I started my career in local government in 1999. Back then the economy was starting to boom, in hindsight it was a time of tremendous optimism. I’ve worked for a total of five more councils since and now I am a councillor too. As well as being a manager commissioning care services for older people in another council. I spend A LOT of time thinking about councils. Cut me and I bleed local government. I know. Send thoughts and prayers. As an officer and a councillor, I understand the great things that councils do, and the not so great. I know when they are correctly funded and organised they do amazing things, and that they are generally staffed by people who care greatly about what they do.
What really annoys me is when people misrepresent what councils do. This happens a lot. A particular bugbear is the national parties wowling on about the NHS, and this goes back to the pandemic. I’ll explain.
Councils commission services with the NHS, but generally don’t commission health services alone. Hospitals and GPs are commissioned by local Integrated Care Boards (ICBs). These are important services much valued by the public. However, when political parties are campaigning for local elections, suggesting a GP guarantee on new housing developments, etc. That’s not a council commissioned service, how can a councillor guarantee this? This is shamelessly mixing up national and local politics. Whilst we’re here neither does this policy address the workforce shortages in the NHS. Everything is complicated and inter-linked, and there are no easy solutions. It’s easy to write slogans in leaflets, these often don’t stand up to scrutiny.
What annoys me more than anything is political parties which don’t focus on the actual council services that they ARE responsible for. There are lots of important services councils run that do that deserve more attention. During the pandemic people stood on their door steps and clapped for the NHS. People didn’t clap for councils. Yet council officers in social care were working horrendously long days – helping ensure that care providers were supplied with PPE, helping manage outbreaks of Covid in care provision, helping roll out vaccines for the vulnerable people under their care, helping run hospital discharge services. The stress of it took an immense toll on people I know in local government. They had to keep the care system working to ensure that there were places to discharge people from hospital to. Without them the whole hospital system would have fallen over. Council commissioned care home and home care services were central to this.
Councils do lots of inspiring things too – lets focus on those please. And not just potholes. This is what this election is about the huge range of services we councillors control and nothing else. Some, but not all of them are listed here:
A similar story can be told about immigration. Some of the political parties are making a great play on how they will reduce immigration. This definitely isn’t a council function. Where immigration does touch councils is in care services. If you look at the workforce data produced by Skills for Care for Greater Manchester, as in most places, the care sector is heavily reliant on immigrants to help care for our ageing population, such is the demand for staff. Recent restrictions on immigration are starting to make recruitment more difficult in the sector leading to higher vacancy levels – and this will be an important factor in raising council spending on care fees (a huge portion of its budget) next year. This will mean either increasing Council Tax bills or greater cuts to non-statutory areas of spend. Again, everything is complicated and inter-linked, and there are no easy solutions.
This has made me reflect on why the political parties are running on these themes, that feel to me dishonest. Dishonest about the consequences of their policies or at best a misrepresentation of what we do. I think at a national level and a local level this is because of the difficult financial situation the country and councils are in, it’s a distraction. I’ve written at length on the restraints on public finances here Councillor Blog #5: Why council finances are fried! The next three years are not going to be easy at all given the level of cuts to funding that the council is facing. Nothing indicates to me that things are going to get better, particularly with the fiscal impact of the war in Iran. We are being honest about this – and that’s why we’re getting so much support from people who value the independence and the different view that we bring.
It’s possibly another thing, too. I was listening to Michael Gove on Strong Message Here – For the Sake of Transparency. I’m not particularly a fan – I am the sort of person who always listens to experts – but he made the interesting point that politicians are always trying to project “Certainty.” He puts this down to the male domination of politics and the need to show you’re in control, when frequently politicians are not. Much of what happens to the council is out of our control – what is important is having a safe pair of hands to steer us through that uncertainty.
The national Labour government came to power two years ago, with a huge Parliamentary majority under a mantra of “Change.” It was remarked in Strong Message Here – For the Sake of Transparency that as questions are raised over the Prime Minister’s tenure that we could see our seventh Prime Minister in ten years, if Kier Starmer does face a leadership challenge. I’m making no judgements about national politics – and my aim is to present this in a politically neutral way – but this perhaps illustrates more than anything the difference between writing slogans on leaflets and delivering what’s in them. Especially in our current challenging times. I’m currently reading Sam Freedman’s book “Failed State – Why Britain Doesn’t Work and How We Fix It”. He suggests the trends over the last forty years of centralisation, a lack of scrutiny and a super fast media cycle in government mean we are in a cycle of crisis, and that the British state is overdue a total reset. That it is not the people that need to change, it’s the system. From my small corner of it, I agree. All the issues I’ve mentioned here are symptoms of bigger problems.
So, my thoughts ahead of this election are that in Heald Green ward we need stability to respond to the challenges we know Stockport Council will face. Anna Charles-Jones is the candidate with the deep experience, the connections, the network to best represent our ward and be part of the council. The person who understands best what councils do. She is the strongest candidate to steer us through uncertain times. And I really can’t help myself from saying this – we need a candidate who who actually knows which ward she’s running in. Not all the candidates in Heald Green can do this. Believe me this is a job where you do REALLY need to be over the detail. If you can’t proof read your own election literature, how can you manage 200 page council meeting agendas? She is also the candidate who will be most dedicated to the role – being a councillor is her main job.
Our association’s independent councillors have had the privilege to represent the people of Heald Green ward since 1929, through the highs and lows of nearly a century. We’re the past, the present and we want to be the future – we believe we have imagination, understanding and deep care to do this for all of Heald Green ward. Above all, to misquote a line from The League of Gentlemen the comedy show that also began back in 1999 – please remember “This is a local election for local people!” and local services. Nothing more.