Agenda item

The Chair invited Gary Hughes (Principal Adviser) to introduce the update.

Gary reported that the LGA’s Member Peer Conference had taken place virtually on 4-5 November 2021 with over 170 attendees and feedback had been positive. Next year’s conference would be taking place in person in Sheffield.

Gary said that the CPC programme had resumed in July 2021 and that take up had been excellent with a high number of first-time councils taking part. Examples of good practice highlighted during the CPCs included:

·       Councils have proved to be highly resilient during the pandemic, supporting their communities despite capacity challenges.

·       Covid has encouraged councils to rethink how they deliver services to their communities.

·       Excellent examples of community hubs, hosted by councils, delivering services with partners during the pandemic. Councils keen to maintain this post-pandemic but the challenge will be to maintain engagement of partners.

·       Lots of examples of shared services improving efficiency of service delivery.

·       Members and officers all prepared to go the extra mile during the pandemic.

·       Councils have been very receptive to recommendations from peer teams.

·       Councils have played a crucial role in leading place delivery with partners.

The main challenges facing councils have been:

·       Balancing budgets, especially with reduced corporate capacity for strategic approaches to savings. Commercial plans need to be carefully monitored in the light of Covid and Brexit.

·       Problems with recruitment of senior staff contributing to corporate capacity challenges for many councils.

·       Challenges around place leadership, in particular economic recovery and revitalising town centres and high streets.

Gary concluded by saying that the latest batch of CPCs had provided lots of positive stories of improvement in councils, particularly in those that had been struggling. Capturing the impact of CPC will be made easier by new arrangements being introduced in Spring 2022 whereby progress reviews with the original team will be conducted six months after publication of the initial action plan.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       Members welcomed the return of in-person CPC and the positive impact it seemed to be having. The planned new 6-month reviews were also welcomed. Officers were congratulated on the success of the virtual sector-led improvement offer that had been developed during the pandemic, and the advantages of this approach, as opposed to in-person, were also highlighted.

·       The importance of dedicated individual support from the LGA was highlighted as being crucial in helping councils to transform.

·       Gary agreed to speak to the WLGA about setting up a session on CPC.

·       The importance of sustaining the partnerships that had been developed during the pandemic was emphasised, in particular, the central coordinating role that councils have played. Corporate capacity should not just be determined by internal officer resources but should also be about working closely with other organisations and utilising their resources and expertise. Councils should continue to tap into this post-pandemic.

·       Members considered it important that councils who had undertaken CPC for the first time, remained engaged with the LGA and all the other support it offered. CPC should be used as a signpost to further LGA support offers.

·       CPC was considered to be key to the LGA’s relationship with Government and there were signs that Government in turn valued the process.

Decision:

Improvement & Innovation Board noted the update.

Action:

·       Gary Hughes to speak to WLGA about CPC