Councils that made successful bids for a share of the £90m Transforming Services fund have received the money for introducing changes which will result in services being delivered differently. Bids have also been invited for a share of the £320m fund which will be distributed over the next two years.

Successful bidders for funding for transformation plans include Blackburn with Darwen with £750,000 for a shared service, involving 16 different agencies, which will tackle violence crisis points.

Taunton Deane and West Somerset were awarded £750,000 to extend their sharing arrangements beyond the chief executive and senior managers to more services and potentially to more councils.

The London Boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow will receive £150,000 to transform employment and skills support for young people and the workless residents, and for people in work on low pay.

West Cheshire will receive £150,000 to support the expansion of ongoing service reforms including integrated early support for individuals and families with complex needs and a multi-agency programme to help those out of work find employment.

Essex will receive £100,000 to further its public service reform programme which includes joint work with health service partners to improve protection of domestic abuse victims and strengthen the evidence base to enable long term investment in preventive services.

Greater Manchester will receive £100,000 to support the scaling up of public service reform, which covers areas such as tackling complex dependency, integration of health and social care and early intervention work to make sure that children aged 0 to 5 years old are ready for school.

Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis said:
Ambitious authorities such as those working with the Public Service Transformation Network have shown how local partnerships and a complete redesign of services around individuals, not organisations, can mean better outcomes for people.