Central government's communication and engagement with local government : Department for Communities and Local Government

This report recognises that, now more than ever, it is essential that central government communicates and engages well with local government.

Responsibilities such as public health are moving to local government, local authorities are playing a vital role in the Government's decentralisation agenda, and substantial reductions in staff are causing pressure.

It is clear that there is goodwill on both sides, however, the organisational differences between central and local government make communication very challenging.

Where departments are designing services for local delivery, the operational experience of local authorities is important to the effective design and implementation of programmes.

The NAO's work across government has also demonstrated that not consulting local delivery partners early brings a high risk of waste and 'optimism bias' that can result in the failure of programmes.

Some policy consultations are rushed. Departments also issue a disproportionate number of consultations just before parliamentary recess and holiday periods making it difficult to co-ordinate their work on them. Though most individual communications between central and local government are of good quality, there are so many that poor ones can still have a significant impact.

Departments' standards for, and oversight of, their communications with local government are not systematic enough to eliminate the risk of some poor communications slipping through.

Local authorities are also exasperated by the poor targeting of emails to relevant audiences, wasting the time of the hundreds of people who receive each one.

This is of particular concern to local authority managers working with fewer staff following cost reductions.