LGA Corporate Peer Challenge: North Lincolnshire 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 four days at North Lincolnshire 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.

North Lincolnshire Council is a successful council which is achieving positive outcomes for its people and communities. This needs to be celebrated and shared meaning the council would do well to become more comfortable with embracing its success. This was a similar message to the council from the CPC report in 2018 which stated ‘You are a ‘good’ council so ‘tell your story’’.

North Lincolnshire Council has a passion for and commitment to putting its people first in all it delivers. The Leader is strong and impactful and the Council’s Cabinet is a cohesive and effective unit. Ward members are well-respected by their communities.

The chief executive is held in high regard both internally in the council at all levels and externally among partners.

‘One Council’ provides a real opportunity for North Lincolnshire Council to ensure that it delivers its transformation ambitions to deliver the best outcomes for all the communities of North Lincolnshire.

North Lincolnshire Council is blessed with terrific staff who are extremely committed to each other, the place and the council. They have embraced the vision and ethos of ‘One Council’ and are keen to be a part of turning this into a reality.

There is a need for clearer prioritisation of the council’s transformation projects to ensure these have the best chance of achieving maximum impact.

There is an opportunity to bring greater clarity to how you describe your transformation journey and the strategic plans for your place.

North Lincolnshire Council has the potential to be a driving force in the region as part of the devolution agenda for Lincolnshire.

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

Recommendation 1

Clearly define the narrative for the transformation programme and the strategic plans for place in a language that is clearly understood and also continues to be a shared narrative with a regular rhythm to all stakeholders.

Recommendation 2

Identify and agree the gateway criteria and governance applied to projects which qualify them to be part of the transformation programme, and streamline the current list to remove those programmes that could be managed as business as usual.

Recommendation 3

Consider the capacity required to deliver your transformation ambitions. There may be benefits in identifying expertise which helps build an effective model for managing transformation at pace. Use skills and expertise from colleagues in other local authorities.

Recommendation 4

The council needs to consider what its universal offer for ongoing member development will be.   

Recommendation 5

Ensure the voice of the S151 officer and monitoring officer are sufficiently represented and heard at senior decision-making boards and meetings.  

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:

• Lead Peer: Marcel Coiffait (Chief Executive, Central Bedfordshire Council)
• Member Peer: Cllr. Abi Brown OBE (former Leader of the Council, Stoke-on-Trent Council and Chair of the LGA Improvement Board)
• Senior Officer Peer: Alison McManamon (Interim Corporate Director (Corporate Services) - Brighton & Hove City)
• Senior Officer Peer: Carol Williams (Director of Transformation Delivery at Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council)
• LGA Peer Challenge Manager: Ernest Opuni (Senior Regional Advisor)

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. 

As part of the consideration of these core themes the council asked the peer team to include feedback on:

1. How well understood the Council’s transformation priorities are and how engaged the workforce is in delivering on these
2. How widely local partners and communities have contributed to the development of locality plans, how signed up they are to the measures of success and how well they are they supporting the delivery plans
3. How well the council is transitioning into the new ways of working
4. How well-developed the council’s outcomes-based budgeting approach is and
5. How the last Corporate Peer Challenge has influenced the current council priorities

These were considered and fed back as part of the main headings in this report.

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 in order 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 North Lincolnshire 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 North Lincolnshire 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.

The council has a very clearly stated ‘One Council’ ambition. The principle is underpinned by a commitment to continuous improvement and innovation through streamlining processes and adopting a one-council approach to systems and data. 

This approach has contributed to the council’s ambitions to positively impact on workforce adaptability, training, culture and skills sets. The aim of the programme is to build a broader-based, flexible, agile and more diverse workforce whilst emphasising the need for accountable management and definitive action.

There is a clarity of vision and purpose built on proven practice which is understood throughout the organisation. It is focused on outcomes, maximising effectiveness, and capitalising on innovation to support high-performance and ultimately transformational change. During the peer challenge, this was reflected in various focus groups and with enthusiasm. 

