Problems and Purpose

The ‘Cooperative Council’ approach is built on the idea that ‘public services are more responsive when power is shared, with citizens and the state cooperating with one another.’[1] Councillors in Lambeth, the first Cooperative Council in the UK, believe that local government has impeded the development of cooperative communities by attempting to impose programmes and services with little regard to collaboration with those most affected. The city's adoption of the Cooperative Council was intended to give officials the ability to discern local need—through council data and as self-reported by citizens—and to encourage participation in order to define and identify the public services that should be provided in order to address the issues of the community (as determined by that community). 

The Cooperative Council is underpinned by the idea of “putting the resources of the state at the disposal of the citizens.” Lambeth councillors came to the conclusion that public confidence is difficult to attain with a provider-led approach to local governance and delivering public services. Lambeth adopted the new approach to counter this by generating a new settlement between the citizens and the state as the first cooperative council in the UK.

Background History and Context

Originally conceptualised in the Cooperative Council White Paper (May 2010), the approach was intended to ‘look at alternative ways in which services can be provided and improve the quality of public service delivery.”[2] To place the proposal in a wider political context, it is important to note that it came at a time of “unprecedented government funding cuts” which were a direct response to the austerity measures which often target public services for budget and spending cuts.[3] The goal was to ensure the long-term survival of public services without moving towards privatisation, by changing the role of local government in the fulfilment of public services. 

Lambeth Council set up a Cooperative Council Citizens’ Commission (the Commission) in order to develop ideas on how to use collaboration to better public services despite austerity measures. The Commission found that the methods used to deliver public services would need to be drastically transformed, particularly with increased reliance on the public sector for fulfilment of services. 

Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities

The primary creative force behind the Cooperative Council Agenda was Lambeth Council itself—the political context at the time of implementation implies that this was a direct measure taken to combat cuts to public services that would have occurred due to austerity. Additionally, the council noted that under their pervious method of delivering public services “citizens feel that actions are “done to” them rather than offering them the choice and control they experience in other areas of their life.”[4] The Cooperative Council Citizens’ Commission, created by Lambeth Council to collect data and conduct research into how the agenda should be implemented, can also be considered a driving force behind the new approach. The Commission included “citizens, academics, research organisations, think tanks, voluntary and community sector organisations, private and public sector organisations,” each with a vested interest in ensuring that Lambeth Council could successfully change how they interacted with local residents and how they delivered public services.[5] 

Though the documentation provides ample examples of potential sources of funding identified by the Commission (Big Society Bank, Community builders, Social Impact Bonds, Social Investment Bonds, Corporate Social Responsibility funds, municipal bonds, etc), it is not clear which sources were eventually chosen by the Council and Commission to initially finance the Cooperative Council and for its continued operation. Considering the political context, and the options the Commission were examining, it is likely that there were/are significant public/private sector contributors; however, we do not have any data on this. Furthermore, while we can ascertain that the Lambeth Council Transformation Fund was a contributor, the exact quantity of this contribution is uncertain. 

Participant Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment of participants in the Cooperative Council was aimed primarily at the expected and required individuals of the approach—local residents. The nature of The Cooperative Council necessitates that citizens take an active role in collaborating with local government in deliberating the appropriate methods of delivering public services to their communities. The Cooperative Council Citizens’ Commission found that “Lambeth’s residents would be willing to play this more active role,”[6] while the July 2010 Residents’ Survey discovered that 5600 adults were already involved in community activities, with 25,000 adults interested in doing so. Despite this, |resident views are no guarantee of citizen involvement”[7]—it can be difficult to include even the required participants due to a combination of “lack of time, fear of over-committing, fear of being taken advantage of, red-tape and bureaucracy, a lack of confidence, perceived exclusivity and not knowing where to find information.”[8] For this reason, Lambeth Council must provide citizens with a range of financial and non-financial incentives to participate—the council developed a ‘menu of incentives’ specifically designed to take into account the differing circumstances of a borough as large and diverse as Lambeth. 

Additionally, the council vaguely identified groups that should reasonably be excluded, mentioning that some may attempt to silence minority perspectives by dominating the conversation. Though the document goes on to raise the idea of designing mechanisms to guard against this, Lambeth Council does not name any specific groups. 

Methods and Tools Used

The Cooperative Council is a form of collaborative government—a method of achieving superior results in governance (including the delivery of public services) through cooperation between citizens, government, and the private sector. The Cooperative Council is a long-term project, with the Cooperative Council Citizens’ Commission of the view that “the entire Cooperative Council approach will take up to ten years to be fully realised within Lambeth.”[9] Considering this, the primary focus of the collaborative government method is to gradually strengthen communication and interaction between citizens and the state over an extended period of time—it was not expected that local residents would immediately be willing to participate in decision-making on the delivery of public services, nor that any suggestions made would immediately be successfully implemented by the council. 

What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation

The majority of initial deliberation was facilitated by the Cooperative Council Citizens’ Commission—with such a wide range of participants in the Commission allowed councillors to draw on their expertise in order to decide on the most suitable methods of introducing and managing the Cooperative Council. This deliberation took place during commission hearings from July 2010 to October 2010. Though the Commission held two open public meetings in order to allow the citizens of Lambeth to question local government on the Cooperative Council, this early stage of deliberation catered to specialists and experts (e.g. the academics, research organisations, think tanks, and public/private sector organisations)—a necessary measure in deciding the beginning framework of the Cooperative Council. The nature of participation has transformed as the relationship between the citizens and the state has improved and shifted towards a more collaborative model. The ‘principles of decision-making’ included in the Introduction to the Cooperative Council Constitution include several items regarding the direct inclusion of citizens in both deliberation and decision-making. For example, the principle “where decisions are taken by individual councillors or committees of councillors, they are taken in consultation with relevant officers and citizens so as to ensure that a proper basis for decision making is in place.”[10] In addition, the Commission can be considered an advisory board as it was created with the intention of giving counsel to local government in attempting to implement the Cooperative Council. 

