LGA Corporate Peer Challenge: St Helens Council

Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) is a highly valued improvement and assurance tool that is delivered by the sector for the sector. It involves a team of senior local government councillors and officers undertaking a comprehensive review of key finance, performance and governance information and then spending 4 days at St Helens Council to provide robust, strategic, and credible challenge and support.

CPC forms a key part of the improvement and assurance framework for local government. It is underpinned by the principles of Sector-led Improvement (SLI) put in place by councils and the Local Government Association (LGA) to support continuous improvement and assurance across the sector. These state that local authorities are: Responsible for their own performance, Accountable locally not nationally and have a collective responsibility for the performance of the sector. 

CPC assists councils in meeting part of their Best Value duty, with the UK Government expecting all local authorities to have a CPC at least every five years. 

Peers remain at the heart of the peer challenge process and provide a ‘practitioner perspective’ and ‘critical friend’ challenge. 

This report outlines the key findings of the peer team and the recommendations that the council are required to action.   

St Helens Council has been transformed over the past five years. The organisation has improved significantly since the previous LGA Corporate Peer Challenge in 2019 (and follow up visit in 2021) and has addressed most of the areas and recommendations identified by peers at that time. The peer team were left in no doubt that the council is now equipped and positioned to serve the residents of the Borough effectively. Officers and councillors should be confident about the next phase of the council’s development, building on the progress to date and the firm foundations in place. The council has a clear vision with priorities that councillors are committed to. It now needs to evolve its transformation programme to focus more on how the council will enable the continued delivery of priorities against a backdrop of rising costs and increasing demand. 

The improvement across the organisation has resulted in the core components of a well-functioning council being in place and working well, including robust governance, performance management, financial stewardship and effective partnerships. Performance data indicates that St Helens is comparable to the average for metropolitan councils for measures relating to financial management, housing, economic prosperity, and community safety. There is a good understanding, particularly across the political and managerial leadership, of the areas for further improvement and development, and an obvious commitment to and focus on those. The council knows what it needs to do. It is well positioned to deliver further transformation, efficiencies and best value (including financial savings), develop its localities operating model and relationships with residents and communities, and ensure it can realise its ambitious regeneration agenda.  

The council has modernised and is functioning well in many areas. It now needs to consider its next steps as an organisation, and the ongoing approach to transformation.  The Borough Strategy, Inclusive Growth Strategy and regeneration projects all make for an ambitious agenda. But the financial context for delivering these ambitions is becoming increasingly challenging. The council will almost certainly need to consider new operating models, including further partnership working and harnessing community capacity, as ways of delivering its ambitions while remaining financially sustainable over the longer term. 

In doing that, the council should communicate not only the outcomes sought for the Borough and its residents, but the council’s role, purpose, and contribution to the realisation of those outcomes. Now is the time to articulate a coherent vision and story for St Helens – both in terms of ambitions for the Borough, but also how the future council is going to look, feel and operate to deliver those. This will bring greater strategic alignment and coherence across council priorities, continued organisational transformation and the financial strategy, and might be articulated in the form of a refreshed Borough Strategy or new council Plan at a relevant point in time.

The council’s leadership is highly respected within the Borough and region, and the organisation is seen as a credible, active and effective partner. The contribution from St Helens council in partnerships across the Borough and wider city region is both valued and recognised. There are numerous examples of where the council is working with public, private and voluntary sector partners to deliver better outcomes for the Borough, including economic growth and regeneration, and health and social care. Productive partnership working provides a strong foundation on which the council can build to leverage more capacity and outcomes, particularly in terms of regeneration.

The council has an ambitious agenda for the Borough, particularly in terms of regeneration, to enable and support inclusive growth for its residents. Given the significant scale of ambitions and the numerous major programmes and projects already in progress, it is important the council focuses on delivering those and meets the expectations it has set. The council needs to make sure it has the capacity to deliver existing projects before expanding its ambitions and associated workload any further. Committing to further regeneration projects at this stage is likely to risk not delivering on community expectations. So, clear prioritisation and phasing will be important.   

The peer team encountered councillors, senior officers, and a wider workforce who are passionate about delivering for the Borough. They care deeply about the social and economic well-being of the Borough and its future development. They are highly committed and want to do their best for the council and communities, and keen to play their respective roles and make a valued contribution. The organisational values (‘TICK’: Trust, Integrity, Collaboration, Keep Innovating), which were clearly evident, are underpinning behaviours and attitudes, making for a positive and productive culture. There are effective approaches and good practice relating to recruitment, workforce retention, and employee recognition – including the use of apprenticeships, graduate capacity, and ‘grow your own’ initiatives - and an opportunity to formalise and roll them out more corporately and consistently through a new Workforce Strategy.     

