Corporate, finance and governance peer challenge programme: Annual report 2025/26

During 2025/26, as part of the Local Government Association (LGA) Sector Support programme, UK government provided funding to offer all English local and combined authorities a Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC), Finance Peer Challenge (FPC) or Governance Peer Challenge (GPC) at no direct cost. This programme is underpinned by the expectation set out in Best Value guidance that authorities undertake a peer challenge at least once every five years.  

The peer challenge programme continues to be highly effective and is at the heart of the LGA‘s Sector Support programme. The sector remains committed to the process and sector-led improvement approach, and this is demonstrated by the levels of take-up of the offer.  

Despite the many challenges faced by councils and combined authorities (CAs), including pressures relating to local government reorganisation (LGR) and devolution, the LGA delivered 114 Peer Challenges and Progress Reviews (PRs) during 2025/26. This included 39 Corporate Peer Challenges (CPCs) – one of which was delivered to a combined authority (CA). It also included one Finance Peer Challenge (FPC) and two Governance Peer Challenges (GPC), including one GPC delivered to a CA. We also delivered 72 Progress Reviews. Nine authorities received a CPC for the first time, including one combined authority. Overall, this programme alone has reached 33 per cent of councils during 2025/26. 

Analysis of Peer Challenge and PR reports provides important insights into their impacts and outcomes and how authorities are responding to the challenges and opportunities facing the sector. This report summarises common observations and themes emerging from Peer Challenges and PRs undertaken during 2025/26.

With more than 200 councils in England undergoing LGR, the report demonstrates the continued value of CPCs and PRs in providing independent challenge and support to councils during transition, helping them to maintain focus on governance, financial sustainability, organisational capacity and leadership. 13 CPCs were delivered to councils going through LGR and 45 councils in LGR areas have received PRs.

This impact is evidenced within the LGA’s peer challenge survey to sector chief executives and leaders (see section seven). All respondents were satisfied with the CPC, GPC or FPC their council received, with 94 per cent reporting this satisfaction ‘to a great extent’. Some example feedback is listed below: 

Undertaking the Corporate Peer Challenge has particularly strengthened our assurance across a number of core areas. The peer team provided a thoughtful review of our governance, financial sustainability and performance management, helping us reflect on our systems and processes.

London Borough

The Corporate Peer Challenge recommendations gave focus and reassurance to the existing direction regarding performance and reporting. It also helped highlight opportunities around strengthening governance, finance and risk. We were pleased with the quality of the peer team and appreciated the wide range of experiences represented on the team, across local and combined authorities.

Combined Authority

The Progress Review was a useful exercise…. we had grown in confidence, become more stable and achieved greater grip – and I believe the clarity the LGA team brought following the initial review significantly helped in contributing to our growing confidence.

Metropolitan Borough

The cabinet expressed that the council is in a much stronger position thanks to the Peer Challenge, emphasising not only the value of implementing formal recommendations but also the importance of looking ahead to the future.

District council

Reports clearly demonstrate the value of the programme in providing assurance and driving continuous improvement across all recipient authorities. Peer team findings and recommendations are grounded in insights gained from spending up to four days within an authority, engaging directly with councillors, senior officers, frontline staff, partners and other key stakeholders, and reviewing a wide range of written evidence and performance information. This report shows how the depth of this direct engagement has informed the development of robust, evidence-based findings and recommendations that add real value, support organisational learning and strengthen overall effectiveness.  

Peers remain at the heart of this support and challenge with officer and member peers providing over 1,267 days of challenge and support to authorities through CPC and progress reviews. This has involved the deployment of 516 officer and member peers – 180 of whom are council leaders and senior councillors, with the remainder being chief executives and other senior officers.  

The LGA’s unique position and strong relationships within local government mean that senior officers volunteer support at no additional cost, while members are paid a relatively nominal fee. Considering the fees charged by consultants (an average of £1,200 per day), the LGA peer challenge offer has saved the sector at least £1.5 million in consultancy charges. This continues to demonstrate a significant investment by the sector in its own improvement.  

LGA peers consistently feedback how being an LGA peer provides a unique opportunity to gain insight into best practice within the sector and is an effective tool for continuous professional development as follows:

The opportunity to look at a breadth of topics in some depth, to triangulate between officers, councillors and partners, to establish what's working well and where the challenges lie, is unique.

It was useful to reflect on managing Local Government Re-organisation as a very real topic for all of us currently.

I learned from their approach to financial efficiency and embedding this as a core value across the council.

