Information System: Considerations and Recommendations for Effective Resettlement.

Since 2015, the UK has resettled over 25,000 refugees. To support resettlement and integration, refugees undergo a pre-arrival medical health assessment (MHA), which is used for healthcare planning by local government in England. This study aimed to understand the utility and effectiveness of the MHA and flow of data to support resettlement planning. Seven local government representatives were interviewed regarding their experiences and perceptions of the refugee health information system (HIS) and the MHA for resettlement in England. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The three themes indicated that the HIS was perceived to be effective, however, issues on governance, timeliness of information and access were identified. Findings showed that for the MHA to be more useful for planning, assessments for mental health issues and child special educational needs (SEN) are needed. Findings also indicated resettlement promoted joint working and acceptability of refugee resettlement. In areas where data sharing and governance processes are well defined, the HIS is effective and the MHA supports resettlement. National agencies should put structures in place to support timely health information flow.

The Role of Public Health Expenditures in COVID-19 control: Evidence from Local Governments in England

For over 150 years the local health departments of England have been critical in controlling 19th and 20th century infectious epidemics. However, recent administrative changes have hollowed out their flexibility to serve communities. We use administrative data on past budgetary allocations per capita to public health departments at upper tier local areas (UTLAs) of England to examine whether public health funding levels were correlated with more rapid control of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic between March and July of 2020. The dependent variable was the number of days between a UTLA's 10th case of COVID-19 and the day when new cases per 100,000 peaked and began to decline. Our models controlled for regional socio-economic factors. We found no correlation between local public health expenditure and the speed of control of COVID-19. However, overall public expenditure allocated to improve local areas helped reduce time to reach peak. Contrary to expectation, more dense areas such as London experienced shorter duration. Higher income areas had more rapid success in accelerating the time of the first peak in the first wave of their local COVID-19 incidence. We contribute to understanding the impact of how public expenditure and socio-economic factors affect an epidemic.

The impact of school exclusion zone planning guidance on the number and type of food outlets in an English local authority: A longitudinal analysis.

The use of planning policy to manage and create a healthy food environment has become a popular policy tool for local governments in England. To date there has been no evaluation of their short-term impact on the built environment. We assess if planning guidance restricting new fast food outlets within 400 m of a secondary school, influences the food environment in the local authority of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. We have administrative data on all food outlets in Newcastle 3 years pre-intervention 2012–2015, the intervention year 2016, and three years’ post-intervention 2016–2019. We employ a difference-in-difference approach comparing postcodes within the school fast food outlet exclusion zone to those outside the fast-food exclusion zones. In the short term (3 years), planning guidance to limit the number of new fast-food outlets in a school exclusion zone did not have a statistically significant impact on the food environment when compared with a control zone.

An overview of current issues and practice relating to local government cyber security in England and Wales

This paper explores some of the current issues around cyber security and resilience relating to local government in England and Wales, covering the period of the current National Cyber Security Programme from 2015 to 2020. The paper outlines the structure of cyber security and resilience and explains the linkages at a regional and devolved administration level in the case of Wales and UK national level. The paper introduces the concept of a cyber asset taxonomy to quantify cyber artefacts, to aid the early warning of organisations with particular type of equipment, systems and services. There is also discussion around a volunteer-led CyberShare Node/Fusion Cell structure to aid incident response in a cost-effective way. Finally, there is a description of current research which will result in future papers.

Organisation and Management of Local Government in Britain

Organisation and Management of Local Government in Britain

Anal cancer survival: a socioeconomic analysis.

Squamous cell carcinoma is the most common variant of anal malignancy. Certain disease-related factors have been established in determining survival. These include tumour size, differentiation and nodal involvement. Other factors such as HIV status, human papillomavirus infection, smoking and socioeconomic disparity may have important roles, however few data are available on the UK population. We aim to correlate social deprivation and survival of anal cancer patients at a tertiary centre. All consecutive cases diagnosed with anal squamous cell carcinoma and treated as per local protocol between July 2010 and April 2017 were included. The pathological and demographical details were collected from a prospectively maintained database. Socioeconomic deprivation was defined for each postcode using the Index of Multiple Deprivation decile compiled by local governments in England. Survival was estimated using Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression was used to investigate the effect of different factors on overall survival. A total of 129 patients with anal squamous cell carcinoma over a median follow-up of 43 months were included. Overall survival for the entire patient cohort was 87.7% (95% confidence interval, CI, 82.0-93.7%), 75.5% (95% CI 67.5-84.5%) and 68.9% (95% CI 59.7-79.6%) at one year, three years and five years, respectively. On multivariate analysis, Index of Multiple Deprivation and income do not significantly influence overall survival (p = 0.79, hazard ratio, HR, 1.07; 95% CI 0.61-1.63), (p = 0.99, HR=1.00; 95% CI 0.61-1.63), respectively. Increased risk of death was observed for male sex (p = 0.02, HR=2.80; 95% CI 1.02-5.50) and larger tumour size (p = 0.01, HR=1.64; 95% CI 1.12-2.41). In contrast to US studies, there is little difference in survival between the least deprived and most deprived groups. We attribute this to equal access to intensity-modulated radiation therapy-based chemoradiotherapy. Thus, a highly effective treatment made available to all mitigates any survival difference between socioeconomic groups.