The local plan has been developed on strong foundations of building infrastructure first. This is adding to the wider ambition of the council to contribute with impact to the future of the sub-region. There is a clear and demonstrable determination at North Lincolnshire Council to secure the best possible outcome from the Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) opportunity for all of its communities. 

There is a shared understanding of the external risks to the council. North Lincolnshire Council is scenario planning to ensure that key risks are being mitigated and this is a positive process which needs to continue. There is an ongoing focus on diversifying the business rates base in North Lincolnshire with an emphasis on identifying and developing based opportunities which mitigate the level of dependence on the steel industry. In this regard there is positive cross-party working on key issues relating to changes to the future shape of British Steel. 

Likewise, this cross-party collaboration extends to other key areas of focus such as concentration on the future of the local hospital. There is a good understanding of the need to work pragmatically with partners in order to effectively address local integrated care system and acute hospital challenges which require the development of clear solutions. There is also strong support for the Children and Young People agenda, an awareness of ‘political choice’ and a willingness to defend decisions which have been made in this area of delivery. 

A data-led approach is becoming embedded across the council. The use of data and insights to help deliver services is a principle which has been embraced and is spoken about at all levels of the council. ‘Evidence and being data led’ came up in every meeting the peer challenge team was involved in and it is clear that all services at the council are keen for their data to be utilised in relevant indices. There is clear evidence of the approach to interpreting data and using this to shape services becoming deeply embedded in all the council does. This outcomes-based focus is well understood by both councillors and officers alike. 

This operating model lends itself to the use of public health data in particular and this is being used well for determining areas of focus. Public Health is central to the ‘One council’ approach and the use of public health data is becoming embedded across other parts of the council to drive preventative and early help. This use of public health data to influence targeted work is positive and can clearly be built upon into the future.

Alongside the data helping to determine priorities there is strong evidence of this data being triangulated with evidence of people’s lived experience. The importance given to the voices of communities emanating from their lived experience and shaping service delivery shines through in all the council undertakes and delivers. 

The peer challenge team had the chance to experience and see strong examples of service offer being tailored to needs of the community through the Family Hubs, Live Well Isle of Axholme initiative and the Somervell Community Allotments project. The enthusiasm and dedication of staff delivering all of these brought to life the ambition to deliver to local needs in a strikingly meaningful way and presented genuine examples of co-design.

The council needs to continue on this data-led journey to identify interventions that will shift stubborn areas of inequality. In making this a reality, the peer challenge team’s view is a data-led approach to service design and delivery is rapidly becoming established and embedded across the council providing a solid foundation upon which positive progress can be made. One example of this is the way in which the  blue badge data available to the council is now an integral part of North Lincolnshire’s Public Health dashboard of demographic information. The council is well-aware of some of the areas requiring this keen focus such as pregnant women still smoking at time of delivery and the gap in life expectancy between neighbouring wards which in some instances are as significant as seven years. 

The establishment of a programme office is good practice and brings together projects which support transformation. To accelerate progress, it might be helpful for North Lincolnshire Council to consider the expertise and capacity required (be this internal or external). In the event of taking the council’s transformation aspirations even further, the narrative for these ambitions needs to be clearer in terms of what is being reached for with a clearer articulation of what good progress, and ultimately, success looks like. An area upon which the peer challenge team would encourage North Lincolnshire Council to focus in the short to medium term relates to how it prioritises delivery of transformation. Whilst there have been some consideration of this, the degree to which a consistent corporate approach has been defined would benefit from further connectivity and clarity. 

It is clear that North Lincolnshire Council is an accomplished and effective partner at both a local and regional level. To move some of this effective work and the positive relationships which underpin it onto an even stronger footing the peer challenge team would encourage North Lincolnshire Council to reflect further on whether it is always securing the maximum impact from such collaboration. There might be more still that the council could seek from its partners to progress even further on delivering yet more partnership outcomes.