The council’s current financial position is relatively stable, compared to many other similar sized councils. The Government’s published ‘Core Spending Power’ figures show an increase of 9.3 per cent from 2024/25 to 2025/26 for St Helens, compared to a national average increase of 6.8 per cent.  There is, though, no room for complacency. While the council is not in a critical position, it has overspent on its approved budget for the previous two financial years (overspent by 3.116m in 2023/24 and £4.5m in 2022/23). It is forecast to overspend again in 2024/25. Children’s Services remains a financially challenging area, and it is important to stay focussed on continuous improvement to manage demand and reduce costs. More generally, the council needs to further improve its track record of delivering planned savings and reduce its reliance on reserves to balance the budget to ensure it is on a sustainable financial footing beyond the current medium term. The next phase of the transformation programme will be crucial in this respect. 

There are several observations and suggestions within the main section of the report. The following are the peer team’s key recommendations to the council:

Recommendation 1: Articulate and communicate a more coherent overall vision and story for St Helens.

The Borough Strategy, Inclusive Growth Strategy and regeneration projects make for an ambitious agenda. The financial context for delivering these ambitions is becoming increasingly challenging and there is a need to better capture and communicate not only the outcomes sought, but the council’s role, purpose, and contribution to the realisation of those, perhaps through a refreshed Borough Strategy document, or new Council Plan document (or both), which sets out the agreed actions and roles of both the council and its partners.

Recommendation 2: Develop and resource an insight-driven and politically owned programme of transformation that is widely understood and aligned to the overall vision and story.

The next iteration of the council’s transformation programme needs to benefit from greater political leadership and oversight and will need to be focussed on developing new ways of working required to deliver the council’s overall vision and priorities and with appropriate capacity aligned, allocated, and informed by relevant data and insight.

Recommendation 3: Ensure transformation delivers sufficient financial benefits. 

Transformation has to date focussed primarily on addressing policy and practice improvements and modernisation. While this has delivered some financial savings through efficiencies, there will be an increasing need for hard decisions and future transformation to evolve into a programme driven and predicated on further efficiency and productivity (including cost reduction and savings) and fundamentally changing the way services are delivered – especially the high-cost demand led services in Children’s and Adults Social Care. 

Recommendation 4: Ensure a continued focus and rigour on financial planning and management. 

While the council’s current financial position is relatively stable, there is no room for complacency. It needs to ensure current savings plans are delivered and ensure that medium-term planning helps address increasing demand for services, the growing complexity of need, and rising inflation and costs of delivery as well as support delivery of the Borough Strategy ambitions.

Recommendation 5: Reduce the reliance on an annual call on reserves to balance the budget, and plan to rebuild reserves in the future.

There is currently a trend of drawing on reserves which needs to be addressed to ensure and enable a sustainable strategy moving forward. Improving the delivery of savings, further transformation and new ways of working will help reduce the utilisation of reserves to balance the budget and start to support the rebuilding of reserves over the medium term.   

Recommendation 6: Children’s services remain a financially challenging area, and the council needs to stay focussed on continuous improvement to manage demand and reduce cost. 

There have been key pressures during 2024/25 including children’s social care placement market pressures, and the costs of agency staffing to manage caseload pressures. The council needs to continue its work to address these issues to ensure it manages the risk of them to overall financial resilience. 

Recommendation 7: Maintain a laser focus on existing regeneration plans ensuring there is capacity, phasing and funding.

The council needs to prioritise and phase its current regeneration ambitions and projects, ensuring there is capacity and funding to deliver at pace, to meet the expectations it has set, before committing to further project expansion. 

Recommendation 8: Further formalise the workforce planning good practice through the planned Workforce Strategy. 

There are a range of effective initiatives and practice relating to recruitment, talent retention, succession planning and staff recognition, that could be further formalised and rolled out corporately through the new Workforce Strategy ensuring that the benefits can be felt more widely across the organisation.

Recommendation 9: Progress the work on designing the scope and purpose of the localities model to ensure it is a key feature of how the council will operate in the future.

The council should consider the further development of the localities approach as a key facet of its future operating model and how it delivers its priorities. In doing so it should consider how community engagement and capacity can be best deployed, what the role of councillors is, what it means in terms of a physical presence in communities and how data and insight are used to tailor and focus service levels and delivery.   