This was my first peer challenge, but I hope not my last. The experience was informative, energising and educational.

A key takeaway for me was their approach to equality, diversity and inclusion. Their Strategy and Policy was well articulated and the actions were embedded across services. I will be bringing their good practice back to my own council.

Analysis of CPC reports shows how authorities are responding to sector wide challenges and opportunities (see section eight). Key themes identified across the reports include rising demand and cost pressures in children’s and adult social care, significant and growing Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) pressures, workforce challenges, escalating housing and homelessness challenges, and the need to sustain service performance while delivering transformation and savings. Common issues also included the importance of strong place and organisational leadership, effective governance and scrutiny, robust performance and data arrangements and maintaining financial sustainability – in particular during LGR, which compounds many of these issues.  

The analysis highlights the resilience shown by authorities in delivering priorities, transforming services and improving outcomes for residents, while also providing valuable insight into the scale and nature of the financial challenges facing councils.

Our sector support programme is guided by a 'sector-led improvement' (SLI) approach which is underpinned by the following key principles:

• authorities are responsible for their own performance
• stronger local accountability leads to further improvement
• authorities have collective responsibility for the performance of the sector as a whole.

The CPC, FPC and GPC approach involve a team of knowledgeable and experienced senior local government councillors and officers (and sometimes other key partners) spending time at a council or combined authority as ‘peers’ to provide challenge, assurance and share learning. This process involves engagement with a wide range of staff, councillors and external stakeholders and the findings are delivered immediately. A detailed report outlines the peer team recommendations and authorities are required to publish this, as well as an action plan showing how they will implement the recommendations.

The process also involves a peer team led Progress Review (PR). Taking place approximately ten months after the peer challenge, the PR assesses progress in the implementation of the peer challenge recommendations and seeks to understand the impact and outcomes on the authority. Again, authorities are required to publish their PR report.

Progress Reviews conducted in 2025/2026 showed that councils had made progress on 94 per cent of actions set out in their action plans.

The LGA has developed an improvement and assurance framework for local government to support authorities to understand the various components of assurance and accountability and to access guidance and support to increase the effectiveness of assurance activities in the sector. The peer challenge offer is a key component of this framework.  

The peer challenge programme will also assist authorities to meet their best value duty. The statutory guide for best value authorities outlines the government’s expectation that all authorities should have a corporate or finance peer challenge at least every five years, to publish the outcomes and deliver on the recommendations of that review.  

We have more information on the on the programme on our website: Corporate Peer Challenge programme.

As referenced above, during 2025/2026, the programme has involved delivery of 114 Peer Challenges and Progress Reviews. This included 39 Corporate Peer Challenges (CPCs) – one of which was delivered to a combined authority – alongside one Finance Peer Challenge (FPC) and two Governance Peer Challenges (GPC) including one GPC delivered to a CA. We also delivered 72 Progress Reviews. Nine authorities received a CPC for the first time, including one combined authority. Overall, the programme has reached 33 per cent of councils.

The table below shows delivery across the last three years. It shows how the number of Corporate Peer Challenges has reduced compared with the previous two years. This largely reflects the impact of LGR, with some councils choosing to delay their CPC while preparing proposals to government on future unitary footprints. Over the same period, the number of PRs has increased significantly, demonstrating the sector’s continued commitment to sector led improvement and their focus on maintaining momentum against existing CPC recommendations.

Table 1: Peer challenge delivery 2025/26

We delivered this activity across the full range of authority types as shown in the table below:

Table 2: Authority types

Delivery of 72 Progress Reviews were delivered across the following authority types:

Table 3: Progress Reviews – authority types

During 2025/26, we have delivered over 1,267 days of challenge and support to councils through CPC and progress reviews. This has involved the deployment of 516 officer and member peers – 180 of whom are senior councillors, with the remainder chief executives and other senior officers.

The LGA’s unique position and strong relationships within local government mean that senior officers volunteer support at no additional cost, while members are paid a relatively nominal fee. Considering the fees charged by consultants (an average of £1,200 per day), the LGA peer challenge offer has saved the sector at least £1.5 million in consultancy charges for the 2025/26 municipal year. This continues to demonstrate a significant investment by the sector in its own improvement.

Peer development

We have implemented an enhanced programme to support quality assurance while growing the peer development offer for both officer and member peers. We have delivered 15 online CPC peer training sessions, with 193 delegates participating (both officer and member peers). We have also delivered four in person peer training sessions, to a total of 68 delegates, again a mix of both member and officer peers participating.