Performance

North Lincolnshire Council being rated at outstanding for the last three Ofsted Inspections of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) is exceptional.

The council being rated ‘Good’ for CQC is also very positive. The council has earned a raft of additional awards and commendations since its last Corporate Peer Challenge demonstrating that it is a council which is committed to and delivering continuous improvement.

In 2023/24, the reserves as a proportion of 'service expenditure' for North Lincolnshire was 33.0 per cent, which was above the North Lincolnshire CIPFA nearest neighbours’ median proportion of 26.5 per cent.

In 2023/24, the total reserves as a proportion of 'net revenue expenditure' for North Lincolnshire was 41.7 per cent, which was above the North Lincolnshire CIPFA nearest neighbours’ median proportion of 32.7 per cent.

In 2023/24, the level of social care spend as a percentage of Core Spending Power for North Lincolnshire was 63.5 per cent, which was below the North Lincolnshire CIPFA nearest neighbour’s median of 74.0 per cent.

The council can point to having a cohesive and very strong political leadership that provides a clarity of purpose. This purpose founded on explicitly people-centric strategies and policy is the cultural norm for the organisation which is fully embraced and well understood by members and officers alike. The council recognises the major risks to the future sustainability of North Lincolnshire as a place which is enabling it to work proactively to mitigate these risks.

There is a positive relationship between North Lincolnshire Council and the local town and parish councils. In communicating with the peer challenge team, Town and Parish Councils were positive about their role in being able to contribute to the delivery of better local services. Town and Parish councils appreciate the visibility and accessibility of Ward councillors and feel that this is an integral ingredient in the prospect for even further improvement in the future. 

The Leader of the council is a well-respected figure irrespective of whether the context is local, regional or national. From the team’s time onsite it became very clear that he is widely recognised for his passionate commitment to the council’s ‘people-first’ principles and, in the eyes of many, embodies them.

The chief executive is held in very high regard by staff who really appreciate her style of management and support. On numerous occasions it was made clear to the team that she is recognised by members, staff and partners to have accelerated the pace of the positive cultural change at North Lincolnshire Council. 

North Lincolnshire Council has a unified corporate leadership team who provide visible leadership which has become even more apparent since the appointment of the chief executive.  All of the council’s Corporate Leadership team are firmly aligned to the vision and direction of travel and are in complete lockstep with the chief executive. At every point in the peer challenge visit it was abundantly clear that North Lincolnshire Council has a very strong senior management team who are extremely supportive of those they lead.

The recently established fora for assistant directors and Heads of Service have been well-received and are effective in embedding ‘One Council’ working and matrix management. The Distributed Leadership model has generic roles for directors and assistant directors which supports collaborative working that is underpinned by a commitment to co-production across these levels of management.

There is a clarity of vision and purpose built on proven practice which is understood throughout the organisation. There is a clear alignment of thinking between the council and its partners about a collaborative approach to its ‘people first’ principles. This strengths-based approach to improving people’s lives and prospects is impressive in its level of adoption and how clearly it defines delivery aspirations and community outcomes. 

There is a recognition from other councils in the sub-region that there is more that brings North Lincolnshire Council and its neighbours together than any factors that might drive them apart. This is no small part due to North Lincolnshire Council being regarded as a collaborative and effective partner. This is a strength to build upon as the sub-region takes on the implementation of devolution which, as evidenced elsewhere in the country, can be both an opportunity and a challenge.

There are positive views of the council from its active cohort of Experts by Experience and good evidence of supportive relationships, mutual support and coproduction. 

There is a clear commitment at the council to supporting and developing its staff. To build further upon this positive mindset the peer challenge team believe this part of the council’s function would benefit from a more structured approach to leadership development which would include a clearer formal offer for coaching and mentoring. There is a clear desire corporately to ensuring that there is a wide and common understanding of how the council wishes to deliver and that this is universally embraced by all staff. In the view of the peer challenge team, North Lincolnshire Council may have been more successful in achieving this uniformity than it gives itself credit for. As a result it is possible that the council corporately could be  overthinking the complexity of embedding the agenda for change with non-office based staff. A clear message to the council from the team would be for the council to become more comfortable with its success in embedding this change than it sometimes appears to be.

