LGA Corporate Peer Challenge – Progress Review: North Somerset Council

The council undertook an LGA Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) in January 2024 and promptly published the full report with an action plan. 

A Progress Review is an integral part of the corporate peer challenge process and is designed to provide space for the council’s senior leadership to:

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

The LGA would like to thank North Somerset Council for their commitment to sector led improvement. The 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 North Somerset Council took place on 27 and 28 March 2025. It focused on the recommendations from the corporate peer challenge as follows: 

Recommendation 1

Consider the opportunity for the council to evolve further in relation to its role, its influence and how it operates – with key considerations around the key drivers for the organisation (essentially what it attaches importance to and where it focuses); the nature of its relationships with communities and the approach to ‘place’ and ‘localities’; North Somerset’s place in the region; and how to evolve strategic partnership working further.

Recommendation 2

Continue to work through the complex issues relating to North Somerset’s place in the region and the ‘devolution agenda’ in order to ensure the council is positioned effectively to maximise benefits for the locality.

Recommendation 3

Fully integrate community engagement into the wider thinking about the council’s role and how it operates.

Recommendation 4

Ensure that the corporate plan continues to evolve in order to reflect the key tangible deliverables and the impacts and outcomes to be sought in line with political priorities.

Recommendation 5

Create the time and space for the strategic thinking and discussion necessary across the political and managerial leadership.

Recommendation 6

Review North Somerset’s climate targets and refresh the related priorities to reflect the evidence base and available opportunities for working with partners.

Recommendation 7

Develop clarity and transparency around the scope and status of the council’s ‘mini-governance review’ – which we suggest should focus on:

• engagement across the elected membership
• overview and scrutiny
• elected member development.

Recommendation 8

Progress development for the Executive and Corporate Leadership Team – for individuals, as two collectives and jointly.

Recommendation 9

Identify how the remaining 4 million pounds of savings for 2024/25 will be secured and consider the implications of the council’s use of reserves, in order to ensure the authority’s financial sustainability does not come to be at risk.

Recommendation 10

Take stock of the approach to hybrid working within the council in order to ensure the positive benefits are maintained and less positive aspects are effectively addressed.

The following peers were involved in the Progress Review: 

• Alison McKenzie-Folan, Chief Executive, Wigan Council
• Councillor Ian Gilbert, Southend on Sea City Council (Labour)
• Sebastian Wright, Climate Change Officer, Bracknell Forest Council
• David Harding, Regional Adviser (South-West), Local Government Association
• Chris Bowron, Peer Challenge Manager, Local Government Association.

The council has clearly embraced the recommendations from the corporate peer challenge in January 2024 and driven forward change and improvement in response.

Organisational and Place Leadership

The corporate peer challenge in 2024 highlighted North Somerset Council being felt, both internally and externally, to be a very different organisation to that of a few years ago. The organisational culture was seen to have improved significantly, enabled through changed leadership styles both politically and managerially. During the Progress Review it was clear that the organisational culture continues to be seen positively. The Chief Executive, who will be commencing another role elsewhere in local government shortly, is recognised as having been integral to what has been achieved. It was also clear from our discussions across a range of elected members and staff that the cultural shifts are embedded, meaning there can be confidence in the improvements being maintained in a context of the chief executive moving on.

The new corporate plan re-emphasises the Vision of ‘Open, Fair and Green’. This has formed a consistent ‘narrative’ of the Administration since the change in political control in 2019. The Vision is underpinned by four Ambitions relating to children and young people; communities; towns and villages; and good council services plus a set of related Commitments. The corporate peer challenge outlined the need for the corporate plan to continue to evolve to reflect the tangible deliverables being sought through the Administration’s shared political priorities. Good engagement has taken place internally, across elected members and officers, in the development of the new Corporate Plan. The 2024/28 version outlines more clearly what the Commitments mean for communities in real terms and the contribution that local people themselves can make. 

The corporate peer challenge outlined the need for time and space to be created for the political and managerial leadership to undertake the strategic thinking and discussion necessary to wrestle with the key challenges facing North Somerset and the council. This has been responded to, with the Executive and Corporate Leadership Team now coming together more regularly and, importantly, doing so face to face. Time has been dedicated to exploring jointly themes such as Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND); housing; flood risk; and hydrogen and offshore energy. It was clear to us that such activity is aiding strategic thinking and developing better shared understanding and collective endeavour across the political and managerial leadership. 

Challenging issues are being wrestled with by the council, including the Local Plan, the imminent move to three-weekly waste collection and changes to car parking charges. The political leadership is seen to front these types of difficult issues and stick to the decisions once they have been taken. Engagement activity with ward councillors and local communities over the Local Plan, including exploring how to accommodate the 24,000 new houses that the area is expected to see being developed, was cited as a specific example. The facilitation of North Somerset becoming the new European Headquarters for the United States company Epic has also required strong political leadership. This will be established on Green Belt land and has the potential to create more than 2,000 jobs, become the largest private employer in the area and generate £140m to the local economy annually. 

