Year Ahead Conference In this feature l data sharing l devolution Year Ahead 2016: devolution, Brexit and data sharing the challenges and opportunities for regulatory services. Carina Bailey reports Devolution is the only game in town Kathryn Preece If people vote to leave the EU, regulators will be in high demand from policymakers expertise central government should pay for EU IN OR OUT? The UK will decide on 23 June whether it is to remain as part of the EU. Tim Everett, president of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, believes Brexit could not only change the shape of the country and structure of its economy, but what we regulate and how. At the time of writing, opinion polls had the UKs exit on a knife edge, and Everett feels the argument will be one based on reason v emotion. I expect people will vote how they feel on the day I can even envisage voting no myself. I would have to see a clear and convincing narrative about how the UK economy will be better by leaving. So far, I havent seen such a narrative. If the people vote to leave, regulators will be in high demand from policymakers and their expertise, suggests CTSI chief executive, Leon Livermore, is something central government should pay to receive. According to Everett, there are four possible scenarios: 1 All four UK nations vote clearly to stay in the EU, killing the issue for a generation. In a vote, only a handful of audience members believed this 2 was a likely outcome All four nations vote clearly to leave this would make it easier to get difficult, complex legislation through parliament, but no audience 3 member thought this scenario likely Overall, the UK votes to stay, but England votes to go a much more likely outcome according to the audience, and something considered very plausible by Everett, despite the continuing political disturbance this is likely to 4 cause for UK unionism An overall vote to leave because of English votes a less likely scenario, say the audience, which could make legislation more difficult and possibly lead to the break up of the UK Everett also warned that sterling could take a bashing with Brexit and that there would be a question mark hanging over the UKs European Economic Area Treaty status. Everett said food and product safety legislation is likely to survive, more or less unscathed, if the UK was to leave the EU. But he warned that the impact on consumer protection legislation is more questionable, with different parts of the UK choosing to align their legislation closer to that of the EU. EXERT YOUR INFLUENCE Your first opportunity to exert influence is when a bid for devolution is first drafted. When the bid is submitted to government, the Better Regulation Delivery Office is asking for a regulatory reference to be added to the document. When the devolution agreement is signed, the draft implementation plan is the next stage at which services such as trading standards can influence the devolution deal. This plan deals with how youre going to do what you set out in the devolution agreement and it will contain all the detail about regulation. Kathryn Preeces top tips: 1 Organise yourself around devolution geography 2 Find out how far the discussions have progressed 3 Connect with your local devolution leaders Credits Carina Bailey is editor of TS Today. Images: venimo / Shutterstock l Brexit I n a world where Twitter can find, monitor and measure disease outbreaks quicker than public health services, delegates at last months Year Ahead Conference discussed how regulatory, environmental health and fire chiefs can join the digital revolution to help protect citizens. Dr James Hunter, from Nottingham Trent University, told delegates in Stratford-upon-Avon that the open-data revolution can help services to better understand the health needs within a local area but warned of the dangers of excluding certain groups. For example,many small retailers in Nottinghamshire were recently excluded from viewing images of known prolific thieves on the local police services Facebook page because its not a medium with which all retailers engage. You need to be careful which digital bandwagon you jump on, too. Hunter explained: Twitter might be on the slide in two to three years time it might not be around. You might be trying to get on the bandwagon, only to find the digital revolution has moved on. Joining the digital revolution itself is not in dispute, however; local authority services need to engage with technology in a bid to better understand their communities. Two-way communication One thing Hunter highlighted was how most public services are missing the younger generation by not getting the most out of two-way communication via social media. He said: Wouldnt it be really good if we could capture their experiences with public services, the problems and concerns they have got? Public service organisations are really good at using technology to send messages out to the public, but do the public actually engage with that information? Key to understanding communities better, says Hunter, is for public service organisations to share their datasets, by engaging the services of so-called data entrepreneurs and data communitarians, and through better use of mobile phone data. According to Hunter, a combined dataset will generate a bespoke