Moving forward, local businesses and community groups would value the ability to learn from feedback around success and failures from funding bids. There appears more for the council to do to ensure that more explicit reasons for any prospective bids not quite hitting the mark are communicated in a way that makes clear the precise reasons for decisions made in relation for funding. In addition a clearer overarching picture of the opportunities to work with the council being located and accessible in one place would be welcomed by both.

The Acute Trust review was rightly being challenged by the council and other local partners. There is a strength in numbers which could be used to have greater influence over the Integrated Care System (ICS) as it relates to North Lincolnshire. The peer challenge team would encourage the council to further clarify its ‘ask’ and seek to better understand any opportunities which might arise in the event that the local hospital closes. On this front there may be an opportunity to join with other local authorities in speaking with one voice on this issue. More broadly have all opportunities to draw in the health system been utilised when it comes to the possibility of benefitting from overlapping strategy and outcomes?

Members are supported and engaged in relation to standards and audit and are well aware of the expectations of them and their role in this space. There is a well-organised and well-supported Audit Committee, made up of elected members who are both engaged and enthusiastic. They are supported with training which is provided both proactively and on request. In their engagement with the peer team, their awareness of key items in relation to audit, risk register and the Annual Governance Statement demonstrated their active engagement in this assurance function. The function is largely apolitical allowing for a keener and appropriate level of focus and emphasis on key policy considerations and their ultimate impact on the lives for residents. There is also good and comprehensive support for elected members provided by the various Political Group Offices at the council which impacts positively on effective member involvement.

New member induction and ongoing development of this offer and support to councillors is an emerging area of focus. The council’s Monitoring Officer was relatively new into post at the time of the Corporate Peer Challenge and indicated that the council’s constitution and member induction were two early priority themes in her work programme. This work is likely to contribute positively to the CPC team’s view that the council needs to agree what its universal offer for member support should include. This could serve to address the apparent over-reliance on political groups providing this support.

There is good evidence of joined up and collaborative working, coproduction and codesign at North Lincolnshire Council at Head of Service levels and above. This is due in no small part to the council deploying effective ways to ensure Heads of Service can collaborate. An example of this is NL Connect which is a Heads of Service forum that is highly valued by managers. The team heard very clearly from managers that NL Connect has broken down barriers between service areas and enables ‘One Council’ working. There is more work to do to embed the One Council approach consistently and ensure communication beyond Head of Service level is effective and staff are fully engaged especially where workloads are an issue. There is acknowledgement from many that the team met with that this practice would benefit from being embedded more widely and there is a shared enthusiasm to take this forward.

As referred to previously in this report there is a good and broad understanding of the risks and opportunities of the development of the Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) amongst both officers and members with positive and ongoing devolution of appropriate services to town and parish councils. The council should take confidence in the space it occupies and therefore be more comfortable in talking about challenges.

There is a supportive culture which is apparent throughout all levels in the organisation. People are proud to work for the council and they place high expectations on themselves in relation to championing and delivering good performance. Performance management practice is sound and there is good cross-organisational sharing and an established practice of drilling down to understand issues behind performance via ‘Spotlight’. There is also a robust approach to risk management and recording processes. In continuing to progress positively in this area, council should consider regularly publishing its performance against its priority outcomes.

North Lincolnshire Council is blessed with terrific staff who are extremely committed to each other, the place and the council. They have embraced the vision and ethos of ‘One Council’ and are keen to be a part of continuing to turn this into a reality. There is a clear council-wide priority to invest in learning and development including working with the local university on professional training. There are also some very notable examples of join-up such as between children’s and adults social work which is exemplified in joint workforce celebration events. The ‘Be Yourself at work’ staff networks have significantly contributed to embedding equality, diversity and inclusion and the sense of belonging which staff feel.

