Note of ACCE Advisory Group meeting held on Friday 1 July 2016 at Local Government Hse, Smith Sq., London

Present

John Courouble (Oxfordshire County Council)

Alex James (Hertfordshire County Council)

Jackie Mould (Leicestershire County Council)

Caroline Davison (Suffolk County Council)

Andrew Donaldson (Staffordshire County Council)

Roland Pyle (Devon County Council)

Neil Irving (North Yorkshire County Council)

Alastair Gordon (Essex County Council)

Natalia Silver (Herefordshire Council)

Simon Edwards (County Councils Network)

  1. Welcome/introductions

Roland Pyle welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologies were taken as read.

  1. ACCE Advisory Group roles

ACCE Advisory Group roles were proposed and agreed as:

  • Chairman - Andrew Donaldson (Staffordshire County Council)
  • Vice Chairman – John Courouble (Oxfordshire County Council)
  • Secretary/coordinator – Roland Pyle (Devon County Council)

Roland thanked Andrew Donaldson for agreeing to take over from him as chairman of the AG.

  1. Feedback from ACCE Spring Seminar (12/13 May 2016 – Lincolnshire)

Andrew Donaldson fed back from the Association of County Chief Executives’ Spring Seminar held in Lincolnshire on 12/13 May 2016 where he had participated as the AG’s representative. ACCE members had had presentations from:

Louise Casey (Director General, Casey Review Team – DCLG) on the review she is leading into opportunity and integration in some of our most isolated communities which is due to report later this year.

Melanie Dawes (Permanent Secretary for DCLG) who talked about the importance of local government to move forward, the imperatives of the NHS Five Year Forward View and the importance of county area local authorities and their chief executives.

Mark Lloyd (Chief Executive of the LGA) who highlighted the forthcoming LGA green paper on devolution and the challenges of health and social care integration for the NHS and local authorities.

There was a broad consensus at the ACCE Spring Seminar that the focus for ACCE is:

  • Learning, challenge and peer support
  • Intelligence gathering
  • Policy development and formulation.

The three priority areas which ACCE identified at the Spring Seminar for work are:

  • Health and social care integration –esp. Sustainability and Transformation Plans
  • Devolution and public sector reform in non-metropolitan areas
  • Reform of business rates

ACCE agreed the need to identify a work programme to support ACCE and reinvigorate the AG. Action: Andrew Donaldson/John Courouble/Roland Pyle to discuss with Tony McArdle (Lincs CC and Chairman of ACCE) and Jim Graham (Warwickshire CC and Hon. Sec. to ACCE)

ACCE is due to meet on Wednesday 6th July during the LGA conference. Action: ACCE AG Vice Chairman John Courouble (Oxfordshire CC) hoped to be able to participate in that meeting as the AG’s representative.

  1. County Councils Network update

Simon Edwards briefed the AG on current areas of CCN’s work, including:

Business rates reform

CCN/Society of County Treasurers are involved in joint working groups with the RSN, LGA and DCLG on

  • Needs and Redistribution
  • System Design
  • Devolution and Responsibilities
  • Accounting and Accountability

The overall timetable is:

Mid-July 2016 New Burdens Guidance to be published

System Design Summer consultation launched

New Responsibilities consultation published over the summer 2016

Consultation of Formula Principles by the end of 2016

Consultation on Needs Formula Summer 2018

Possible implementation of 100% Business Rates Retention by 2018-19

Possible Implementation of new formula from 2019-20

CCN has commissioned a report which will address a range of questions about how the current and future rate-retention regimes work. The answers will help CCN to understand how CCN member authorities have fared in the current system, and how they could be better advantaged by changes to the system.

Devolution and public sector reform

CCN work is considering various reform opportunities and risks, and developing an evidence-based and comprehensive vision for the future of public services in county areas. Projects and actions include:

  • An independent study into applying the lessons from the 1990s and 2009 local government reforms.
  • Qualitative primary and secondary research to explore whether there are significant differences in the capacity of the two generations of unitary councils to enable CCN to respond to the challenges and opportunities facing local government today.
  • Engagement with CCN county unitary local authorities on locality governance and service delivery arrangements.
  • Engagement with Members of Parliament to discuss the size and scale of county area local authorities.
  1. Strategic Capability Framework (Petra Crees (Essex CC), Ben Seears (CIPFA) and Andrew Hill (CIPFA))

Presentation on an interactive tool which helps understanding of strategic capability – see attached.

Developed in partnership with Essex County Council and practitioners from, health, local government and central government this model enables pinpointing of strategic capability.

Agreed that this could be a very useful tool to use, particularly as part of a LGA Peer Challenge.

If you are interested in finding out more – contact

  1. Presentation of study tour to Japan: challenge of ageing society and shrinking population – responses being developed by Japanese local authorities

Neil Irving (North Yorkshire County Council) gave a presentation (see attached) on the group visit to Japan which was supported by the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations.

7. Date of next meeting

10.30am -3.30pm, Weds 5 October 2016: Local Government Hse., Smith Square, London

Suggested agenda items/presentations for next meeting

  • Invite IPPR to give a presentation on their work on the future of public services in non-metropolitan England
  • Invite Tony McArdle/Jim Graham from ACCE to participate in the meeting
  • Offers welcome from AG members to give a 30min presentation on a topic, area of interest or study…..