Decision-making will become more challenging over the coming months and years, in a context of the increasing financial challenge for the council and the local elections due to take place in two years’ time. Further strong political leadership will be needed. It will also require an organisation that, through its political leadership and governance structure, can be ‘fleet of foot’ in identifying opportunities and responding to them quickly. There was clear feedback during our discussions that, whilst the challenges of being in No Overall Control and having an Administration with a broad political make-up mean things are more complex than they may be in other some other councils, it is important that decision-making is streamlined as far as possible. 

The corporate peer challenge included a recommendation that the council review its climate targets which, whilst rightly ambitious, were recognised both internally and externally as being beyond what the organisation was geared to enabling and facilitating across the place it serves. In the light of this, the 2030 Net Zero target was reviewed, with the decision being taken to retain it. This means that the level of ambition has been maintained, along with the positive pressure to deliver. 

A ‘Net Zero Pathway’ was adopted at Full Council in February 2025, modelling the investments required to achieve the 2030 target. Our understanding is that the council is still, however, actively considering how the target will be achieved and what may need to change in relation to it. Within this, we gleaned a sense of confusion emerging in relation to the target itself, with some people indicating that they believed it was becoming one relating to Carbon Neutrality rather than securing Net Zero. 

The council has been an active member over recent years in the ‘Western Gateway’, the pan-regional partnership for South Wales and Western England. This has included bringing a focus to the opportunities around hydrogen and offshore energy that are offered by North Somerset. Although the Western Gateway is discontinued from 1^st April 2025, North Somerset Council is keen to maintain its work with the partner councils of which it was comprised.

The council has clearly outlined its ambition to become a member of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA). The way in which this will be brought about is currently being worked through jointly between the council and Government. The council has started to forward plan what membership of WECA will mean for the organisation and its ways of working. We would encourage the council to continue this work and ensure it covers considerations around the transfer of certain areas of responsibility, including aspects of housing and transport; the potential shift of staffing resources; access to alternative or additional funding streams; and potentially different timescales for the delivery of capital projects. 

Greater time and effort is being invested in strategic partnerships, such as Homes England and the Arts Council. This is securing tangible benefits, including North Somerset being included within the Arts Council’s ‘Priority Places’ programme; £20m having been secured from the Heritage Lottery; and Homes England funding enabling the construction of the Banwell Bypass. 

The council is really ‘finding its voice’ in lobbying on the interests of both North Somerset and wider local government. This includes outlining the demanding financial position of the authority to Government both generally and in specific areas. These areas include the Fair Funding Review; the challenges posed by North Somerset’s Council Tax base; SEND; and the ‘Safety Valve’ relating to the Dedicated Schools Grant. 

Financial management and planning

The council has delivered mitigations in order to balance its budget in 2024/25 against a challenging backdrop and has set a balanced budget for 2025/26. 42 million pounds savings have been identified and agreed across the remaining three years of the Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP) but with a further 10 million pounds of savings across that period still needing to be determined. 

The council, with the Leader to the fore, has put effort into highlighting the organisation’s financial position to the local community, leading to residents being much more aware of the challenges being faced. The council has created opportunities internally and externally to engage people in the budget-setting process and this has helped to shape policy and decisions. Through the second half of 2024 there were engagement sessions open to all elected members, inviting thinking and ideas around the budget. This, combined with feedback from public consultation, helped to inform a decision not to make amendments to North Somerset’s Council Tax Support Scheme.

A 25 million pounds ‘funding challenge’ emerged from one quarter to the next during the course of the financial year 2024/25. The situation that emerged, and how it needed to be responded to, has generated organisational tensions. This is primarily around certain parts of the organisation feeling that they have had to “bail out” other parts. The situation has also impacted organisational confidence in the effectiveness of financial planning. This emerges from a narrative that part of the reason for the challenge was inaccurate budget forecasting. 

A further consideration here is the way in which, it seems to us, there has been a degree of conflation, in the understanding of people in the organisation, between the measures brought in to respond to the in-year funding challenge and the activity to deliver the 42 million pounds MTFP budget savings. As an example, some managers have had to take very difficult decisions involving making colleagues redundant and this has exacerbated those organisational tensions around “bailing out” other functions. In reality, such measures are much more likely to have related to meeting the MTFP budget requirement than addressing an in-year pressure. 