local-needs profile that shows the emergence of specific problems or groups within particular localities. Public health profiles can be really useful tools, showing: a communitys mental health needs; alcohol and tobacco issues; incidents of cancer; teenage pregnancy; end-of-life care and more all of which occurs at a neighbourhood level, and enables comparisons to be made with other areas. Most data is automatically GPS enacted and smart data is being usedto generate Twitter maps of whole cities. Hunter enthused: You can see what people are saying and how they are feeling, to generate interest maps. Hunter is currently engaged in a project to better understand the Pakistani community in Nottingham, which is based next to a public park that it never uses. People have been armed with smartphones, the data from which will be used to better understand the Pakistani community and how its members move within it. It is hoped this type of research will enable organisations to find out more about citizen behaviour and, ultimately, their needs. The third sector is already looking at data and using it to create bespoke profiles; however, fears were voiced that private organisationsmight not protect data properly, and there was the suggestion that third-sector analysis could be seen as public sector analytics being outsourced. Shantha Dickinson, head of knowledge management at Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, explained how it set up a data-sharing programme about a year and a half ago to use its own and other agencies data. By working with Ordinance Survey, the service has identified vulnerable people within three of the most deprived areas of Southampton by mapping property data from about 20,000 homes. Dickinson said: We seek to answer the big questions: why fires and accidents happen, and why they happen more to certain groups of people than others. What are the behaviours of adults in these scenarios; how can we target and improve our service? Devolution in practice Kathryn Preece, programme manager at the Better Regulation Delivery Office, told delegates that devolution is the only game in town. She said: Deals are being discussed right now across England and, ifyou want your services to have a secure future, then you need to engage with these discussions. You need to be proactive. She warned that public sector reform and economic growth are moving at a quick pace, with devolution likely to cause complications as geographical boundaries change. While transport, infrastructure, planning, health and housing are all common themes in devolution deals, regulatory and licensing services have only been made a condition in one or two yet all of the discussions refer to devolved business support. Preece said: Regulatory services are part of business support. Regardless of how advanced discussions are in your area, youve still got an opportunity to influence them. One way to do this, she said, is through the Better Regulation for All programme, which brings together businesses and regulators to consider and change how local regulation is delivered and received. Preece added: To many, your services are a bit of a mystery, so you need to spell out very clearly what you can do to support the ambitions of your area. You need to market yourself so that you appeal to those writing the devolution documents. Nick Worth, spokesman for regulatory services at the Local Government Association, warned delegates that devolution will not, initself, solve the funding challenges that authorities face, but it will offer a big opportunity for regulatory services. He said: Its vital that regulatory services are part of the discussion. Seize the initiative now. Think about how you can work on local partners to develop and put forward proposals locally. In terms of drivers for devolution, Worth said the focus is on skills, business support and economic growth all areas in which regulatory services can play a really important role. He advised services that radical approaches were part of the solution: can trade associations fill some of the gaps left by trading standards services since the cuts began to bite, by creating a self-regulatory approach? How can you use concepts such as TripAdvisor? He added: Its in this space that we will find, build and make radical ideas for sustainable regulatory services that people are looking for. In this altered local government landscape, training looks set to change, too, with the days of very specialist employees gone. Paul Brookes, public health and protection servicesmanager at Chelmsford City Council, said: You need someonewith softskills that can be used across a whole range of public health services. The continuing financial challenges and the opportunities that devolution presents is changing the face of local government, and CTSI chief executive Leon Livermore said officers had a decision to make. There will be fewer authorities in 10 years time, he said. We have achoice: we can either sit on the sidelines, which will give us a real opportunity to moan, or engage in the process and help shape it. Policy-makers need experts they sit in this room. I encourage everyone to be fully engaged locally, nationally and internationally. To share this page, in the toolbar click on You might also like Bournemouth 2015 August 2015