White paper empowers parishes The Government's latest white paper for local authorities will place more power in the hands of local councils. Emily Rogers looks at how this will affect youth service spending and young people in general.

Sawtry Parish Council won a community empowerment award earlier this year for building a shelter for young people. The council built the shelter despite stiff opposition from older residents.

In last month's local government white paper Strong and Prosperous Communities, the Government announced its intent to reward high-performing parish councils such as Sawtry, by giving them the "power of wellbeing": the freedom to take any action they think will best meet the needs of their community.

Dick Tuplin, chairman of Sawtry Parish Council, says: "If the county council was to give us the budget that it currently holds for youth work in the parish, I think the parish council would be able to make much better provision than the county council does."

Community decision

The Department for Communities and Local Government will spend the next few months producing reams of guidance on this and the other proposals contained in its long-awaited document, in the run-up to a Local Government Act, expected next spring.

In essence, the white paper aims to free up local authorities from the shackles of central government and enable them to develop local solutions to meet the needs of core groups such as young people. It also aims to put more decision-making in the hands of the communities.

Of course, the main question is whether young people can expect to see any changes as a result of all this. One thing they should expect to see is more responsive and supportive councillors. The proposals include the widespread introduction of the "community call for action", a system designed to empower ward councillors to resolve their constituents' problems themselves, possibly through an individual budget, or to hold the council to account on behalf of the community by referring the problem to a scrutiny committee.

This is welcomed by Viv McKee, director of policy and resources at the The National Youth Agency: "It's important for councillors to have a relationship with young people who are local citizens, even if they're not old enough to vote."

The Government says it will introduce "legislative safeguards" to ensure councillors are not forced to waste time on dealing with complaints that could be resolved elsewhere.

John Findlay, chief executive of the National Association of Local Councils, says more guidance is needed, setting out what issues should be given priority. "A judgment has to be taken on whether something is a 'majority view' of the community," he says. He suggests the role of the scrutiny committee would be to bring together interested parties, such as young people who want a youth club and older residents who don't want one.

The document also sets out plans to devolve responsibility for running services from local authorities to residents, including groups of young people. The Government has commissioned Barry Quirk, chief executive of the London Borough of Lewisham, to lead a review examining what extra powers and policies will be needed to enable authorities to devolve responsibility.

An action plan is due next spring.

Local expectations

A large part of the document's proposals are sparked by the Government's acknowledgement that local authority managers, including children's services directors, can get sidetracked from meeting local needs by the huge number of nationally imposed targets they have to meet. The number of national performance indicators will be slashed from about 1,200 to 200. They will be determined after next year's comprehensive spending review and be aligned with four themes, including children and young people. In negotiation with the Government, authorities will be able to select about 35 priority outcomes to govern their local area agreements.

The current system of Joint Area Reviews will be abolished and replaced by a system of Audit Commission-led risk assessment, which triggers inspections in areas of under-performance. David Hawker, chair of the Association of Directors of Education and Children's Services, says: "I don't think anybody is fond of Joint Area Reviews; they're expensive, inefficient, inconsistent in terms of quality and plagued with problems from the word go."

Alongside the introduction of the new performance framework in April 2009, the ringfencing of central government funding for local authorities will stop. It remains to be seen what this will mean for youth services.

But McKee warns that the ringfencing of funding for specific projects, such as the Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Capital Fund, should remain: "This will give everybody, locally and nationally, a understanding of what's going on."

PROPOSALS IN THE WHITE PAPER

The local government white paper proposes:

- A community call for action, placing a duty on councillors to act on matters raised by residents, either through an individual budget, or by referral to an overview and scrutiny committee, which has the power to make recommendations to the organisation responsible for resolving the problem. The paper says the system will play an important role in providing advocacy for vulnerable groups and young people

- Extending the "power of wellbeing" to parish councils, enabling them to take any action that they feel best meets the needs of the community

- More community ownership and management of assets such as community centres

- Enhancing the role of health services within children's trusts through the creation of health and wellbeing statutory partnerships, placing a duty on local authorities and primary care trusts to work together

- The abolition of Joint Area Reviews by March 2009 and their replacement with a "comprehensive area assessment"; a combination of audit, risk assessment and "risk-triggered" inspection, led by the Audit Commission, in partnership with inspectorates

- The number of national performance indicators will be reduced from about 1,200 to 200. Local area agreements will be governed by a set of targets limited to about 35. The current system of performance assessment for youth offending teams will remain the same

- Better co-ordination of skills training for young people with economic need to make their job prospects more sustainable, through initiatives such as "skills and employment boards" in local areas.