District view

摘要

One of the striking aspects from the recent LGA conference was the vibrancy of new ideas and innovations taking place in the sector. While there are always nay-sayers who think the art of partnership working is to sell to or take over the other organisation's services (if they even consider sharing services as an option), the growth of the members and officers who are committed to working together to provide high quality services for their communities (particularly in district councils), is something for the sector to be confident about. In any scenario there will be difficulties in transforming the way services are provided, from traditional in-house methods, to new 'alternative delivery vehicles'. Outsourcing is always an option, but the sector seems to want to provide new models which give councils the ability to trade and access new ways of funding the services. It is inevitable that some services may not be suitable for making a profit. If they were, the private sector would have come up with an option for local authorities.