At the time of the peer challenge, both a residents’ survey and a staff survey were being planned. These will both be useful in measuring progress on cultural change and achievement of outcomes. The completion of the staff survey in particular would provide robust benchmark to test the ‘One Council’ approach by testing the true engagement levels of staff. It would potentially also be a helpful way of North Lincolnshire Council better understanding whether the organisation has any capacity challenges that warrant greater attention. For these reasons the peer team would encourage North Lincolnshire Council to ensure this staff survey is undertaken as swiftly as can be managed.

The council’s Transformation Board has a clear agenda and is a forum for members and officers to discuss change and development. The council’s transformation team and support services are well thought of and provide advice and guidance that is highly valued. The feedback to the team from a number of sources is that their style and approach is one of empowerment. The Board has both members and officers and is driving transformation through co-production and co-design however there might be value in the council assuring itself that this is not the only group driving this agenda in order to address any risk of there being inadequate scrutiny of this work.

The team understands that there is an officer steering group who they did not meet. The team would stress the importance of this steering group overseeing delivery of the transformation agenda and that it has sufficient visibility in the organisation.

The ability of councillors to ask public questions at council by councillors appears to be operate on a purely formal basis with members needing to give notice ahead of meetings. There does not appear to be an identified mechanism for informal discussion in relation to considerations of possible constitutional change. There may be value in some further clarity being provided to members as this seemed to be needed.

There may be some value in any review including the make-up and membership of some Boards to ensure they are fit for purpose and have fully rationalised arrangements in terms of their membership. There would be value in ensuring a clearer remit for the makeup and role of some Boards. This would allow for appropriate delineation between operational and strategic considerations underpinned by clear terms of reference.

The council has set a budget for 2024/25 of £204m. The budget includes savings plans derived from the Transformation programme totalling £7.2m.

There was an underspend in the 2023/24 budget which allowed the council to transfer £9.5m to a Transformation Reserve. These included Employee costs being £3.7m below budget due to vacancy savings whilst Adults and Health underspent by £1.9m.

The Medium-Term Financial Strategy is reporting a gap of £5.606m in 2025/26 rising to £7.067m in 2027/28. The council plans to save £7.6m over the MTFP period from the Transformation programme and £6.2m from an improved financial management programme. The savings have not been specified.

The council’s capital programme is £171m over the MTFP period. The capital programme requires £39m of external borrowing. This is factored into the MTFP. Unringfenced reserves as a percentage of net revenue spend are comparatively low. The General Fund reserve stands at £10m. The council holds a Transformation reserve of £21.5m.

The council plans to use £2.955m of reserves to close the budget gap in 2024/25. Initial budget monitoring for 2024/25 is forecasting an insignificant overspend (£0.2m) as at the year end.

Council tax collection rates are slightly below the average and the council has under borrowed as regards Consistent Financial Reporting CFR. The council’s External Auditors comment favourably regarding the council’s financial management whilst Internal Audit reports a satisfactory opinion. Accounts are published in accordance with the required deadlines.

The council is in a strong financial position. North Lincolnshire Council is currently able to spend more per head of population than average meaning it is able to manageably afford its current ambitions. Not unlike all councils at this time care needs to be taken in order to ensure the council can afford its future ambitions and priorities.

There is a clear understanding of areas of financial risk supported by confident and clear analysis provided by the finance team and understood by members. There is a shared awareness of the areas of financial risk particularly as relates to business rates and the council has developed a strategy over recent years to diversify the base. Again this is an area which would benefit from being kept under review in an ever changing financial landscape for all councils.

The Section 151 officer and the finance team are well regarded and trusted for their expertise and collaborative ways of working. The description shared with the peer challenge team was of supportive finance officers with a good understanding of the diversity of challenge faced by different parts of the council. The fact that the team has grown its own staff internally is a positive for succession planning and maintaining organisational memory and understanding of relevant local context.

