What are Community Budgets and
what are we doing in Oldham?
“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years
ago, the next best time is now”.
Rt Hon Francis Maude MP, quoting an old African
proverb
What do we mean by
‘Community Budgets’?
How are Community Budgets
useful?
Why?
• Massive savings required!
• We’ve always argued that we’d get better
value for public sector money if we had the
flexibility to use resources more effectively
across the public sector
• Same argument applies equally to capital
and revenue, and to all service areas –
economic development, transport, social
care, education etc. etc.
• GM Whole Place Community Budget pilot
Generic example:
• Vision = CBs as a tool to make reform of public
services happen
 Objective = a tool to prompt multi-agency
conversations about joint outcomes and joint
investment to achieve those outcomes
 Example = parties x, y & z invest £2m to
achieve b outcomes; resulting in savings for
party y of £5m. Party y agree to pay £2.5m of
these savings back into the common pot
 Outcome = investment-focused mindset and
opens potential for range of investors e.g. local
partners, private sector, government
departments…
Understand who invests & saves
100,000
90,000
80,000
70,000
60,000
£
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
Criminal
Justice
System
Reactive Cost savings
Local
Authorities
Health
Benefits
Payments
Proactive Costs
Police
Housing
Milestones in the process
STAGE 1: designing an evidencebased community budget
proposal and agreeing evidencebased outcomes – e.g.
- Research to identify community
needs, issues with current public
services and local people’s
drivers/motivators for change
Decision-makers/commissioners
across partnership identify their key
outcomes based on the evidence
- Deliverers across partnership
identify options for how to change
the delivery system across the
partnership to meet the key
outcomes, including clarity on which
outcomes the proposed intervention
will contribute to
STAGE 2: identifying costs and
undertaking CBA: Options
appraisal carried out using costbenefit analysis
STAGE 3: Partnership decision on
which option(s) to go for, and
commitment to resource – SIGNING
AN INVESTMENT AGREEMENT
Implementation and review
Why do we think this will work?
• Because we know there are inefficiencies at the
moment;
• We also know there are areas where demand for
public sector services could be reduced;
• E.g. fly-tipping – a range of agencies want to
reduce fly-tipping;
• Between us, we estimate we spend £3-4m on
clearing up fly-tipping
• 2 approaches to reducing this spend:
– 1. Join up better so we don’t duplicate functions when
clearing up fly-tipping – straightforward efficiency;
– 2. Reduce demand – if people don’t fly-tip in the first
place, we don’t have to clear it up.
What are we doing in
Oldham?
Range of ‘social policy’
projects
Yellow = universal
services that help
prevent families
becoming troubled
Blue = families who
have become troubled,
perhaps for multiple
reasons
And some more focused ones…
• Failsworth and Hollinwood health and wellbeing
• Total Environment – focus on fly-tipping
• Fuel poverty
Questions/discussion
Contact details for further information:
Liz Hume (liz.hume@oldham.gov.uk;
0161 7705691; 07753715577)