Recommendation 10: Ensure a smooth transition to a new chief executive as well as a permanent director of Children’s Services.

The recruitment of a new chief executive and director of Children’s Services are critical appointments for the council.  In particular, the transition to a new chief executive needs to be well managed to continue St Helens’ transformation and build on the excellent foundations that are now in place. 

The peer team

Peer challenges are delivered by experienced elected member and officer peers. The make-up of the peer team reflected the focus of the peer challenge and peers were selected by the LGA, on the basis of their relevant expertise. The peers were:

• Rob Walsh – Chief Executive of North East Lincolnshire Council
• Cllr Sir Steve Houghton CBE – Leader of Barnsley Council
• Cllr Jim Hakewill – Elected Member, North Northamptonshire Council
• Angela Glithero - Director of Strategy, Economy and Communications at Stoke-on Trent City Council
• Gabrielle Mancini – Service Director (Transformation) at West Berkshire Council
• Neil Thornton – CIPFA Associate
• Paul Clarke – Peer Challenge Manager 

Scope and focus

The peer team considered the following five themes which form the core components of all Corporate Peer Challenges. These areas are critical to councils’ performance and improvement.

1. Local priorities and outcomes - Are the council’s priorities clear and informed by the local context? Is the council delivering effectively on its priorities? Is there an organisational-wide approach to continuous improvement, with frequent monitoring, reporting on and updating of performance and improvement plans?
2. Organisational and place leadership - Does the council provide effective local leadership? Are there good relationships with partner organisations and local communities?
3. Governance and culture - Are there clear and robust governance arrangements? Is there a culture of challenge and scrutiny?
4. Financial planning and management - Does the council have a grip on its current financial position? Does the council have a strategy and a plan to address its financial challenges? What is the relative financial resilience of the council like?
5. Capacity for improvement - Is the organisation able to bring about the improvements it needs, including delivering on locally identified priorities? Does the council have the capacity to improve?

As part of the five core elements outlined above, every Corporate Peer Challenge includes a strong focus on financial sustainability, performance, governance, and assurance. 

The peer challenge process

Peer challenges are improvement focused; it is important to stress that this was not an inspection. The process is not designed to provide an in-depth or technical assessment of plans and proposals. The peer team used their experience and knowledge of local government to reflect on the information presented to them by people they met, things they saw and material that they read.

The peer team prepared by reviewing a range of documents and information to ensure they were familiar with the council and the challenges it is facing. This included a position statement prepared by the council in advance of the peer team’s time on site. This provided a clear steer to the peer team on the local context at St Helens Council and what the peer team should focus on. It also included a comprehensive LGA Finance briefing (prepared using public reports from the council’s website) and a LGA performance report outlining benchmarking data for the council across a range of metrics. The latter was produced using the LGA’s local area benchmarking tool called LG Inform. 

The peer team then spent four days onsite at St Helens Council, during which they:

• Gathered evidence, information, and views from more than 40 meetings, in addition to further research and reading.
• Spoke to more than 100 people including a range of council staff together with members and external stakeholders.

This report provides a summary of the peer team’s findings. In presenting feedback, they have done so as fellow local government officers and members.

St Helens Borough Council has clear ambitions and priorities which are articulated through its Borough Strategy 2021-2030.  The Strategy sets out six priority outcomes and 20 key deliverables, which all aim to realise a vision to “Work together for a better borough, with people at the heart of everything we do by improving people’s lives together and creating distinct, attractive, healthy, safe, inclusive, and accessible places in which to live, work, visit and invest”.  There are good levels of awareness, understanding and buy-in to the vision and priorities across the organisation. The councillors and officers we engaged with were able to clearly articulate and explain them.   

Together with a range of delivery strategies and thematic plans aligned to it (eg Children’s and Young Person’s Plan, Inclusive Growth Strategy, Housing Strategy, Climate Response Plan, and Data Strategy), the Borough Strategy provides a strong basis for delivering priorities and taking the Borough forward with partners. Policy development, business planning and performance management are aligned to the Strategy, ensuring it provides a genuine focus for how services are led, managed and delivered. A Strategy Development Framework helps ensure new strategies are developed in the context of the overall Borough Strategy and prompts the use of data and insight to inform them. 

There is an established process for business planning requiring services to identify priorities aligned to the Borough Strategy, with risk and resource considerations. Business intelligence dashboards are used across the organisation to drive operational and service improvements and more corporate compliance – eg appraisals, mandatory training, complaints, and FOI response times.

