District councils urged to lead the way in devolution deals

The report, entitled ‘Building better collaboration’, was published by the University of Birmingham Institute for Local Government Studies (INLOGOV) and will be launched at the joint County Councils Network (CCN) and District Councils’ Network (DCN) summit on devolution.

The report argues that two-tier working has ‘stood the test of time’ and calls on district councils to take a leading role to drive reform in the wake of proposed devolution.

Five key themes are outlined the in the report: leadership, with council leaders taking responsibility for driving change; trust, stating that it is important to build rust across the public, private and third sectors; momentum, meaning that small objects should not be allowed to stall innovation; risk, with the report claiming that a shared sense of risk  can introduce a sense of urgency; and selflessness, with council’s urged to put in more resources than they expect to get back from innovative projects for the benefit of local local communities.

DCN chairman Neil Clarke said: “’Building Better Collaboration’ provides further evidence of the central role played by district councils in delivering better outcomes for communities, and emphasises the importance of collaboration across boundaries and sectors in achieving this.

“Districts are integral to such collaborative arrangements, and the ‘selfless’ behaviour identified by INLOGOV as a critical success factor is indeed ‘completely role-appropriate for districts’.

“THE DCN welcomes the report’s findings and will continue to promote the ‘preeminent collaborative leadership skills’ of districts to influence decision-makers, develop future work with our partners and provide support to our members.”

Read the report