Complementing this, we have delivered four mentoring skills training sessions for LGA member peers who also deliver peer challenges during 2025/26. These focussed on core mentoring capabilities including active listening, constructive challenge, supportive questioning and confidence-building, which are also key skills for delivering CPCs. Across these sessions, a total of 77 senior member peers participated, further strengthening the peer pool’s capability and confidence.

In November 2025 we held the annual LGA Member Peer Conference. This was attended by over 150 senior member peers, alongside LGA officer facilitators and speakers (including peers). The theme of the conference was “driving change, delivering results – equipping member peers with the tools to help local government adapt and excel in uncertain times”. Alison McGovern MP, Minister for Local Government and Homelessness, delivered the keynote address. Her contribution set the tone for the conference, highlighting the national challenges facing local government, the implications of LGR, the importance of sector-led improvement, and the critical role that LGA member peers play in supporting assurance, improvement and local leadership across the sector.

The conference included interactive and practical development workshops for LGA member peers. These covered a diverse range of areas including the challenges for councillors and officers during local government reorganisation, understanding the relationships between performance, finance and risk, building trusting relationships, corporate parenting and artificial intelligence (AI). Over 98 per cent of delegates were satisfied with the conference overall. Feedback from the conference is used to continually shape and improve the peer challenge programme.

Peer teams

The LGA is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and continues to take steps to ensure that peer teams reflect the diversity of authorities and the communities they serve. The composition of peers deployed on peer challenge is routinely monitored, including analysis by gender, ethnicity and disability. In the period from April 2025 to March 2026:

• The gender profile of officer peers remains broadly balanced, with 48 per cent female and 52 per cent male, this brings further gender balance compared to last year’s split of 55 per cent female and 45 per cent male.
• The proportion of male and female member peers used this year was 61 per cent male and 39 per cent female. This shows an improvement on last year’s position (74 per cent male and 26 per cent female) and brings the balance closer to the national distribution of senior members across councils.
• Of those who shared monitoring information, 15 per cent recorded their ethnicity as non-white British - this figure is a slight increase compared to last year when this was 12 per cent.
• Of those who shared monitoring information, five per cent recorded that they have a disability. This is a slight increase on last year where the figure was three per cent.

Feedback is collated through a comprehensive survey sent to chief executives and leaders after their authority’s CPC report has been published. Analysis of the responses for the 2025/26 survey shows that:

• 100 per cent of respondents believe that the process of participating in the CPC has had a positive impact on their council.
• 100 per cent of respondents were satisfied with the CPC that their council had received. 94 per cent said they were satisfied to a ‘great extent’.
• 100 per cent of respondents feel more confident about their council delivering its priorities, having participated in the corporate peer challenge.
• 100 per cent rated the quality of the CPC team as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.
• 100 per cent said they would recommend having a corporate peer challenge to other councils if asked about it. 94 per cent that this would be ‘very likely’.

Peer challenge is an important method for sharing learning and best practice across the sector. As outlined in section two of this report, member and officer peers frequently reference the valuable learning they receive and how the reciprocal benefits of being a peer help them improve their own councils.

Additionally, we provide opportunities for graduates from Impact, the Local Government Graduate Programme to shadow peer challenges. This fast-track graduate programme is aimed at talented and passionate individuals who want to make a difference in local government. In 2025/26, eight Impact graduates shadowed a CPC and their feedback includes the following:

Shadowing the peer challenge is a unique opportunity to see how strategic decisions are shaped at senior levels. It also provides valuable insight into how each local authority, distinct demographics, politics, and socio-economic conditions influence its priorities.

I found the peer challenge to be the absolute best week I've had in my time on the grad. scheme for my learning and development. I learned so much about local government in just 3.5 days.

As a National Management Trainee, I reflected on the importance of clearly communicating the financial constraints of the council top-down and providing clear guidance as senior leaders. Furthermore, the perspective of politicians was something new and important to consider - the level of political maturity can impact on the functioning of the council and something I would hope to take back.

The LGA undertakes quarterly surveys of both officer and member peers who have taken part in a peer challenge, with:

• 100 per cent of peers who responded said that taking part in a peer challenge had a positive impact on their own learning and development.
• 100 per cent of respondents who took part in a CPC said that the liaison from their peer challenge manager had been very effective.
• 99 per cent of peers who responded were satisfied with their experience of being part of a peer team.