A performance management framework, aligned to the objectives of the Borough Strategy, includes a comprehensive range of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) including a balance of qualitative and quantitative measures.  These provide a basis on which to report performance and delivery against priorities. Performance and delivery are monitored and reported regularly to both senior officers and councillors – including quarterly to Cabinet and Overview and Scrutiny Committees allowing opportunities for appropriate levels of challenge. An Annual Report of progress against the Borough Strategy is also published, which provides a comprehensive summary of performance, delivery, and future plans. It may be that future editions are enhanced by comparisons with previous years’ performance to better demonstrate changes in demand, direction of travel and improvement in service performance and outcomes.     

The council has a good understanding of the Borough and is increasingly using data, insight and intelligence to inform priorities, policy development and programme delivery. A range of information informs its priorities and programmes, and to prompt consideration of specific issues and challenges (eg rough sleeping). The Inequalities Commission is a good example of mobilising action and activity where the data and insight points to a specific issue to be addressed. The independently chaired, multi-agency group was established in 2021 to address and reduce inequalities within the borough. It brings together partners to focus efforts on tackling the wider social determinants of health inequalities. The Commission has been successful in securing support from the Connecting Health Communities programme and has been recognised for its efforts in tackling health inequalities.

In addition to its commitment to understanding and responding to the diversity and stark inequalities within the Borough, the council is also determined to ensure equality and equity is embedded across the organisation, and its policy, practice and planning. There is an Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, and an established EDI staff group, along with other specific staff networks, that help to implement and embed the requirements of equalities legislation, disseminate good practice and support staff engagement. The approach to Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) is well-established. There are examples where that process has prompted further consideration of impact, including further targeted consultation to identify mitigations, such as Special Educational Needs (SEND) Home to School Transport Strategy and the Library Strategy. EIAs are published as part of the relevant committee reports and executive decision records. 

At the heart of the Borough Strategy is an extensive regeneration programme, underpinned by the Inclusive Growth Strategy.  The programme is helping to secure notable growth and investment opportunities into the Borough through a range of plans, schemes and projects, including St Helens Town Centre, Parkside, Earlestown, Cowley Hill, Bold Forest Garden Village and Project Halo. The scale of the regeneration agenda is significant and there is a clear aim to improve the social, health and wellbeing outcomes for residents, as well as physically regenerating the Borough. It is evident the council are ambitious and want to move at pace to deliver and realise the benefits and inclusive growth outcomes from it. 

However, there is a need for clearer prioritisation of projects, aligned to a more cohesive overall vision for the regeneration of the Borough. Equally as important, is the availability, management and deployment of resources and capacity to enable and ensure delivery of the schemes. The council knows this and has established a Growth Delivering Prosperity (GDP) team. But it may need to further consider whether delivery capacity and resources match the scale of ambition. 

The Borough Strategy, along with Inclusive Growth Strategy, regeneration projects and the array of delivery strategies and themed plans make for a very ambitious agenda. The financial context for delivering these ambitions is become increasingly challenging and there is a need to better capture and communicate not only the outcomes sought, but also the council’s role, purpose, and contribution to the realisation those. There is now a need for a cohesive vision for both borough and council. As one stakeholder commented, ‘all the pieces of the jigsaw are there but where is the picture on the box?’ 

One of those jigsaw pieces is arguably the council’s localities approach, which needs to be considered as a key facet of how the council will operate in the future to deliver its ambitions and priorities. Currently there are a variety of views about what the approach is, or could be, and there is a need for the council to further develop its proposal and clarify its thinking. This should include consideration of what the approach means in terms of the council having a physical presence and assets in localities; how it tailors or focuses service provision across different areas; how communities are engaged, and involvement strengthened; and ensuring the role and expectations of councillors are clearly articulated.

Performance

Performance data in the LGA’s performance report (drawn from their LG Inform platform and provided to the peer team) suggests St Helens’ is comparable to the average for metropolitan councils across many of the KPIs relating to financial management, housing, economic prosperity, and community safety.

There are some areas where the LG Inform data suggests St Helens’ performance is amongst the highest performing metropolitan councils, including the percentage of planning applications decided within required timescales, levels of debt, and numbers of school exclusions. 

There are, however, some areas where St Helens’ performance is amongst the lowest performing metropolitan councils – including time taken to process housing benefits claims, total households on the waiting list, proportion of residents in bad health, further education and skills achievements, numbers of looked after children, and numbers of roads needing maintenance. 

