Agenda item

The Chairman invited Matthew Hamilton, Head of Improvement Strategy and Co-ordination, to introduce the report.

Matthew reported that the MHCLG grant for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had now been secured at the same level as last year. The MoU itself was just 2 pages long this year giving the LGA much more freedom and flexibility to deliver appropriate support to councils as they attempted to address the challenges caused by Covid-19. Matthew added that there was a clause in the MoU to review the situation around COVID-19 after six months, with a possible return to focus on business as usual issues.

Matthew said that the report set out how the LGA offer to councils had changed over a short period of time to support them through COVID-19. He cited the examples of the Remote Meetings Hub which had been set up within 3 weeks of the lockdown, and a refocussing in the work of the Care and Health Improvement Programme and Children’s Improvement teams.

Matthew then described proposed changes to the peer challenge offer comprising two separate strands:

1.     remote ‘recovery’ peer panels – a short, sharp review over a 3- or 4-hour period sharing best practice on recovery.

2.     bespoke remote peer support to address specific issues raised by councils.

These would be piloted in June with potential roll-out in July to October. It was hoped that more formal peer challenges would be able to resume in some form from October.

Finally, Matthew reported that Lead Members of the IIB had agreed that the Sector Led Improvement (SLI) Review should be extended by an extra month in order to capture some of the refocussed improvement work around COVID-19.

The Chairman put on record his thanks to Matthew and his team for the excellent work they had done in such a short period of time.

Following Matthew’s introduction, Members raised the following points:

·       Concern was expressed over the resilience of the sector in the face of COVID-19. Matthew said that the key issue as councils move into the recovery phase was finance. He said that staff numbers had stood up very well in most councils and services hadn’t been adversely affected to any great extent. However, councils were going to need significantly more financial support from Government if they were to be truly resilient.

·       The positive role that the Community and Voluntary sector had played during the crisis was raised and, in particular, the space that councils had given them to get on with what they do best. It was noted that this enabling role of councils should be extended into the recovery phase.

·       Specific training for councils on emergency budget setting was requested. Alan Finch, Principal Adviser (Finance) said that they would investigate this as it was going to be an issue for most councils.

·       Strong partnership working in two-tier council areas during the crisis was highlighted and it was suggested that these experiences should be embedded for the future, with a possible facilitating role for the LGA.

Decision

Improvement and Innovation Board members noted the report and the support that the LGA was putting in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.