LGA Corporate Peer Challenge – Progress Review : South Gloucestershire Council

The council undertook an LGA Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) in November 2023 and promptly published the full report with an action plan. 

The progress review is an integral part of the Corporate Peer Challenge process.  Taking place approximately ten months after the CPC, it is designed to provide space for the council’s senior leadership to:

• Receive feedback from peers on the early progress made by the council against the CPC recommendations and the council’s RAG rated CPC action plan.
• Consider peer’s reflections on any new opportunities or challenges that may have arisen since the peer team were ‘on-site’ including any further support needs
• Discuss any early impact or learning from the progress made to date 

The LGA would like to thank South Gloucestershire Council for their commitment to sector led improvement. This progress review was the next step in an ongoing, open and close relationship that the council has with LGA sector support.

The progress review at South Gloucestershire Council took place  (onsite) on Friday 11^th October 2024

The progress review focussed on each of the recommendations from the Corporate Peer Challenge:

• Use the development of a 10-year overarching plan to reflect the place you want South Gloucestershire to be.
• Continue work to develop an evidencebased council plan.
• Continue collaborative organisational focus on financial management approach.
• Consider how to celebrate the successes of South Gloucestershire.
• Develop a clear vision and approach to resident engagement.
• Review how governance arrangements are documented.
• Develop a strategic approach to internal communications.

For this progress review, the following members of the original CPC team were involved: 

• Councillor Joanne Harding – executive member for finance, change and governance – Trafford Council (Labour)
• Marcel Coiffait – chief executive, Central Bedfordshire
• Shefali Kapoor – director of communities, Manchester City Council
• Emily McGuinness – LGA peer challenge manager

The council’s action plan reports that all recommendations made in the original CPC have been progressed. In advance of the progress review, South Gloucestershire Council provided an update on progress to date on all the CPC’s recommendations, this is attached at Appendix 1 to this progress review report. Following conversations with the chief executive, leader and co-leader and the wider council senior leadership team, as well as consideration of additional background information provided by the council (including staff survey results and analysis and current financial monitoring and forecasting information) the peer team are confident the progress reported by the council is an accurate reflection of how they have responded purposefully to the original CPC recommendations.

As was the case when the teer team visited in November 2023, South Gloucestershire Council remains a well-led council with members and officers responding well to continually changing national landscape for local government. Since the original CPC, there has been a change in leader of the council due to the former leader being elected to Parliament in May 2024. 

The peer team found the new leader to have developed an effective working relationship with the co - leader (South Gloucestershire operate a partnership administration between the Liberal Democrat and Labour Groups) which extends to the whole cabinet. In addition to the new leader, there are also new cabinet members for children’s services and communities and it was encouraging to note that an away day had been held recently to foster a sense of ‘team’ and establish principles collective accountability. Maintaining focus and cohesion in a partnership scenario will continue to be important for the political leadership of the council and the peer team heard senior members felt well supported by the council’s chief executive in doing so.

Good progress has been made on developing a new corporate plan with a final version being approved by council in May 2024 and reporting against agreed priorities already underway. 

During the original CPC, the peer team gave particular consideration to the ‘Community Conversation’ aspirations of the incoming administration. At that point, the peer team noted that whilst the intentions of enhanced community engagement were laudable, there was more work to be done to better articulate plans to both allay staff concerns around capacity and set reasonable community expectations. As part of this progress review, it is clear that plans are now much more clearly formulated and staff have appreciated the ‘evolutionary rather than revolutionary’ approach that has been taken, with a focus on testing and learning. This more considered approach is allowing the council to better identify the skills and capacity needed. Whilst the peer team heard that some community engagement sessions had been challenging  - especially in regards to planned increases in car parking charges – those involved had genuinely welcomed the opportunity to engage. It is also clear that the benefits of improved resident engagement are valued by members and officers and there is a commitment to continue to support work in this area – especially in terms of the plans being developed to move beyond conversations to community co-design and collaboration.

Since the original CPC there has also been change in the senior officer team including the appointment of a new chief finance officer. The council appears to have navigated this change well. One of the CPC recommendations was for the council to review how internal governance arrangements are documented – this was intended to ensure any change in senior officers would not negatively impact on organisational assurance. In the intervening period there has been a new s151 officer and the transition was managed successfully.

Another key recommendation of the CPC was to develop a more strategic approach to internal communications. Again good progress has been made in this area with the recent staff survey showing a positive direction of travel and the impact that investing in additional capacity in this service is having.

During this progress review, the team heard that the council continues to play an important role in shaping the place that is South Gloucestershire. There are plans in place to strengthen a partnership vision in line with the original CPC recommendation, using the 10 year horizon of the new council plan as a starting point. Since those recommendations were made, the council has worked with the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) to produce a truly collaborative Industrial Strategy. It would seem that relations with WECA are improving with both officers and members reporting more productive relationships which is encouraging to hear as the CA works with an Improvement Board to address the concerns identified in a Best Value Improvement Notice. 

As well as pursuing economic growth programmes such as the innovation and tech arcs, South Gloucestershire Council plays an effective and influential leadership role across the health and care system particularly as they work to establish shared commitment to the council’s prioritisation of prevention and early intervention. Whilst the ICB/ICS landscape is not without its challenges, South Gloucestershire Council advocates passionately and positively for all their resident’s, particularly the most vulnerable. Something which their recent OFSTED rating of ‘Good’ is testament to. The inspection outcome represents a sustained period on council wide support and focused improvement activity and is something the council is rightly proud of. 

The opening paragraphs of the final CPC report stated:

“South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) is well led. It has strong, stable, political and managerial leadership and a track record for delivering its priorities. The future ambitions for their area and more broadly the West of England benefit from its leadership – it is proactive, focused, confident and collaborative.” LGA Corporate Peer Challenge 2017.

It is testament to the current Chief Executive, partnership administration and senior leadership team that the Peer Team in 2023 still hold this view of the council – despite a change of Chief Executive and political control in the intervening 5 years, (the latter being in May 2023), and this achievement should not be underestimated.

At the conclusion of this progress review, the peer team would reiterate these sentiments. Like all councils in the sector, South Gloucestershire is facing challenging times – they are all too aware of the continuing pressures in Adults and Children’s Services and the increases in temporary accommodation costs. However, the peer team heard that whilst there will be some difficult choices to be made, sound planning and accurate forecasting means the council continues to be well placed to navigate these challenges.

South Gloucestershire Council continue to be well engaged with the LGA’s regional team and positively embrace all aspects of sector led improvement.

The LGA would like to thank South Gloucestershire Council for undertaking an LGA CPC progress review. 

Under the umbrella of LGA sector-led improvement, there is an on-going offer of support to councils. The LGA is well placed to provide additional support, advice and guidance on a number of the areas identified for development and improvement and we would be happy to discuss this. 

Paul Clarke (principal adviser) is the main point of contact between the council and the Local Government Association (LGA) and his  e-mail address is  [email protected]