In terms of external inspections and opinions, the council has a track record of unqualified external audit opinions on its financial statements. It has received national awards and accolades for inequalities, children’s services, and partnership working on social housing initiatives, and recognition for its work through St Helens Together and the Inequalities Commission – eg an MJ Award in 2023 for ‘A Whole Council Approach to Tackling Health Inequalities. 

In July 2023 the council received an overall ILACS inspection rating of ‘Good’ from Ofsted, with ‘Outstanding’ for care leaver services. In December 2023 the Brookfield Support Centre received an overall rating of ‘Good’ from the Care Quality Commission (CQC). As regards an overall Adult Social Care Services rating, the council has recently had a CQC inspection and at the time of the Peer Challenge was awaiting the outcome of that. Upheld Ombudsman complaints are lower than the England average and on a par with statistical neighbours.

In terms of how performance is monitored and reported, we have already referenced the council’s performance management framework. This includes a range of KPIs, organisational health measures and dashboards and enables performance to be reported regularly to officers and councillors. Reporting could be strengthened further by including risk, as well as performance and delivery.

The political and managerial leadership of the council are highly respected both within the organisation and externally amongst partners. Officers and councillors are working well together to provide leadership to the organisation, and to the Borough. The Leader and Cabinet provide strong political leadership, demonstrating commitment to their portfolios, and are well supported by senior officers and the wider organisation. An established rhythm of Portfolio Briefings and Policy Cabinet meetings help to facilitate discussion and engagement between Cabinet and the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) members focussing on policy and strategy development.  

There is substantial recognition of the chief executive’s leadership, and the role she has played in leading the organisation through a significant improvement journey. St Helens Council has undoubtedly been transformed over the past five years, and this is recognised within the council, but also externally. The chief executive and executive directors have all played a key role in building positive relationships and improving the council’s reputation with local and regional partners.

The council knows effective partnership working is a critical element of delivering better outcomes for the Borough and its residents and businesses. There is a demonstrable commitment to lead, support and participate in strong and productive partnerships that help deliver the Borough Strategy outcomes. As a result, a range of strategic partnerships and stakeholder relationships have been established that are enabling delivery of council priorities – including St Helens Growth Board, Safer St Helens Executive, SMART Borough Board, Climate Commission, and a 20-year partnership with the English Cities Fund. 

The council is recognised for its influential contribution to, and leadership of, many of these partnerships. In particular, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) where the council’s relationship and contribution have gone from strength to strength over the past few years. The council is seen as a key player within the City Region and is benefitting from collaborative action on key priorities, and since 2019 over £130m of funding has been secured for regeneration and transport projects across the Borough. 

There is integrated leadership across the health and care sector. The council’s executive director of People Services also holds the role of NHS Place Director for St Helens.  The People Leadership Team incorporates senior directors from both Health and the council in one management team. This is helping to align strategic priorities, facilitate joint working, and enable collaboration focussed on delivering better outcomes. For example, the ‘Contact Cares’ provides a single point of contact for all social care and adult health referrals, and there is a multi-disciplinary assessment and referral team. A Shared Care Record allows different health and care providers to view patient and service user data giving a comprehensive picture of need. And there are examples of the integrated arrangements enabling key issues to be considered and addressed, such as suicide and self-harm. 

To enable sustained delivery against its ambitions on inclusive growth and regeneration, the council will need to continue to evolve key strategic relationships – including the St Helens Growth Board. The Board, established in 2023 to drive forward the Inclusive Growth Strategy, brings together local leaders from the public and private sector. It is chaired by the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Inclusive Growth and Regeneration and includes business leaders, council representatives, and educational institutions who identify, share and pursue opportunities for the prosperity of the borough, and collaborate on projects that promote economic development, business engagement, employment and skills, town centre regeneration, housing development, and green growth. The Board is helping to facilitate strong relationships but may need to potentially play a bigger role in the leveraging of resources and capacity from their respective organisations. 

In terms of leadership within the council, the chief executive has established a weekly meeting of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT). The ELT, together with the Monitoring Officer and Section 151 Officer, forms the Executive Management Board (EMB), which meets fortnightly to consider council-wide proposals and organisational direction. There has been a concerted effort to ensure senior officers have opportunities to inform and influence the council priorities, policies and processes.  For example, a ‘Wider Leadership Community’ which brings together Assistant Directors and Heads of Service from across the council, and the Policy Champions Network that enables collaboration around strategy development.   

