Public and Commercial Services Union

The following is the case we made to MPs at our Parliamentary drop-in on 21 July:

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) represents over 300,000 members working in government departments, agencies and on privatised government contracts. PCS is the largest trade union in the Government Office Network (GON) representing almost 1,000 members who work across departments delivering services locally.

The GON co-ordinates 13 government departments work and provides a vital role in delivering government services and policy locally. They provide an important channel for local authorities to influence and question Whitehall and also ensure that government departments' aspirations for delivery are realistic, reflect local circumstances and do not duplicate or conflict with other departmental activity.

The coalition government’s programme published in May stated that it would close Government Office for London and consider the future of the remaining government offices with a view to abolition.

The remaining government offices employ 1,700 staff in ten offices; Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham, Cambridge, Guildford, Bristol and Plymouth.

The government haven’t given a clear indication of cost savings that would be achieved by closing the government office network, PCS believe that in the long run closing the GO Network may be more expensive as the local knowledge, avoiding of duplication of work and local procurement will be lost.

PCS believes that government offices are well placed and have a vital role in delivering the new government’s manifesto across the country and as such they should be retained.

Government offices (GO) were created by the Conservative administration in 1994 to bring several key departments together and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of government outside of London. Since then their role has evolved to reflect the changing requirements of government. They now work across 13 departments; work and pensions, education, transport, business innovation and skills, home office, environment food and rural affairs, energy and climate change, cabinet office, treasury, ministry of justice, culture media and sport, communities and local government and health.

The role of the GON has evolved to fit priorities of the government and already PCS members in GOs are working to help local partners understand the new localism agenda and support the devolution of power to the local level. They are also working hard to support partners in their approach to realising savings through a local approach to budgeting and shared services.

Looking forward we believe there is a role for GOs in integrating departmental policies for delivery and influence at a local level. We also believe they have a significant part to play in enhancing the relationship between Whitehall departments and local authorities, the voluntary and community sector, local business, faith groups and other stakeholders.

Below are some of the key areas the GON are working on. PCS is anxious that if the GON is closed this vital work will not continue, as government departments are already under considerable pressure to deliver more with less resources as the government’s spending cuts start to bite.

Safeguarding children – Children & learners teams were established in GOs in 2006 following the Victoria Climbié inquiry. They are uniquely placed to coordinate work between agencies and authorities on a range of policy areas and establish key priorities for improving the lives of children and young people at a local level. The teams provide both support and challenge to local authorities on this work and are able to share best and innovative practice to drive standards forward.

Responding to extraordinary events - GOs provided a link between government and local authorities during the floods that affected England in 2007 and 2009. In 2001 they provided a significant resource in the government response to the foot and mouth outbreak. During 2010 GOs will be involved in managing the Pope’s visit.

The Big Society and localism agenda - The Office for Civic Society has approached GOs to find out how localism can work in practice drawing on GOs previous work. Closure of the GON would result in a significant loss of local knowledge and relationships, which would put the success of this policy at risk.

Local intelligence – GOs have very effective relationships with local service providers that have been built up over time and it would be short-sighted to lose this. GO staff are able to use local intelligence to demonstrate how government policies are working in places and neighbourhoods, which in turn helps inform future policy making and local communications.

Local enterprise partnerships/Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) – GOs have already been tasked to assess the capability of potential partnerships to replace RDAs. With potentially four or five of these in an area currently covered by one RDA there will be a key co-ordination role for GOs. The closure of RDAs will also require GOs to have a broader overview in conjunction with other bodies like the Homes & Communities Agency. In any case PCS firmly believe that it would be premature to close GOs ahead of knowing the consequences of the RDAs closure e.g. how European funding programmes will be managed in the future.

GO national planning, transport and rights of way teams – These are based in specific GOs and deal with these areas of work on a national basis. They have a great deal of expertise, there is no suggestion that their work will end and any decision we would argue would have to factor in the continuance of their functions.

