Getting the pieces to fit: service redesign during the LGR pause

Abstract glass panels representing service redesign during the LGR pause

Getting the pieces to fit: service redesign during the LGR pause 

The pause in local government reorganisation leaves affected councils with an uncertain planning horizon. Could there be another year to prepare? Could it be longer? While the timetable remains under review, councils have an opportunity to consider what they can usefully do now. 

One answer is to redesign services with a future unitary in mind: improving delivery today, helping to manage financial pressures and making it easier for services to come together tomorrow. Think of it as a jigsaw. We need to get ourselves into the right shape. Crucially, we need to do that alongside the people shaping the pieces around us. 

Start with the picture we want to create 

In a conventional jigsaw, we can see the picture on the box. In local government reorganisation, parts of that picture remain undecided. 

Even so, councils can agree on the key outcomes of better services: fewer handovers between teams, earlier support, clearer accountability and a reduced need for residents to repeat their circumstances. 

This starting point is underpinned by the data gathering, analysis and relationship-building undertaken during recent preparatory phases. 

The question for each service is: how would we design this if we were responsible for the entire journey a resident takes?  

A housing service might examine its connections with adult social care. A homelessness team might work with children's services to understand how families move between them. Waste collection and disposal teams might explore how their decisions affect the performance of the whole service. 

Work on the joins 

A service can perform well within its own boundaries while contributing to a frustrating experience across the wider system. 

A referral may be completed promptly yet leave someone waiting for another assessment. One team may reduce expenditure while increasing demand elsewhere. A digital process may simplify a transaction without resolving the underlying need. 

These are useful places to begin. 

Councils can jointly review where residents move between services and tiers: what information follows them, where responsibility changes and how often they have to start again. 

For example, housing, occupational therapy and social care colleagues could examine the journey for someone needing adaptations to remain at home. Together, they could identify delays and test improvements within existing arrangements. 

That work can deliver value today and provide a tested foundation for a future unitary service. 

Shape the pieces together 

Getting ready to "slot in" means making services easier to connect, combine and adapt. It also means being willing to change the shape of existing services as a better shared model emerges.   

Districts and counties both bring capabilities, relationships and knowledge that future services will need. Neighbouring councils delivering similar functions should also be part of the conversation. 

A practical starting point is ensuring that everyone is working from the same picture: a shared understanding of demand, outcomes, costs and dependencies. Councils can then agree clearer referral routes, compatible information-sharing arrangements and common measures, alongside a shared understanding of what should remain local. 

Build on the relationships already developed  

The work undertaken so far has brought people together. Relationships between officers and members, and partnerships between organisations, are valuable foundations for service redesign. Councils should actively sustain them during the pause. 

Knowing who to call, understanding another team's pressures and having enough trust to discuss what is not working can help resolve problems that cross organisational boundaries. Existing partnerships provide a place to agree priorities, test ideas and work through differences. 

These connections can bring the right people around a shared service challenge. Capturing what they learn and establishing shared ways of working will help progress continue when individuals move on. 

Match the work to the time available 

Councils need a programme that can adapt as the timetable becomes clearer. 

If time is limited, priorities might include understanding service journeys, improving data quality, simplifying processes and testing a few changes across tiers. With more time, councils could extend successful pilots and develop shared capabilities. 

Each proposal should pass two tests: will it improve outcomes or sustainability under current arrangements, and will it make future integration easier? 

Capacity remains constrained, so selecting a manageable number of service challenges will matter. Involving residents and frontline staff will help councils focus effort where it makes a difference. 

Give the future council a better starting point 

The result should be tangible: better services, stronger working relationships and fewer unresolved problems for a successor organisation to inherit. 

Reorganisation can bring services together within a single council. Making those services work together takes deliberate design. 

The pause offers an opportunity to begin that design earlier. When the time comes to assemble the new organisation, the quality of the joins will matter as much as the shape of the pieces.