We experienced a positive organisational culture, where staff feel engaged and talked positively about their senior leaders, particularly chief executive, being highly visible and accessible. It will be important that this positive organisational culture continues, and the forthcoming changes to the council’s officer leadership team (a new chief executive and Director of Children’s Services are to be appointed) will need careful management and smooth transitions. There is confidence from a range of stakeholders – internally and externally - that the retirement of the chief executive (announced in January) will not destabilise the organisation. 

A clearer communication of the future vision for the borough and council is important, so that the overall narrative and direction of travel is better understood by the organisation, partners and residents. We think there is potential to better capture and communicate not only the priorities and outcomes being pursued, but the council’s role and purpose in delivering those, and the next phase of organisational transformation and change required to achieve that. This might be achieved through a refreshed Borough Strategy document, or new council plan document with an aligned medium term financial strategy (MTFS) and communications plan.

The core components of good governance are in place at St Helens. The procedures, policies and protocols one would expect to see in a well-functioning organisation to support informed and transparent decision-making are evident.  These include internal control arrangements, strategic risk register, performance reporting arrangements, and an annual governance statement. They are underpinned by good working relationships between councillors and officers, particularly at Cabinet and SLT level. 

A range of protocols and procedures are in place to support those positive relations based on mutual trust, respect and understanding. These include a local Code of Conduct for Elected and Co-opted members which is based on the LGA model code of conduct and adopted in July 2021. A protocol for councillor/officer relations is also in place, which sets out the respective roles and expectations of councillors. There are several other protocols and guidance documents in place, such as the Planning Protocol, and Member’s ICT Protocol and Guidance on use of social media.   

A range of groups and meetings have been put in place to both ensure and promote good corporate governance. A Governance Group, comprising all Directors across the organisation meets quarterly to discuss risk management, information governance, equalities/diversity/inclusion, annual governance statement review, and policy review and development. The group, which also involves the Head of Audit and Risk, helps to raise awareness and understanding of good governance and promote compliance across the council.   

There are regular meetings of the Council’s Statutory Officers, involving the chief executive, monitoring officer, and Section 151 Officer, to discuss corporate governance matters. The chief executive also has regular meetings with the Head of Audit and Risk, and the council’s external auditor. Directors meet with Portfolio Holders regularly, and the chief executive and leader have weekly meetings. All Member briefings are held every quarter, with additional regular Member update bulletins issued to members and MPs. The chief executive has a regular schedule of meetings with all Opposition Group Leaders.

There is also a regular dialogue between chief executive and monitoring officer, Controlling Group Leader and the Chief Whip with the aim of working together to collectively challenge any poor behaviours and ethical standards.  The peer team was impressed by the knowledge and passion for St Helens of all councillors they met. Given the council’s political composition, it is important that good standards and councillor behaviours continue to be promoted, and to ensure there are genuine opportunities for opposition councillors to be informed and involved and make valued contributions to key policy development and decision making. 

The council’s key delivery strategies and thematic plans, performance management and strategic risk register are all aligned to the Borough Strategy, helping to ensure that governance supports and enables the delivery of the council’s priorities. The Strategy Development Framework helps ensure new strategies are developed in the context of Borough Strategy and there is clear guidance for managers (Governance Road Map) helping them to understand the council’s decision-making framework and its rules and procedures and providing standard templates. This is supplemented by decision-making training for managers.   

The council also provides relevant training and development opportunities for councillors. There is an established Member Training and Development Programme in place including external support and provision. The Programme covers key roles and responsibilities, such as committee specific training (e.g. planning, licensing, audit and governance) as well as a package of training available to all councillors, which includes access to the St Helens Learning Hub. The offer is comprehensive but is delivered predominantly through online sessions and e-learning modules, and there may an appetite from some councillors for more in-person training, which would help to build relationships and understanding between councillors. 

The Audit and Governance Committee is a key component of the council’s governance framework. The council undertook a self-assessment exercise in 2023 to identify areas for improvement. It should continue to review the effectiveness of the committee on a regular basis to ensure it is providing an effective independent challenge on the adequacy of governance, risk, and internal control arrangements, and to determine how the Committee can be most effectively supported by the council. The addition of an independent person to the membership of the committee has been seen as a positive development, and the council might consider whether there is merit in adding further independent members to the Committee. 

As the council, its role, and ways of working continue to evolve there will be a need to consider how best to support all councillors in their community roles. This should be considered as part of the further development of the localities approach referenced earlier. The role of the councillor outside of the Town Hall continues to evolve and change as partnership working and community involvement become more prominent features of how services and support are provided to communities. So how councillors are supported by the organisation needs to evolve too.    

