Agenda item

Heather Wills, Principal Adviser – Improvement

The Chair invited Heather Wills (HW), Principal Adviser – Improvement – to introduce the report.

HW provided new members of the Board with some background to the project and outlined the initial results of the consultation work carried out to date with the sector and other stakeholders. Common themes were already emerging and were outlined in paragraph 14 of the report. A second stage of engagement was being planned for November 2023 – February 2024. As well as IIB, feedback on the plans for phase 2 was being sought from the LGA Board, with a request for authority to be delegated to the IIB Chair and Lead Members to approve the final draft set of questions

for Phase 2 engagement.

DS highlighted the comments received as part of the engagement to date about the potential to strengthen further the CPC process as outlined in paragraph 20 of the report.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       The importance of qualitative data obtained during CPCs was emphasised in relation to identifying councils in difficulty

·       It was considered important to engage all council members in assurance work within their authorities – not just those on audit or scrutiny committees. Audit Committee reports also needed to contain less technical language to make them accessible to a wider audience

·       It was suggested that the LGA could be more robust in following up CPC visits and recommendations with councils to ensure that they were being implemented. How could this best be taken forward and monitored by the Board?

·       Could the LGA use illustrative examples of where CPC has demonstrably benefitted a council in order to promote the benefits of the process to a wider audience

·       Does the LGA have sufficient capacity to carry out regular CPCs of councils every 4 or 5 years?

·       It was highlighted that councils have unique characteristics which may not be shared with near geographical neighbours, or councils proposed for the same combined authority area.

·       The next stage of consultation should be more explicit about what the sector needs to improve upon and the practical steps that the LGA should take to facilitate that.

·       Concern was expressed about striving for greater uniformity in Schemes of Delegation as it could stifle local innovation. On the other hand, it was felt that national standards needed to be in place in order to keep councils within a statutory framework. The role of members in scrutinising decisions was discussed. HW explained that some inspection reports of challenged councils had identified thresholds in their schemes of delegation as outliers and that this had led to a lack of member oversight of financial decisions.

·       The importance of consistent good practice in preparation of Annual Governance Statements was also highlighted.

Decision:

Improvement & Innovation Board:

1)    Reviewed and commented on feedback from phase 1 of the engagement programme and work-in-progress to revise the draft framework set out in this report

2)    Agreed to delegate to the Chair and Lead Members authority to approve for phase 2 of the engagement programme: (i) a revised version of the draft improvement and assurance framework; and (ii) questions for discussion

3)    Agreed that officers prepare proposals for discussion with the sector to further strengthen the Corporate Peer Challenge.