Total Place

You can find the latest news and resources about Total Place on this page.

Total Place is about local public agencies that have developed a more joined up and efficient service. It has been piloted in 13 areas, in the UK, including Kent.

The 13 pilot areas were engaged in high-level ‘counting exercises’ and as the fourth phase of Total Place has come to an end, the report, An emerging Approach, was released that addressed key questions the process had unveiled. The report can be accessed here.

The ‘counting’ element was undertaken in two stages:

• an initial high-level counting of total public sector spending in each pilot place, conducted locally in the first phase of the project to provoke and stimulate challenge of local partners about how public money comes together; and

• a deep dive looked in more detail at the public spending specific to the theme that each pilot chose to focus on, linked directly with work on service transformation.

This is one of three complementary strands that make up Total Place: ‘counting’, ‘culture’ and ‘customer needs.’

Sir Michael Bichard, Executive Director of the Institute for Government and architect of Total Place, says:

‘Total Place is not just another Whitehall initiative. It is about giving local providers the incentive to work together in new ways for the benefit of their clients and citizens – and the opportunity to tell Government how it could behave differently to make this kind of collaborative action more likely. As we enter a period when resources will inevitably be constrained, Total Place is also a chance for local agencies to ‘get ahead’ by examining how they can deliver better services at less cost. So the hope is that Total Place will provide good experience to share about service improvement, suggestions about cost savings and proposals for changes in Central Government. There is no time to lose!’

More information can be found on the Total Place website from the Leadership Centre for Local Government at: www.localleadership.gov.uk/totalplace.

A practitioners guide is now available to download from the Total Place website. The guide brings together shared learning experiences from people who have been directly involved with the pilot, follow this link to view the document.