Lessons from Europe

Innovations in Rural Service Delivery

Tony Bovaird and Elke Löffler

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Can we learn much from places that are so different?

“Things are very different there – they don’t have our financial problems … staff problems … social problems …legal context … difficult members of the public … difficult chief officers … difficult politicians …”

“We tried something like that years ago – it didn’t work”

“We’d need to form a working group to consider it”

“That’s interesting but … we don’t have the time … the staff …the space …”

“We could never market that to our politicians”

“That’s against our policies”

“That’s too difficult”

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Why we need to learn from places that are different

1) Learning from international ‘good practice’: Look for transferable difference not pure comparability

2) Quality improvements of UK public services require step change

3) No other EU country is as centralised as the UK

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Learning from European experiences of decentralisation

and centralisation

Disadvantages from centralisation in the UK• centrally-determined standards for services which

are low priority in local area• ‘one best way’ of managing services instead of

local experimentation• New policies of ‘freedoms and flexibilities’ and ‘new

localism’ have not shown much impact yet

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European trajectories of decentralisation and

centralisationDifferent points of departures of EU countries• Germany:Germany: current fiscal crisis at local level hollows

out strong status of autonomous self-government• Italy:Italy: far-reaching process of decentralisation

makes directly elected mayors of local authorities accountable for wide range of services and gives taxing powers to local authorities

• France:France: waves of decentralisation gave local authorities, departments and regions more political power but local fragmentation and inefficient intermunicipal cooperation impose big barriers on the provision of public services in rural areas

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Challenges to service delivery in rural areas in Europe

•Outmigration of young and highly skilled workers

•Isolation and mobility disadvantages

•Scarce fiscal and human resources

•Resistance to innovation and change

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Characteristics of successful rural policies

•Shift from a focus on individual sectors to one based on regions or territories

•Attempts to overcome traditional political and administrative boundaries

•New attempts to better coordinate rural policies at central government level

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European trends in rural service delivery

What are innovations?

...introducing new services, new forms of organisation, processes and management methods which have never been tried before in a specific area

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European trends in rural service delivery

Where do innovations come from?

•Rarely from brainstorming exercises carried out in offices and committee rooms in public agencies

•Innovations are social processes which are triggered by personal contacts and interactions

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European trends in rural service delivery

New developments in rural service delivery are characterised by:

•Partnerships among different levels of government, public and private actors as well as civil society

•Co-production of services by users and members of the community

•E-government solutions

•Multi-functional and multi-sectoral service shops

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Partnership arrangements in rural areas

... are becoming more and more common for the management of the rural environment - Example: Integrated waste management in the Province of Siena

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Partnership arrangements in rural areas

... are also required for new approaches towards social services for the elderly - Example: implementation of 7 Villas Family in the East of France

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Co-production of services with citizens and community groups

... allows us to accomodate the needs of an increasing diverse society - Example: flexible child care services offered by the House of Generations in Bad Kissingen, Germany

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•The most popular section •1,000 monthly hits / 20 e-mails with Qs per day•Regional “Young Space Consultants” Coordination

•Counselling about road and safety•Advice about driving license

•Information about drugs/new substances•Regional coordination centres about drug & alcohol abuse

•Counselling about jobs by trade unions•Particularly sc “unusual jobs”

•Cooperation with Informagiovani ensures the accuracy and updating of info on study opportunities, free-time activities, rights and duties, travel

www.stradanove.net

E-government solutions… help to communicate effectively with young people and to increase the volume of use of cultural and leisure services – Example: Youth website in the City of Modena

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Multi-functional and multi-sectoral shops

... Offer citizens an alternative to e-services in rural areas- Example: all-in-one shops in Saxony-Anhalt in East Germany (very much integrating private sector as well as public and voluntary sector services)

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Transferring international practice at home

... Do not accept the argument that service innovations cost a lot of money. Traditional ways of providing services are even more expensive, particularly when they don‘t get to the right people and don‘t work well

... Do not accept the argument that "we are the best". Only agencies which improve continuously are high-performers.

And last but not least: never say never!