Another issue concerns the scepticism that exists amongst managers and staff that we spoke to regarding the effectiveness of some of the budget changes that have been agreed. They cited, as an example, the move to secure cost savings in corporate centre support functions, such as procurement and staff recruitment, as simply shifting responsibility to managers and making the organisation less effective and efficient. 

The overall conclusion here is that what has occurred in relation to the in-year funding challenge has had a significant impact on the organisation and how people view financial planning and the budget. They want to understand better how the situation came about and be reassured about the future.

Governance

The corporate peer challenge highlighted that a ‘mini-governance review’ was being embarked upon by the council but that there was a wide range of views and perspectives regarding the focus of it. We saw an urgent requirement for clarity and transparency to be established in relation to the scope and status of the review. The review of governance has now been undertaken, informed through cross-party engagement. The proposals that emerged from this were considered at Full Council in February 2025. 

The proposals included the development of a set of Protocols relating to the roles and responsibilities of councillors in their various positions and functions; the creation of a ‘Policy Ballot Process’ akin to the Private Members’ Bill concept in Parliament; a shift of emphasis within Overview and Scrutiny leading to more policy development activity; Overview and Scrutiny being able to refer items and recommendations directly to Full Council rather than just back to the Executive; and the renaming of the ‘Executive’ to ‘Cabinet’. These proposals are now being taken forward through a cross-party Working Group with a view to implementation, including formal adoption of core aspects at Annual Council in May 2025. 

With the ambitions these proposals reflect around Overview and Scrutiny, the organisation will wish to consider how to support this. The corporate peer challenge outlined the need for more support on an on-going basis for the Overview and Scrutiny Chairs and the Panels. We see the need for this both continuing to exist and being increased by the proposals that went to Full Council. Such support goes beyond what may traditionally be expected from a Democratic Services function around the administering of meetings. In order to meaningfully engage with policy issues, Overview and Scrutiny requires access to subject-matter expertise, insight and advice, with this being provided both by officers and external sources. 

The corporate peer challenge outlined a need for the elected membership to be enabled to come together in informal ways much more, in order to build relationships and aid the exchange of learning. This was in a context of there being a lot less face to face and informal engagement between councillors in the period since the pandemic and the level of turnover in the council’s elected membership since 2019. We see this requirement as still existing and, indeed, the situation having been exacerbated by the dedicated meeting room for elected members continuing to be inaccessible after several months due to an issue with the building.

The elected member induction programme following the 2023 elections was highlighted in the corporate peer challenge as being viewed positively, along with the opportunities for training made available to councillors in such areas as Planning, Licensing and corporate parenting. During the Progress Review, elected members re-emphasised this. They also outlined the positive perceptions they have of the range of briefings available to them and the efforts that have gone into enabling increased engagement across the wider elected membership around such issues as the budget and the Local Plan. 

There remains, however, the need for an enhanced focus on on-going elected member training and development. This may entail an approach that is more proactive and tailored, founded upon seeking to identify individual councillors’ training and development needs and the means of delivery being geared to their circumstances and preferred learning styles and approaches. We understand that there is an intention for the cross-party Working Group that is taking forward the proposals from the governance review to morph into an elected member training and development steering group and we see this as positive. We would also, however, reiterate what we fed back during the corporate peer challenge around there needing to be a clear understanding on the part of all elected members regarding the importance of engaging in their own development and a commitment to doing so. 

It was very positive to hear during the Progress Review that the council is no longer experiencing issues of some meetings not being quorate. 

Community engagement

The council’s commitment to enhancing engagement with communities is clear and there is a sense of progress being made, with good examples of consultation and engagement taking place. These include the activity around the Local Plan and the budget – including the council listening deeply to the feedback around the Council Tax Support Scheme – that we have already cited. Other examples are the different co-production activities that have taken place with children and young people and around education and adult social care. The council’s Citizens’ Panel has been reformed, with it now comprising more than 350 people, and an internal Consultation Steering Group has been established. 

There is acknowledgement that there is a way to go still to fulfil the potential around community engagement and to see the desired approaches becoming embedded. We feel that the ambitions could usefully extend to encompass the significant scope that seems to exist around moving the community health and well-being and wealth-building agendas forward. One example here would be exploring more the potential of ‘social value’ within the council’s procurement and grant-giving activity, with an added emphasis on the local small and medium-sized (SME) business sector. Another would be helping to forge greater links between that sector and the local voluntary and community sector to support the delivery of local initiatives. 

A Community Strategy has been established with the ‘Principles of Partnership’; Town and Parish Councils; the voluntary and community sector; residents; and place-based approaches being integral to it. However, the strategy has only recently emerged within the organisation and effort will need to go into ‘socialising’ and embedding it both within and beyond the council. A toolkit for council staff on the use of consultation and various consultative tools and techniques has been developed and this, along with training for people in the organisation, will help to drive the community engagement agenda and approaches forward. We would suggest that this forms part of a dedicated programme that should be developed to facilitate the embedding. 