The role of councillors in the transformation programme also needs to grow. There is currently limited councillor leadership and oversight of transformation, albeit some informal involvement. As the next iteration of the council’s transformation is developed and delivered there needs to be greater political oversight. The Cabinet should be engaged in the conversation about what kind of council does St Helens want and need to be to deliver priorities in the context of increasing demand and costs.     

The peer team experienced a positive organisational culture at St Helens.We met with staff who felt informed and engaged. The ‘TICK’ values (Trust, Integrity, Collaboration, Keep Innovating) have been co-produced with staff, and set out behaviours and bonds (a set of employer and employee expectations). The Values, along with the establishment of a Culture Champions Network are a tangible demonstration of building an organisational culture that is inclusive, transparent and supportive.

The council has a good understanding of its financial position and the medium-term risks. Budget restrictions and the management of pressures are a risk listed in the Corporate Risk Register. The current 2024/25 financial year has seen number of significant financial pressures. The latest reported budget monitoring position available at the time of the CPC (presented to Cabinet on the 20^th November 2024) was forecasting a net portfolio overspend by 2024/25 year-end of £5.5m against a net portfolio budget of £185.838m (3 per cent of the budget). There was a similar overspend in both 2023/24 (£3.116m) and 2022/23 (£4.5m).

The main pressures during the current financial year have been within Children & Young People Services where increasing demand, social work staffing challenges and unachieved savings are all contributing to the forecasted overspend. It is important for the council to stay focussed on continuous improvement to manage demand and reduce costs in that area. 

The council continues to operate within a difficult financial environment, and there is no room for complacency in relation to the financial position. The council knows it has more to do to enable and ensure the continued delivery of existing savings plans and tackle areas of high spend. The (draft) Medium-Term Financial Strategy 2025-2028 includes savings options that have previously been approved for implementation during 2025/26 and 2026/27.  

It is imperative that the savings options agreed are progressed and delivered in 2025/26 and over the medium term to deliver a budget that is balanced. There has, to date, been a reliance on calling on reserves to balance the budget, and this needs to be reduced - and ideally reversed. There needs to be a clear plan and timeline to rebuild reserves, and this should be developed at pace. An overspend in 2024/25 (which is forecast) would be the third consecutive year of overspend and would create a further draw on the council’s reserves, which have already reduced over recent years. 

The Government has recognised the considerable financial pressure within the local government system.  It has allocated funds into the key areas for pressure such as children services, SEND, adult social care and homelessness. The Government’s published figures show an increase of 9.3 per cent of ‘core spending power’ from £209.9m in 2024/25 to £229.4m in 2025/26, comparing favourably to an average increase of 6.8 per cent nationally.   But the council itself will need to do more to secure its financial sustainability in the long term. Key to this will be a transformation programme focussed more on delivering savings and cost reduction – achieved through fundamentally changing the way services are delivered – especially the high-cost demand led services in Children’s and Adults Social Care. This is likely to be an essential element of the council’s approach to securing financial sustainability as well as shaping the future role and purpose of the council.  

There is regular and effective oversight and monitoring of the budget, including regular reporting to both officers and councillors. A Budget and Performance Board was introduced in July 2024 to strengthen alignment of performance and improvement activity and budget savings, to the outcomes of the Borough Strategy. Budget monitoring reports are also reviewed by Overview and Scrutiny Committees and spotlight reviews are conducted into some areas. The council’s approach to financial management has been acknowledged by external audit reports over the past few years, and auditors have issued unqualified opinions on the council’s financial statements, confirming arrangements are in place to secure economy, efficiency, and use of resources.

In terms of the council’s ability to secure additional funding, there is a track record of funding successes – including more than £130million since 2019 that have helped St Helens from the Combined Authority to have one of the most extensive regeneration programmes in the region as well as external funding that has been secured directly (eg Town Fund and Levelling Up). The established partnership working in the Borough referenced earlier, and health and social care integration arrangements, mean that partners generally feel engaged in the funding allocations and decision making of the council. 

The council has an approved capital programme which commits significant resources for schemes in 2024/25 and future years, including several of the regeneration projects already referenced, investment in highway assets and school re-building projects and improvements. The estimated value of the programme exceeds £230 million over the period 2024-2027. Given its scale it will be essential to continue to ensure the approved programme remains realistic, is prioritised and has funding and resources to deliver and avoid slippage. This is something the Capital Asset and Investment Group (CAIG) and the council’s Leadership Team will need to keep under regular review and scrutiny.