The following section summarises the most frequent themes and recommendations to authorities from peer challenge teams (including CPCs, FPCs, GPCs and PRs) between April 2025 and March 2026. It is structured in line with the five core components of all CPCs.

1. Local priorities and outcomes

   1. Corporate plan, vision and strategic priorities: In the context of sustained financial pressures, rising demand, expanding devolution and significant change through LGR, reports consistently identify the importance of ensuring clarity of vision through well defined organisational priorities and plans. Recommendations relate to ensuring stronger alignment between the council/CA plan and medium-term financial strategy, strengthening communication and engagement in relation to the plan and ensuring priorities are outcome focussed and evidence based. For councils in LGR and devolution areas, reports underline the importance of effective communications, engagement and stakeholder management with residents, staff, councillors and partners to build understanding of the change including aims and implementation requirements. Peer team recommendations focus on building capacity and resilience behind agreed priorities and LGR. These recommendations underline both the scale of the challenge ahead of new councils and the importance of building organisational capacity while continuing to manage financial pressures and maintain business as usual.
   2. Performance: Reports indicate that many councils have a strong and mature approach to performance management, with peer teams highlighting strong ‘golden threads’, reinforced by performance frameworks that are actively being used to drive service improvements. All reports include a strong focus on finance, data and evidence, with the LGA’s LG Inform local area benchmarking tool providing an important gauge of council performance. Reports highlight where councils need to maintain focus on delivering improvements in areas such as children’s social care, SEND, adult social care and housing in light of key inspection results. Recommendations centre on improving the governance and oversight of performance, strengthening transparency and reinforcing a focus on outcomes. In LGR areas, the need to work towards alignment of systems and shared data foundations is also highlighted.
   3. Data: Reports highlight opportunities for authorities to review and strengthen corporate data platforms and technical architecture to improve data quality, accessibility and consistency so that insights inform service improvements and transformation. Many reports explored opportunities to strengthen data visualisation, particularly using tools such as Power BI or similar platforms. Artificial Intelligence (AI) features more prominently in reports than in previous years, highlighting how councils are actively developing their (AI) capabilities. Recommendations relate to a need for councils to ensure they adopt structured approaches to AI investment that identify high impact AI areas, include risk assessment, user testing and ethical considerations and ensure strong alignment between AI, customer and digital strategies.
   4. Service themes: Reports make references to a wide range of service delivery and thematic areas, including children’s and adult social care, economic growth (encompassing regeneration, transport, education, employment and skills), housing, health and social care integration, community cohesion, equalities, climate change, net zero and waste management. Recommendations consistently focus on addressing rising demand and cost pressures in social care, maintaining momentum on transformation programmes, strengthening leadership on climate action, and improving resident engagement and co-production. In areas undergoing LGR, peer teams noted the added complexity of sustaining service performance and improvement, while managing significant structural change. They emphasise the importance of maintaining focus on day-to-day delivery alongside managing the risks associated with disaggregation and aggregation, and the design and implementation of new organisational arrangements.

2. Organisational and place leadership

   1. Leadership of place: Peer challenge reports place heavy emphasis on the authorities’ external relationships and their role as a place leader. Peer teams have stressed the importance of strong partnerships with other councils, businesses, statutory partners, voluntary, community and faith sector organisations, statutory agencies, community groups and sub-regional bodies, which all impact authorities’ ability to work collaboratively and effectively across local boundaries. Many reports note authorities’ key role in convening partnerships, including the importance of harnessing opportunities arising from combined authorities. This includes collaboration on climate change, transport, housing, skills, regeneration and so on. Councils must convene across system boundaries, formalise partnership structures, and coproduce shared narratives and outcomes across shifting responsibilities and expectations under devolved arrangements. For combined authorities, reports underline how devolution elevates the importance of place leadership. At the same time, reports flag opportunities, for example strengthening partnerships, formalising cross-sector structures such as place boards, harnessing partner energy to shape the narrative for the place, co-production with residents to strengthen community cohesion, acting as the convenor of a shared vision across boundaries, and stepping up the place leadership role in the context of LGR and devolution.
   2. Organisational leadership: Strong, visible and collaborative leadership comes through as a central pillar of organisational health. Peer teams frequently praise the tone set from the top and collegiate working between political leaders and officers – describing chief executives, leaders, cabinets and senior teams as approachable, supportive, unifying, authentic and ambitious.  Recommendations relate to the need to boost the visibility of senior leaders and investment in collective corporate leadership capability. Reports for LGR councils capture how resource and capacity challenges are felt acutely by leaders. Recommendations relate to the need to carve out the dedicated capacity for transition, investing in workforce planning, communication and engagement, building senior leadership capability and strengthening partnership working. A continued emphasis on financial sustainability, to ensure newly reorganised councils are well placed financially for the future, is also reflected.
   3. Economic growth and housing: Councils are using their place leadership role to lead and progress significant growth projects. Examples include multi-town models for polycentric growth, major destination regeneration schemes, affordable housing developments, cultural initiatives and visitor economy projects. Recommendations relate to embedding inclusive growth, accelerating local plans to deliver affordable housing, strengthening neighbourhood working and learning from others. Reports consistently highlight significant housing pressures, particularly the growing demand for temporary accommodation and the associated cost implications. They also highlight pressures on Housing Revenue Accounts arising from the need to invest in and maintain existing housing stock. For stock-holding authorities, preparedness for and responses to the social housing regulator are a recurring feature. Recommendations commonly focus on managing rising demand for temporary accommodation, strengthening homelessness prevention, reviewing housing delivery models, undertaking reviews of HRAs, and establishing clear prioritisation frameworks for HRA investment.