2012 Olympics – GOs have a role in ensuring that the Olympics provide long-term benefits throughout the UK in terms of economic development and regeneration, skills and employment, education, tourism, culture and health and wellbeing.

Climate change - The government believes that tackling climate change is an issue that still needs to be pursued, which GOs are currently doing on a multi-agency basis.
Community safety - GOs can continue to link crime reduction initiatives with other activity such as social inclusion, regeneration of deprived communities, competitiveness and sustainable development. There is also a role for GOs in supporting local approaches to community cohesion and active citizenship.
Food strategy - GOs continue to work on delivering this and supporting sustainable food production including its integration with other departmental priorities.

Welfare – GOs have managed the current European Social Fund programme since 2008 and as this work will need to continue it is not obvious how this would be done without them. They have been leading on the highly successful Later Life agenda looking at how better services can be provided for the elderly. They are also engaged in cross-cutting activity around worklessness and child poverty.

Homes, jobs and infrastructure - Homes, jobs and infrastructure are still needed but many authorities have paused or cancelled their plans for growth. Government will need to maintain strong relationships with local authorities in order to understand and manage the risks that localism poses to the economic recovery.

Transport - Transport funding reductions and the end of Regional Transport and Spatial strategies will mean a reduction in this work for GOs. But this will also put more focus on joining up housing, planning and transport at a local level, and GOs are better placed to support this than Whitehall, because the policy areas are separated at that level.

Equality and Human Rights Commission - Small experienced teams from the Equality and Human Rights Commission are based in GOs, working with regional and local partners in communities to ensure community cohesion and citizen level engagement. They fulfil a robust, credible regulatory equalities function as the new government progresses its localism agenda, reducing the burden on local government at a time when resources may be stretched.

City regions – City regions is a way of bringing joined up thinking to areas, so that services and planning are provided in the places people live and work. City regions go beyond local authority boundaries. They join more than one city together in terms of strategic planning - for example, on economic development, physical planning or strategic housing - and governance arrangements, such as through executive boards. This structure would be lost without the government office network.

Ministerial work - GOs enable and facilitate numerous Ministerial visits by suggesting events and providing briefing and accompanying officers, etc. They have also arranged Cabinet meetings outside of London, most recently in Bradford. GOs ensure that Ministers are able to engage with MPs and their constituents on specific local issues, either by using local knowledge to provide briefing to parliamentary questions or Ministerial correspondence, or by organising visits for Ministers to particular places so that they can engage directly with voters on issues of concern. It is doubtful if departments could manage this from London as effectively without the depth of knowledge that GOs have.

A stakeholder survey conducted earlier this year revealed that 77% of respondents were satisfied with the government offices, results putting them in the top quartile for all public sector organisations in terms of stakeholder perceptions.

In its July 2009 document ‘Abolishing regional government - How to do it’, the Local Government Association did not make a case for either the closure of government offices or the transfer of their powers to local government. Whilst the Conservative Party policy green paper ‘Control shift - returning power to local communities’ proposed the abolition of the Government Office for London, it did not advocate the closure of the remaining government offices.

Should the main driver for closure be cost, PCS would stress that closure would mean increased expenditure as these functions will still need to be undertaken, overheads would increase and inter-departmental efficiencies would not be realised. There is a significant risk associated with closure and this would need to be justified both by a full equality impact analysis and a risk analysis.

We believe that the Government Office Network:

• provides a cost effective and efficient service across government
• is vital in co-ordinating services in response to extraordinary events
• staff have built up significant knowledge and relationships with local authorities and partner organisations

PCS therefore believe that there are no real efficiencies to be made from cutting the GON.

What you can do
We would ask you to support our campaign to defend the crucial work our members undertake in the GON by:

• Signing EDM 362
• Tabling PQs
• Raising our concerns with the Secretaries of State which use Government Offices, in particular
• Attend local meetings to campaign to Save the Government Office Network