Policy Hub
On 1 April 2010, Communities and Local Government (CLG) published a report which reflects the findings of two research projects relating to the Total Place programme. These projects analysed relevant national, regional and local spend data. In the course of this research, the strengths and weaknesses of spend counting and customer insight were assessed.
Spend counting is a key component of the Total Place programme. It seeks to understand the totality of public spend in a given geographical area and helps establish the background against which local public sector bodies in partnership can explore, realign and potentially reduce expenditure. Customer insight is a term used to describe both insights about customers and the various approaches used to gain this insight.
The Total Place programme pulls together all delivery partners (led by the local authority) to take a collaborative look at how best to tackle major policy. In the context of this report, 13 pilots across England looked in depth at how greater co-ordination between partners and local leadership could help deliver better, customer focused services at less cost by considering the whole public resource spent in a geographical area.
Taking a Total Place approach means looking at service delivery from the local perspective; how it changes the lives of local people; how much it costs; and which partners from national down to local level are involved. Recommendations for action by central government and at a local level are advanced, based on the report’s findings.
Total place: spend counting analysis and customer insight status