3. Governance and culture

   1. Governance and assurance: Reports consistently emphasise the importance of strong arrangements to provide assurance over governance and performance, including up-to-date constitutions, clear schemes of delegation, effective annual governance processes and strong collaborative working between statutory officers. Common themes include strengthening risk management and performance reporting, enhancing the effectiveness of audit committees (including independent membership), and ensuring robust internal control and audit arrangements. Some reports recommend that councils should tighten governance of outsourced services and wholly owned/partially owned council companies, improve the quality and pace of decision-making, and maintain clear roles, decision pathways and assurance arrangements - with the need to do so often more pressing in the context of LGR. Governance of housing compliance is also a recurring focus for stock-holding councils.
   2. Leadership and culture: Reports consistently emphasise the importance of strong, visible and collaborative political and managerial leadership that articulates clear priorities and provides a shared sense of direction. Constructive relationships between councillors and between councillors and officers are identified as critical to effective leadership and decision-making. The development and embedding of clear corporate values, alongside open and honest staff engagement, is a recurring theme. Councillor induction and development arrangements are frequently viewed as a strength, though there is a consistent call for these offers to be refreshed, extended beyond initial induction and supported by sustained investment, including mentoring and bespoke development for lead members, cabinet members, chairs and opposition members.
   3. Overview and scrutiny effectiveness: Some reports highlight collegiate and constructive overview and scrutiny arrangements including strong and positive examples of pre-decision scrutiny. Some reports make recommendations for improvements focused on reviewing the overall scrutiny architecture to ensure it remains fit for purpose, alongside refreshing and co-designing councillor development offers so scrutiny members are equipped with the skills required to scrutinise effectively. Reports also emphasise the need to better align scrutiny work programmes to corporate priorities, rather than a series of ad hoc reviews. Recommendations are also made in relation to strengthening the role of scrutiny in relation to financial management, capital programmes, investment decisions, partners and delivery bodies. Improving the timeliness of feedback from cabinet on scrutiny recommendations, clarifying remits to avoid duplication between committees, and setting out clear roles for councillors and officers attending scrutiny are also recurring themes. Overall, reports highlight the importance of making scrutiny more strategic, mission-focused, cross-party and visible.

