Lighting the way

The Beacon Scheme celebrates its ninth year and Estates Review looks at this year's awards ceremony in retrospect

George Bernard Shaw said, "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas."

This quote is the perfect illustration of the concept of the Beacon Scheme, which celebrated its ninth year at a 600 person award ceremony on March 4th.

The Beacon Scheme was introduced in 1999 to identify centres of excellence in local government from which others can learn. Authorities are appointed Beacons on the strength of their excellence in the delivery of specified services, supported by good overall performance and effective plans for spreading this good practice.

By identifying teams and individuals who are actually delivering the best local services and who can teach others to do the same, the Beacon Scheme helps to reward and share ideas and innovation.

At the awards event 38 awards covering a total of 44 authorities, from all over the country, were awarded Beacon Status across ten themes. These were selected from 143 initial applicants, and a shortlist of 59 local authorities, including a further five fire, park, police authorities.

This year’s winners
For round nine of the scheme, the 10 new themes range from education and crime, to climate change, the provision of better public places, and empowering communities. They were all chosen to reflect the role that local government plays in improving the quality of life for communities and individuals up and down the country, and are all issues of vital importance to both local and central government.

For this, as every round of the scheme, the themes have been selected by ministers. The themes selected represent issues which local people and local authorities consider important as well as reflecting key priorities on the Government agenda.

As outlined by the 2007 whitepaper, Strong and Prosperous Communities, partnerships are playing an increasingly important role to the delivery of local services. The Beacon Scheme emphasises the importance of partnerships, community and customer engagement, throughout the process and assessment criteria for all themes – which includes leadership, engagement and empowerment, actions, partnership working, equality issues, and outcomes.

As part of this, this year, the scheme also particularly emphasises the new ‘place-shaping’ agenda, by giving additional recognition to those authorities that meet certain criteria, such as collaborating to deliver local area agreement outcomes and leading cross-service improvement to address local problems.

Indeed, this year, four of the successful authorities were awarded a special additional commendation for their holistic approach to services, which the panel felt were characteristic of ‘early place shapers’, because of the positive impact of area-based leadership and change. These best value authorities are demonstrating clear outcomes in terms for people and places. This special commendation is in recognition of the challenges that the place shaping role poses for authorities.

Becoming a Beacon
The Beacon Scheme is led by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), and the programme is managed at the Improvement and Development Agency for local government (IDeA).

The success of the scheme is demonstrated by the fact that almost every local authority in the country has applied for Beacon Status in the nine years that the programme has been in operation.

The Beacon Scheme’s advisory panel is independent from DCLG, although it is supported by the department, along with the IDeA, and officials from other departments with significant interests in each of the themes.
The panel’s chair and nine members are responsible for its organisation and performance, and are appointed for a three-year term. Specialist members with expertise in each of the themes are appointed for one year.

After reviewing the applications and announcing the shortlists last October, the work of the panel really started in earnest. The shortlist stage recognises those practices that warrant further investigation, and is followed by a series of visits to councils by panel advisors, government representatives and IDeA advisors – during which authorities brought their applications to life.

Then earlier this year, councils were invited to present their case for being made a Beacon to an assessment team and advisory panel. And at the end of the process the Beacons Panel made its recommendations to a group of DCLG ministers, who then adds the seal of approval, just in time for the award ceremony in March.
The ceremony in March was more than just an awards night; it celebrated the examples of good practice and work of the shortlisted councils. It was the culmination of the year’s activity, and brought together around 600 guests, including senior government representatives and key local authority personnel.

At the event, of course, the Beacon winners will be announced, but it also provides an opportunity for attendees to celebrate the benefits the work done brought to the local community, network with other authorities and share ideas. They are also able to meet government representatives and learn about the process for next year (as the round 10 themes are also to be announced).

Being a Beacon
For the new Beacons, the hard work doesn’t end with winning the award. Having completed the rigorous application and shortlist process, the Beacon authorities now have a further role to play – providing a source of inspiration to others.

This is what really marks the award scheme out – the winners now have a responsibility to be proactive in sharing their information and expertise with others. They are allocated a share of £3m in funding and a potential further £2m capacity building fund with which to do this.

The application process is widely regarded to be well-worth it for the benefits that Beacon Status brings in terms of staff morale and recognition – the organisation’s profile is raised at a national level, and there is also an impact on how it is seen by the local community.

Research carried out by Warwick Business School for DCLG found that the scheme has individual and collective learning benefits for and between local authorities participating in the Beacon Scheme. This learning has a knock-on effect for innovation and capacity building, which, in turn leads to improved performance and increased capacity in local government.

The Beacon Year began at the awards event, and now work is underway for a range of activities and events. These cover all aspects of learning – from one end of the spectrum, which is generic and informative, through to highly personalised, influencing activities – including publications, conferences, seminars, peer support and mentoring.
Beacons also work closely with government departments, influencing the policy agenda, but the most important role that they play is in promoting learning and innovation.

This year’s Beacon themes
The themes against which Round Nine awards were made are as follows:
- Better public places
- Dignity in care
- Local Strategic Partnerships and Local Area Agreements
- Reducing health inequalities
- Reducing re-offending
- Tackling climate change
- Empowering Communities, Transforming services
- Better brighter futures: 14-19 reform
- Children in care