Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Biographical notes
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Rationality – the history of an idea
- 2 Investigating policy coordination: issues and hypotheses
- 3 Policy coordination for children under five and for elderly people
- 4 Whatever happened to JASP?
- 5 Policy coordination: a view of Whitehall
- 6 Coordination at local level: introducing methods and localities
- 7 Coordination at local level: state of play
- 8 Barriers and opportunities
- 9 Costs, benefits and incentives
- 10 Understanding coordination
- 11 Towards a new model of social planning
- Index
7 - Coordination at local level: state of play
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Biographical notes
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Rationality – the history of an idea
- 2 Investigating policy coordination: issues and hypotheses
- 3 Policy coordination for children under five and for elderly people
- 4 Whatever happened to JASP?
- 5 Policy coordination: a view of Whitehall
- 6 Coordination at local level: introducing methods and localities
- 7 Coordination at local level: state of play
- 8 Barriers and opportunities
- 9 Costs, benefits and incentives
- 10 Understanding coordination
- 11 Towards a new model of social planning
- Index
Summary
In this chapter we present our findings on the extent and nature of coordination across the seven localities. In the first instance our objective is to provide a flavour of the state of play in each of the three arenas of agency interaction: the corporate, collaboration and inter-section arenas. The extent and operation of both formal and informal mechanisms are analysed, together with their achievements. In so doing, we draw upon, and contrast, two kinds of evidence: quantitative data collected through our ‘bureaumetric’ mapping of machinery and outputs (see chapter 6); and qualitative materials provided in interviews with local actors. The two sources are found to generate broadly – but not wholly – consistent findings. We conclude by highlighting similarities and differences between arenas, client groups and localities, thereby addressing the basic research questions set out at the beginning of the previous chapter.
THE LOCAL AUTHORITY ARENA
The rhetoric of rationality first began to take root locally in the local authority arena, where the ‘optimistic’ model became established in the particular form of corporate planning and management. The need for coordination was, by definition, at the heart of the corporate approach to local government. As early as 1967, the Maud Report criticised a situation in which there was ‘unity in the parts but disunity in the whole’. Its response was a blueprint for reorganising local government committees and management structures to promote coordination of both policy and administration.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Joint Approaches to Social PolicyRationality and Practice, pp. 159 - 208Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1988