Learning from Local Authority Budgeting
| DOI | 10.1177/095207678600100201 |
| Author | Howard Elcock |
| Date | 01 April 1986 |
| Published date | 01 April 1986 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
1
Learning
from
Local
Authority
Budgeting
Howard
Elcock*,
Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
Polytechnic
I.
Introduction
The
Public
Administration
Committee
study
of
the
budgetary
processes
of
seven-
teen
local
authorities,
funded
by
the
Leverhulme
Trust,
has
produced
a
welter
of
information
about
local
government
as
it
operates
in
England,
Wales,
Scotland
and
Northern
Ireland.
Analysing
it
is
a
formidable
challenge
because
the
studies
are
revealing
a
very
wide
variety
of
structures
and
processes -
confirming
the
diversity
of
local
political
systems
and
of
the
social,
political,
economic
and
organisational
structures
identified
by
Stanyer,
(1976).
The
information
gathered
can
be
used
to
generate
a
series
of
continua
along
which
the
individual
authorities
can
be
ranked,
for
example
to
what
extent
budgetary
processes
are
member
or
officer
led
and
whether
they
are
policy
or
resource-led.
To
complicate
matters,
particular
features
on
one
continuum
are
linked
with
those
on
another -
thus
marginal
or
’hung’
councils
seem
likely
to
produce
more
councillor
influence
on
the
budgetary
process
than
’safe’
councils.
So
many
such
factors
are
interrelated
that
the
project
is
in
danger
of
producing
a
matrix
so
complicated
as
to
be
beyond
easy
explanation
or
comprehension.
The
first
stage
towards
simplifying
the
analysis
is
to
make
a
broad
separation
between
those
issues
that
are
concerned
mainly
with
the
individual
local
authority’s
own
structures,
the
process
by
which
it
develops
its
budget
and
the
techniques
it
deploys
to
manage
its
resources,
from
those
concerning
its
relationships
with
other
organisations.
It
is
helpful
to
use
five
headings -
structures,
processes,
strategies,
techniques
and
resource
management -
to
look
at
this
INTERNAL
dimension,
(Stephenson
and
Elcock
1985,
Chapter
1.).
The
second,
EXTERNAL
or
inter-
corporate
dimension
(Friend,
Power
and Yewlett
1977)
chiefly
involves
examination
of
the
relationship
between
the
local
authority
and
the
central
government
Depart-
ment
responsible
for
local
government -
the
Department
of
the
Environment
(DoE)
*Note:
This
article
contains
the
interim
findings
of
a
research
project
financed
by
the
Lever-
hulme
Trust
and
being
carried
out
by
seventeen
teams
of
academics,
co-ordinated
by
Professor
Elcock
on
behalf
of
the
Public
Administration
Committee
of
the
Joint
University
Council.
Many
of
the
findings
were
presented
to
a
conference
of
participants
held
at
the
Health
Service
Management
Centre,
University
of
Birmingham,
in
March
1986.
The
participants
are
too
numerous
to
name
here
but
the
author
tenders
them
his
sincere
thanks
for
their
hard
work
and
willing
co-operation,
without
which
the
project
would
not
have
been
possible.
2
in
England,
the
Welsh
Office
(WO),
the
Scottish
Office
(SO)
and
the
Northern
Ireland
Office
(NIO),
although
we
must
also
remember
that
these
’sponsoring’
Departments’
policies
will
be
influenced
by
general
Government
policies
determined
by
the
Prime
Minister,
the
Cabinet
and
the
Treasury.
Other
external
relationships
include
those
with
other
local
authorities,
the
organisations
representing
non-
domestic
ratepayers
with
whom
local
authorities
are
now
required
to
consult
when
preparing
their
budgets,
as
well
as
other
interest
groups,
the
electorate,
political
parties
and
the
Audit
Commission.
The
general
social
culture
of
the
authority’s
area
will
also
be
reflected
in
councillors’
decisions,
especially
if
the
area
is
small,
homogeneous
and
has
not
faced
major
social
changes
such
as
large
scale
immi-
gration
from
other
parts
of
the
country
or
abroad.
We
are
interested
both
in
how
the
players
generate
their
strokes
and
respond
to
outside
pressure
(the
internal
dimension),
as
well
as
in
the
processes
by
which
they
hit
the
ball at
one
another
across
the
net
(the
external
dimension),
(Friend
and
Jessop
1969).
Another
useful
analytical
framework
is
the
contingency
theory
developed
by
Royston
Greenwood
and
his
colleagues
at
INLOGOV
in
the
1970s
(1975;
1978)
for
the
analysis
of
local
authority
management
structures.
It
suggests
that
features
of
a
local
authority’s
structure and
internal
processes
may
be
in
part
related
to
external
factors
like
the
size
of
the
authority’s
area
and
population,
its
urban
and
rural
mix
and
the
area’s
political
balance.
They
detected
a
relationship
between
such
factors
as
these
with
the
extent
of
differentiation,
or
departmentalism
and
integration -
the
corporate
approach -
in
the
local
authority’s
own
structure.
These
concepts
of
departmentalism
and
the
corporate
approach
have
proved
very
important
in
the
context
of
the
present
study.
Departmentalism
refers
to
specialist
professional
departments
operating
largely
in
isolation
from
one
another
with
only
weak
mechanisms
available
to
co-ordinate
their
activities -
Greenwood
and
Stewart’s
(1974)
’traditional’
structure.
Much
of
the
considerable
energy
devoted
to
managerial
change
in
local
government
over
the
last
two
decades
has
been
devoted
to
developing
stronger
means
to
co-ordinate
policy
formulation,
service
delivery
and
resource
management.
Proposals
have
included
the
Maud
Committee’s
(1967)
proposal
that
local
councils
should
appoint
Management
Boards
of
between
5
and
9
councillors
to
consider
all
committee
minutes
before
their
submission
to
full
Council
meetings,
as
well
as
the
Bains
Committee’s
(1972)
recommendations
for
the
establishment
of
a
Policy
and
Resources
Committee,
the
appointment
of
a
Chief
Executive
Officer
and
the
creation
of
a
Management
Team.
These
devices
are
intended
to
integrate
the
local
authority’s
members,
staff
and
activities
in
a
’federal’
structure
(Greenwood
and
Stewart
1974);
the
progress
made
has
been
chronicled
by
Elcock
(1982),
Stewart
(1983)
and
others.
They
should
produce
authority-
wide
policies -
including
priorities
for
resource
allocation,
more
efficient
use
of
resources
and
better
co-ordination
among
service
departments.
For
this
and
many
other
reasons,
local
authorities have
tried
to
develop
corporate
processes
of
planning
and
management.
The
budgetary
process
is
one
of
the
most
important
policy-
making
exercises
in
which
local
authorities
must
engage.
It
should
involve
developing
a
corporate
view
of
the
demands
made
on
the
authority
and
the
re-
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