The progress towards Outcomes Based Budgeting (OBB) is positive and impressive. OBB is innovative but there is evidence that the finance team have got to grips with it and how to utilise these principles in building budgets.

There is a good understanding of the OBB concept at senior management level. However budgets are not yet universally managed in this way. Nonetheless there is an appetite from budget holders to understand more about the system and how this will operate which the organisation would do well to tap into.

Outcome-based budgeting is a tool to facilitate change rather than being change itself. This clarity of definition enabling service plans which use it effectively to be developed is the important next step in the process of firmly sustainably embedding OBB within the culture of the council. The scale of efficiencies which could be realised from applying OBB is not yet quantified meaning the capacity it might release to drive the One Council approach is not yet known. The overall view of OBB in the council is positive so there is clear possibility of wide and longer term buy-in across the council being achieved.

There is greater clarity required about how the need to be more efficient and consider future financial risk is articulated. The language used to describe the need to be more efficient in order to be financially resilient seemed at times to not be as clear as would be optimal.

While the council is in a strong position, a focus on financial resilience needs to be maintained in the face of future change. Given the importance of financial control there could be some consideration about the role and remit of the S151 Officer and the potential value of this officer being a part of the Transformation Board, Transformation Steering Group and Senior Leadership Executive.

The organisation is experienced in delivering successful change and is therefore confident in its ability to deliver more of this. The financial strength of the council means there is an opportunity to take the time to build projects which result in sustainable outcomes. North Lincolnshire Council is not unduly pressured to deliver significant savings which means the council has the headroom to focus on developing sustainable solutions for future challenges. The depth of understanding of the ‘One Council’ ethos is greater amongst operational staff than is acknowledged. This is an advantage which allows the council to move faster on its transformation journey and to do so with greater confidence and certainty.

The creation of a Transformation Board co-designing the programme alongside the new Programme Management Office arrangements is a positive development at North Lincolnshire Council. It is widely recognised that support services were significantly cut back previously to an extent that impacted adversely on the ability to support change. This has been rectified and posts have been reintroduced which was viewed as positive and needed. In addition, a subsequent uplift in Information Technology investment through service review has increased capacity to support transformation and change.

Going forward further clarity is required as to how the projects in the transformation plan relate to the achievement of the council’s transformation ambitions and desired outcomes. To accelerate the pace of this, consideration should be given to the benefits of drawing on specialist expertise to help build an effective model for managing transformation. The way in which this input is secured would be for the council to decide. This would allow the council to consider options ranging from gaining mentoring and support from other councils and organisations such as the LGA through to utilising external consultancy. The peer challenge team would encourage North Lincolnshire Council to leave its options open so that learning can be shared whilst seeking to build relationships and get any necessary training to develop in house skills.

The investment to date in Support Services including IT has increased the capacity to support transformation and change. This needs to be monitored and reviewed as part of the transformation governance. There is a recognition that further significant capacity in digital capacity and capability will be required. The review of the service and introduction of some new roles is a positive part of a process which requires ongoing consideration to ensure the right level of capacity is achieved and maintained.

An unintended consequence of the passion and commitment of the council’s staff to say ‘Yes’ is that there are issues of capacity and workload that require attention. There is a need for the council to ensure it fully understands the possible impact on the workloads of those who do not make decisions to take on more delivery responsibility.

There is an opportunity to better harness the experience and ideas from all levels in the organisation which could add valuable capacity. There could be a clearer focus on providing a stronger greater narrative about the offer of the organisation as an employer to attract younger people as part of this work.

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 5 months of the time on site. As part of the CPC, the council are 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 date for the progress review at North Lincolnshire Council will be agreed following finalisation of this report.

In the meantime, Mark Edgell (Principal Adviser for East Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber and North East Regions) is the main contact between your authority and the Local Government Association. As outlined above, Mark is available to discuss any further support the council requires. [email protected].