The devolution of assets to Town and Parish Councils is an area of significant learning. When the council embarked upon this concept, with a view to determining a new future for around 400 assets belonging to the organisation, the sense is that it was seen by some as a relatively straightforward strand of work that would have the added benefit of strengthening relationships with that tier of local government. It has become clear that this landscape is, in fact, much more complex and the council has been working in recent months to develop the necessary systems, processes, knowledge and expertise to support the ambitions. One of the key areas of learning here is the importance of ensuring North Somerset ward councillors are involved in devolution discussions in their area.

Organisational change

Phase 1 of the structural change central to the council’s new operating model has been delivered. This has included the library function moving to the corporate centre in order establish more effective links with the customer services team. Also, Planning, economy, climate change and housing development have been linked up with public health and regulatory services in a new ‘Healthy and Sustainable Communities Directorate’. We see this as being innovative and helping to develop increased join-up in the council’s approach to communities.

Phase 2 of the organisational change will be embarked upon in the coming months. There is logic to having a phased approach, with the next phase focusing on Adult Social Care and Children’s Services and enabling what emerges from recent inspections in these areas to be woven into the thinking. Learning from Phase 1 can also be drawn upon to support the Phase 2, including addressing what we identified as a significant degree of cynicism that has emerged in the organisation as a result of certain approaches. One example is the limited response that staff indicated has been seen in relation to the feedback that the leadership obtained through the staff consultation exercise undertaken around the proposals. Another is the situation that has arisen, and is being reviewed as a result, around new job descriptions being issued that, having been developed by an external organisation, are seen as not being fit for purpose. There has been significant feedback from staff about this, resulting in the roll out of the profiles being paused whilst they are adjusted.

The Town Hall reconfiguration has been completed and the Castlewood facility is currently being moved out of. Hybrid working is evolving further in the light of these developments. Clear benefits to hybrid working are being seen, particularly in relation to recruitment and retention. The challenges that exist around it are being worked through, including the provision of sufficient ‘collaborative space’ for teams to come together; staff having the ability to work from a wider range of council facilities across the geography the council serves; and Family Hubs and libraries being utilised more as both workspaces for staff and customer service access points.

The corporate peer challenge touched on the desire for the council’s processes, systems and governance arrangements to work in a more streamlined way in order to provide for greater efficiency. Managers were seeking greater proportionality in terms of controls and the effort required of them relative to the issue at hand and the level of risk. Levels of bureaucracy and rigidity in the organisation are still seen to be higher than necessary and there is a desire to see more pragmatic approaches. HR processes in relation to recruitment were cited as a prime example during the corporate peer challenge and this continues to be an issue. 

An additional area that has emerged where there is seen to be a need to relax the rigidity is the elected member casework system. The reasons for establishing the new approach, which utilises the council’s customer services facility, are well understood and councillors are seeing the benefits. This includes their enquiries being channelled to the relevant part of the organisation and progress being tracked. There is, however, a plea from elected members for a greater degree of flexibility when it comes to matters that potentially represent safeguarding issues. Here, they are seeking to be able to approach the relevant service directly in order to secure the most appropriate and timely response. 

Another area requiring flexibility is that of the changes introduced recently to the system of developing draft and final reports for consideration at formal elected member meetings. This establishes strict deadlines which, if missed, risks reports that councillors and the public are expecting to see not being included on agendas. This risks generating frustration and negatively impacting on perceptions of openness and transparency. We fully understand that the council is in a difficult position here, because it is important to have deadlines as part of ensuring reports enter the public domain in line with requirements. The situation is looking for a pragmatic solution. This might include re-visiting the shortened timescales for the review of reports by statutory officers which we understand have been introduced for reports being produced and signed off and were intended to provide report authors with more time.

With the examples cited here, along with others no doubt, it is really positive that across the range of people that we met during the Progress Review, there is a willingness and desire to be able to input and provide ideas and constructive challenge. This links to a broader theme that, again, we view very positively. This comes in the form of a strong plea from different managerial levels in the council to enable them to come together more. Whilst some forums already exist to bring managers together, they are felt to be in need of an overhaul and fresh approach. People would like to see more face to face discussions across the whole council on strategic issues and, through this, have the opportunity to develop greater shared understanding and cross-organisational approaches. 

The LGA would like to thank North Somerset Council for undertaking the Progress Review. 

We appreciate that the senior managerial and political leadership will want to reflect on these findings and suggestions in order to determine how the organisation wishes to take things forward.

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 for the South-West region, is the main contact between your authority and the Local Government Association. Paul is available to discuss any further support the council requires and can be reached via [email protected]