Lambeth London Borough Council held frequent Collaborative Council stakeholder meetings - such as the Lambeth Wellbeing Network event, Lambeth LINK meeting and the Health and Wellbeing VCS Forum[11] - during which stakeholders participated in questioning the Commission. 

Influence, Outcomes, and Effects

Lambeth Borough of London Council was the first Cooperative Council in the UK. after the implementation of this new form of local government in Lambeth, many other boroughs in the UK attempted to take a similar approach, which has resulted in a group of 22 core local authorities forming the ‘Cooperative Councils Innovation Network.’ Though the decision-makers were committed to creating and managing a fully-functional Cooperative Council over an extended period of time, and Cooperative Councils have appeared across the UK as a result of initial implementation in Lambeth, it is not clear that Lambeth Council were able to keep their promises. The initial ideas and planning of the Cooperative Council were devised in the context of extreme austerity, and because they appear to agree that these cuts are the right direction go in—due to a lack of alternatives—Lambeth Council has been seen as willing to “reduce public decisions to economic exigencies,”[12] which directly contradicts the aims, goals, and promises of the Cooperative Council Agenda. 

Analysis and Lessons Learned

The Cooperative Council was introduced in order to transform the relationship between citizens and the state so as to improve the standard and delivery of public services, and intended to do this though strengthening the relationship between local residents and local government. The political backdrop on which these changes take place is one of heavy austerity measures and unprecedented cuts in spending—this being the case, there are many issues with the operation of the Cooperative Council, and questions of if it is fit for purpose in its current iteration. While the “CCs relationship to austerity was initially ambiguous,”[13] the demand to cut spending and save on budget meant that the fundamental aspects of the Cooperative Council - “deepening democracy, empowering communities, and challenging professional service hierarchies”[14] - were moved aside in favour of making cuts because there was little alternative. 

Pursuing austerity for perceived lack of a reasonable alternative is termed ‘austerity realism’—the local government operating strictly within the confines of austerity measures appears to have weakened, rather than strengthened, the relationship between the local residents and local government in Lambeth, desperate the promises of the Cooperative Council and the positive perspective found in previously referenced Lambeth Council documents. According to a councillor: “We get things thrown at us by people in Lambeth [saying] that this [the CC] is all a front for cuts basically, you know that we are dressing cuts up”[15] - a statement that implies there have been negative impacts on citizen interactions with local government. 

This implies that, rather than genuinely attempting to involve citizens in local government and depending democracy, the Cooperative Council is a method of “shifting responsibility for making cuts,”[16] searching for “compliant, not counter, publics,”[17] who accept the restrictions imposed on them by a local government crippled by austerity realism. Despite the council’s own remarks that this collaborative government has achieved some success, it is evident that the wide-ranging changes proposed by Lambeth Council have not occurred, and—under the same cooperative agenda—will not occur. As is apparent from the council claiming to involve citizens in decision-making while simultaneous clinging to austerity realism, serious deliberation essentially has a forgone conclusion; the “already decided upon agenda deemed necessary and unquestionable (austerity).”[18] This contradictory messaging is the opposite of the desired effect, “the Cooperative Council agenda has produced a paradoxically depoliticising politics.”[19]

See Also

Cooperative 

References    

[1] Lambeth London Borough Council (2011). The Co-operative Council Sharing power: A new settlement between citizens and the state. [online] https://moderngov.lambeth.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=26390

[2] “Issue Details - Cooperative Council - Draft Commission Report | Lambeth Council,” Lambeth.Gov.Uk, October 26, 2010, https://moderngov.lambeth.gov.uk/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=21076&PlanId=187.

[3] Lambeth London Borough Council (2011).

[4] Lambeth London Borough Council (2011).

[5] Lambeth London Borough Council (2011).

[6] Lambeth London Borough Council (2011).

[7] Lambeth London Borough Council (2011).

[8] Lambeth London Borough Council (2011).

[9] Lambeth London Borough Council (2011).

[10] Lambeth London Borough Council (2013). Introduction to the Cooperative Council Constitution. [online] https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Introduction%20to%20the%20Cooperative%20Council%20Constitution.pdf

[11] Lambeth London Borough Council (2011).

[12] The Urban Political (2017). The ‘Cooperative’ or ‘Cop-Out’ Council? Urban Politics at a Time of Austerity Localism in London. [online] https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-64534-6_8

[13] The Urban Political (2017).

[14] The Urban Political (2017).

[15] The Urban Political (2017).

[16] Guardian (2012). Council adopts a co-operative approach. [online] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/nov/21/councils-adopt-co-operative-approach

[17] The Urban Political (2017).

[18] The Urban Political (2017).

[19] The Urban Political (2017).

External Links

Lambeth Cooperative Council Constitution https://www.lambeth.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Introduction%20to%20the%20Cooperative%20Council%20Constitution.pdf

The Co-operative Council, Sharing Power: A New Settlement between Citizens and the State https://moderngov.lambeth.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?Id=2031

Notes

Lead image: tobyblume/Wordpress, https://goo.gl/oST6Xq