Gloucestershire’s bid for more power forges ahead

Last month a statement of intent document, We are Gloucestershire, was sent to Ministers to confirm our county’s enthusiasm to take greater control of our public services.

It was developed by countywide partners Gloucestershire County Council, the six district councils, GFirst Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

After reviewing our statement of intent the government has indicated that our bid is worth exploring. And a government representative was appointed to work with the partners to develop our detailed bid and firm up what Gloucestershire is asking for.

On Friday 4 September, a full submission outlining exactly what Gloucestershire wants, how it would work and what the benefit would be has been sent to Whitehall for consideration. Gloucestershire expects to hear back from Ministers later in the autumn.

Devolution would allow Gloucestershire to have responsibility for public services based on what people need and want.

Partners would have more say over social care and health spending, local transport networks, business rates, education and infrastructure.

It also continues to build on the excellent joint working that is already going on in the county.

The detailed bid is an ambitious pitch however it will start the conversation with government about the future for Gloucestershire.

Following the same format as the statement of intent, the bid outlines five sections:

1. Accelerating growth – infrastructure, planning, transport, business skills and employment
2. Health and social care – single vision for health and social care, delivered collectively by partners, based on what local people really need
3. Community safety – joined up public protection and safeguarding practice to improve outcomes for some of our most vulnerable people
4. Finance and assets – getting the best out of the £3billion public sector money spent in Gloucestershire by commissioning together and investing together to prevent demand in future
5. Governance – establishing a single point of governance to remove barriers without merging organisations

Councillor Steve Jordan, leader of Cheltenham Borough Council, said: “Good progress has been made in the short time since we submitted the initial statement of intent.

“Devolving decision making to the appropriate level will allow us to improve public services across Gloucestershire and I hope government give us the chance to prove it.”

Both the statement of intent and the full bid is available at weareglos.com

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