Following the LGA Corporate Peer Challenge in 2019 the council embarked on whole organisation transformation to create a modern and efficient council. At the heart of this was the Ways of Working (WoW) programme, encompassing cultural transformation, people management improvement, and digital innovation. A key part of the WoW programme was building an organisational culture with staff and the establishment of a Culture Champions Network. This group of over 150 employees acts as a forum for engagement, information sharing, providing feedback on a range of topics, and providing the role of a critical friend of the organisation.  The Network is a great example of the workforce being involved, engaged, included and listened to, and should be something the council continues to nurture and support.   

The council knows there is more improvement and transformation to deliver. The political and managerial leadership appreciate the need for further organisational efficiency, transformation and savings. There is a recognition that the localities model needs further development, and that the relationship with residents and communities need to be strengthened to enable more co-production and co-design, while continuing to address the inequalities across the Borough.   

The transformation programme needs to focus increasingly on changing how the organisation operates so it can deliver its ambitions while being financially sustainable, and benefits are realisable. There is a recognition that investment in resourcing is needed to support this. One example is the establishment of a Corporate Programme Management Office (CPMO) which is providing capacity to support the planning, delivery and monitoring of strategic transformation programmes. It is helping to strengthen the management of programmes, through the development of a project management toolkit and associated guidance and templates which will provide a consistent approach to deliver projects. 

It is likely the size and role of the CPMO will need to grow in line with the scale and nature of transformation required.  There is likely to be a need for additional transformation delivery capacity, and consideration as to whether that needs to be consolidated. The council is also likely to need to make sure other corporate enabling functions are equipped to effectively to support the scale, size and pace of the council’s transformation and delivery. The Business Partner model and approach introduced for finance, people management, programme management, legal services, and other functions such as performance and business intelligence, policy, and EDI is a good basis on which to do that. 

Another example of the council mobilising additional investment and dedicated capacity to deliver, is the establishment of the Growth Delivering Prosperity (GDP) team to drive implementation of the council’s regeneration plans. The team has been set up to provide a significantly enhanced service to deliver Borough priorities, enable key investors and developers, engage and collaborate with stakeholders and partners to help the accelerate the delivery of projects and programmes.

There are some impressive examples of workforce development and practice at St Helens. We heard about the use of apprenticeships, graduate capacity, and ‘grow your own’ initiatives as ways of enabling recruitment, talent retention and succession planning. There is scope to further develop and formalise this good practice so that its benefits can be felt corporately and across all services. The planned development of a new Workforce Strategy is an obvious opportunity to do that, with its key components focussed on attracting talent, retaining talent, developing skills and competencies, and enabling the council to plan for the future, along with promoting diversity and inclusion, improving productivity and efficiency, and supporting staff wellbeing. 

The council has made a demonstrable commitment to the effective use of data, digital transformation and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to inform and support service delivery and improvement. The ICT Strategy and Technology Roadmap and Data Strategy 2024-27 set a direction for the continued modernisation of the digital workplace, and there are numerous examples of service delivery and operational practice being more digitally enabled and supported. 

For instance, a new People Management system provides better quality people analytics and staff insight, and a new Customer Portal (GOSS) allows customers to have full view of their interactions with the council. There has been an investment in data quality and availability enabled by a move to cloud-based systems which has seen an increase in the council’s business intelligence capacity – with a plethora of performance data and insights for managers to utilise.  Examples of the benefit of using AI include the use of ‘Copilot’, Virtual Assistants (VAs) and intelligent voice recognition, and the introduction of a Technology Enabled Care Model (TECM) to analyse people’s data in settings such extra care housing like the new TEC Hub at the council’s Brookfield Resource Care Centre.

It is recognised that senior political and managerial leadership will want to consider, discuss and reflect on these findings. The LGA will continue to provide on-going support to the council. Following publication of CPC report you need to produce and publish an Action Plan within five months of the time on site. As part of the CPC, the council is also required to have a progress review and publish the findings from this within twelve months of the CPC. The LGA will also publish the progress review report on their website.

The progress review will provide space for a council’s senior leadership to report to peers on the progress made against each of the CPC’s recommendations, discuss early impact or learning and receive feedback on the implementation of the CPC action plan. The progress review will usually be delivered on-site over one day.

The progress review at St Helens Council will be due in January 2026.

In the meantime, Claire Hogan, LGA Principal Adviser for the North-West, is the main contact between your authority and the Local Government Association. As outlined above, Claire is available to discuss any further support the council requires. [email protected].