The impact of demographic trends on local government financial reserves: evidence from England

ABSTRACT Local government in England has experienced significant financial volatility in recent years due to cuts in central government funding and increased demand for service provision. Using a panel data set of English local governments over the period 2005–2016, this study investigates the impact of demographic factors on the financial reserves held by different types of English local governments. Dissimilar effects are traced on local governments’ saving capability of different grant funding mechanisms and whether local governments are involved in social care provision, and how they provide these services. Findings show that local governments actively act upon financial uncertainty by expanding their reserves through implementing changes in both their income and expenditure structures, including revenue generation through alternative sources such as capital investment. The potential, however, to expand reserves differs significantly between local governments and has reduced due to growing demand for social care services.

The Alexafication of Adult Social Care: Virtual Assistants and the Changing Role of Local Government in England.

Voice controlled virtual assistants, delivered via consumer devices such as smart speakers and tablets, are being trialled by local authorities across England as a convenient and low-cost supplement or potential alternative to “traditional” telecare. Few papers have explored this increasingly widespread phenomenon, despite its growing importance. This article looks at choices by some local authorities to trial Alexa, within the context of the ongoing care crisis in England, with councils facing depleted funds, a lack of expert guidance on care technologies, and an increasingly complex and fragmented care technology marketplace. It draws on interviews with managers from eight English local authorities involved in the commissioning and trialling of technologies for adult social care to examine how and why virtual assistants are being implemented, and what implications their use might hold for care. Scaling up the application of such technologies could shift the role of local authorities towards one of an app developer and data broker, while generating considerable risks of reliance on the precarious technological infrastructure of global corporations that may have little interest in or sensitivity towards local care concerns. The findings suggest an urgent need for a national social care technology strategy and increased support for local authorities.

Local government in England: evolution and long-term trends

This paper traces the history of local government in England (as opposed to the United Kingdom) since the early nineteenth century, and explores five long-term trends in its evolution. These are path dependence; the occurrence of major structural change; the phenomenon of policy reversal; the treatment of urban areas; and resistance to regional government. The author concludes that throughout the period under study, policy towards local government has exhibited a ‘pendulum effect’, with two opposing emphases operating in a sequential, rather than a simultaneous manner.

Structural and Functional Comparison of Local Governments in England and in Turkey

Türkiye’de yerel yönetimler diğer devletler ile kıyaslandığında daha geç bugünkü anlamına kavuşmuştur. Tanzimat dönemi Osmanlı Devleti’nde bugünkü manada yerel yönetimlerinde ortaya çıktığı dönemdir. Üniter devletlerde kamusal mal ve hizmet sunumu merkezi yönetim ile yerel yönetimler arasında paylaşılmaktadır. Federal devletlerde ise federal devlet, federe birimler ve yerel yönetimler mal ve hizmet sunumunu gerçekleştirmektedirler. Birçok batılı devlette yerel yönetimler sivil toplum örgütü olarak ortaya çıkmıştır. Yerel yönetimlerin geçmişi ise orta çağa kadar uzanmaktadır. Ülkemizde ortaya çıkışı ve gelişimi ise kendine özgüdür. Osmanlı Devleti’nde de yerel hizmetleri yürüten birimler vardı ancak bu birimler Osmanlı idari sistemi içinde kendine has kurumlardı. İngiltere’de yerel yönetimin ortaya çıkışı ve gelişimi ülkemizde ortaya çıkışı ve gelişimi farklı özellikte olduğu için mevcut durumda da birçok farklılıkları bünyelerinde taşımaktadırlar. Çalışmanın amacı eski ve köklü bir yerel yönetim geleneğine sahip olan İngiltere’deki yerel yönetimler ile ülkemizdeki yerel yönetimlerin karşılaştırmalı olarak hukuki ve örgütsel boyutlarının ele alınmasıdır. Çalışma literatür taramasına dayalı bir nitel araştırmadır. Karşılaştırma yapılmıştır.

Homeless Applicants with Dissatisfactory Decisions, Appropriate Dispute Processing and Access to Justice

This short article examines the situation of the homeless applicant in relation to unsatisfactory decisions when attempting to secure temporary accommodation from local government in England. The issues of appropriate dispute processing, or methods of redress, and whether in practice legal and other remedies are available to applicants, should be analysed in the context of power imbalance in the applicant and local government officer relationship. Additionally, the applicant’s vulnerability, which led to the request for assistance in the first place, would need to be considered. Given that applicants are more likely not to challenge unsatisfactory decisions, socio-legal tools could assist in acquiring an insight into why this might be the applicant’s default position.