Possible changes to Local Government in Norfolk - the proposed Norwich Unitary

The Government has shortlisted for consultation 16 councils bidding for unitary status. This list includes Norwich City Council on its existing boundaries.

Consultation started at the end of March and finishes on June 22nd. However, schools are, disappointingly, not included on the Government's stakeholder list. Yet this is a highly significant issue for all schools, not just those within the proposed bid area, (the current city boundaries. The City has made it clear that should it be granted unitary status on its current boundaries, it will use legislation currently going through parliament to apply at an early stage to have those boundaries widened to take in a substantial part of Broadland and some of South Norfolk.

Whatever your views on this matter, I would strongly encourage you to make them known now, as part of this formal consultation. No decision has been made yet and none will be until the consultation is complete.

As a County Council we are opposing the bid. You will make up your own mind, but I would like to set out some of the issues that cause us concern.

Cost

• The City plans to spend just over £31 million over 4 years in creating a new authority. This will be funded by savings and efficiencies of £32 million. We are concerned about the ability of a small unitary to deliver such stretching efficiencies and the impact it will have on reserves and contingencies.

Impact on services

• The business case relies on making 92 redundancies, most all of which would come from recently re-engineered services. It would lead to the break up of current high performing county-wide services and disrupt improvement plans for children's services which have already resulted in positive impacts for children and young people - evidenced by our recent performance assessment from government.



• It will create an additional Children's Services authority for Norwich and lead to the dismantling of the arrangements across Norfolk following re-organisation, including the current advisory service. As you may recall, we decided to keep advice and support for schools as a service managed countywide, rather than devolved to the five areas. This is because of the specialist nature of a relatively small number of advisers which cannot be replicated in smaller areas. A new, small unitary would need to establish its own specialist team.

Impact on Council Tax

• Whilst the Government will not allow would-be unitaries to fund the changes by raising council tax, we are concerned about the potential impact on the rest of Norfolk. Our estimates show ongoing costs of the change to Norwich and Norfolk would be £15.7m.

Focus on attainment

We welcome the focus by Norwich on the need to invest in and support improved attainment in the city, but we are concerned that there needs to be an accurate picture of the improvements in the performance of Norwich schools to date, and a clear understanding of the special, additional resource going in to Norwich for education and children. This includes:

• four purpose built Children's Centres in Norwich and a further three in areas of highest social need.


• £79 million project involving 5 new primary schools at Heartsease, Lakenham, Mile Cross, Bluebell, Lionwood, and significant refurbishment of Taverham High school.


• new primary schools around the city where population growth occurs as at Dussindale, West Costessey and Cringleford

As Norwich head teachers will know, most schools in Norwich are making progress. The city's high schools saw some of the biggest improvements anywhere in Norfolk at GCSE in 2006, with pupils at Hewett, Blyth Jex and Heartsease High Schools achieving the 3rd, 4th and 5th biggest improvements in the whole county.

If you compare Norwich schools with other cities such as Nottingham and Leicester (which are unitary councils), Norwich is well ahead on 5+ A*-C at GCSE (Norwich 54.3%, Leicester 46.4% and Nottingham 43.9%).

Making your views known

The current Government consultation is now your opportunity to have your say on what a unitary Norwich would mean for Norfolk. Because it is a re-assessment, I encourage you to make your views known even if you have submitted them before. There are a number of ways you can do this:

1. Send your views direct to the Government consultation team - as detailed on Norfolk Matters.

2. Send your views to the County Council, and we will pass them on to the Government consultation team on your behalf - contact details on Norfolk Matters.

3. If you have previously written to us with your views, and these still represent the views of your Council, please confirm to us (by letter or email) that that is the case and we will pass them on to Government.

If you do decide to respond direct to the Government consultation team, it would be useful if you would copy your response us.

Norfolk Matters is a special edition of our stakeholder newsletter, that sets out some of the issues for consultation, points you to where you can find relevant information and give you further details on how you can make your views known.


David White - Chief Executive