4. Financial planning and management

   1. Financial Challenges: Reports provide valuable insight into the scale and nature of the financial challenges facing councils. For upper tier authorities, common themes include rising demand in children’s and adult social care, escalating care market costs and increased complexity of cases within adult social care. As highlighted below, challenges associated with SEND and high needs DSG deficits are among the most significant issues identified. Other challenges highlighted include sustained pay and price inflation and rising demand for temporary accommodation. Recommendations include the need to agree robust and fully costed savings plans, strengthen income generation opportunities, invest in local provision and preventative approaches, management of high needs DSG deficits and a need to progress service transformation at pace. They consistently emphasise the importance of maintaining a relentless focus on medium-term financial sustainability, strengthening medium term financial planning assumptions, and maintaining grip on savings delivery. Recommendations relating to capital budgets focus on addressing capital spend slippage, strengthening delivery capacity, and improving asset management and investment strategy approaches.
   2. Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND): Whilst reports consistently recognise councils’ strong commitment to upholding the entitlements of children and young people with SEND, they also evidence significant pressures arising from the volume, demand and increasing complexity of cases. Peer teams frequently draw attention to the scale and growth of high needs deficits and the associated financial risks currently being mitigated through the temporary statutory override. Recommendations commonly stress the need to maintain laser focus on SEND demand management – including ensuring councils are in the strongest possible position in anticipation of Government plans for cumulative Dedicated School Grant (DSG) deficits (noting that many reports were produced ahead of the most recent announcement on DSG). The financial sustainability of SEND services is identified as a key issue for both service delivery and financial resilience, requiring strong local leadership and effective demand management to ensure high quality support for children and young people.
   3. Savings and efficiencies: Despite the significant financial pressures outlined above, councils continue to meet their statutory duty to set balanced budgets and deliver responsive services to their local communities. Many reports recognise prudent financial management arrangements, strong financial governance and clear evidence of innovation and transformation. Set against this, reports consistently show that the environment for delivering savings and driving efficiency is becoming increasingly challenging. Many councils are confronting large, quantified savings requirements, with further savings needed over the medium term, alongside growing concerns about depleting reserves. These pressures are often heightened in areas undergoing local government reorganisation (LGR), where councils must maintain financial grip and service continuity while managing the complexity and cost of transition. Reports consistently emphasise that savings programmes must be robustly designed, tightly managed and closely monitored to support medium term financial sustainability. The Peer Challenge programme over the past year has included three CPCs and 12 progress reviews in councils receiving Exceptional Financial Support, providing focused challenge and insight at a critical point in their financial journeys.
   4. Financial management and oversight: The need for strong statutory leadership, supported by effective governance and control frameworks, features prominently. Many reports have highlighted the presence of respected and knowledgeable Section 151 Officers, positive relationships between finance teams, cabinet members/lead councillors and chief executives, and a clear sense of collective responsibility at the top of the organisation. Recommendations frequently focus on strengthening capacity, including recruiting permanent officers, investing in finance teams, improving councillor engagement and scrutiny and embedding the finance function more firmly within corporate arrangements. Reports also emphasise that effective financial governance goes beyond formal structures, reflecting the quality of relationships, clarity of accountability, and the strength of challenge and support across the organisation. Alongside this, the continued importance of sound financial management processes, robust ICT systems and strong risk management approaches is consistently highlighted.

5. Capacity for improvement

   1. Workforce: This was the most frequently referenced issue within this theme. Most reports consistently recognise the dedication, professionalism and commitment of council staff who continue to support service delivery and transformation within a highly challenging context of financial pressure, rising demand and LGR. Recommendations focus on workforce capacity and the need to maintain organisational agility - particularly in response to LGR-related demand - alongside the development of comprehensive workforce strategies to address recruitment and retention challenges, skills gaps and succession planning. Strengthening employee engagement, embedding organisational values and investment in staff development are also recurring themes.
   2. Transformation: Reports show that councils continue to deliver significant programmes of transformation, often alongside the additional complexity of LGR. A consistent theme is the importance of strong programme governance, underpinned by clear timelines, milestones and measures of impact. Recommendations emphasise the need to more closely align savings plans with transformation priorities, and to translate high level ambitions into clearly defined and deliverable actions. The pace of transformation is a recurring challenge, particularly in LGR contexts where sustaining momentum while maintaining service continuity is critical. Reports also underline, in many cases, the need to accelerate digital transformation, including to ensure consistent access to IT for all staff and a more systematic approach to use of AI tools. Strengthening the use of data to inform decision-making and innovation is a further recurring message.
   3. Organisational capacity: Ensuring sufficient capacity within the authority’s corporate core functions, including ICT, communications, human resources, finance, procurement and contract management is a common theme. Reports recognise the importance of these functions being adequately resourced and effectively aligned to support the delivery of organisational priorities and frontline services. Multiple reports highlight opportunities to strengthen partnership capacity and deepen community engagement, particularly in areas such as homelessness, mental health and housing.

Progress Reviews

As referenced earlier in this report, PRs are a key part of the CPC process, providing an opportunity to take stock following a CPC, review progress against recommendations, test impact and receive further constructive feedback from peers to support each authority’s improvement journey. They offer senior leadership focused time to revisit the RAG-rated action plan arising from their original peer challenge, assess implementation, reflect on any shifts in context and consider next steps. Reviews reinforce accountability and sustain momentum by signalling that peer teams will return to assess progress and due to the requirement to publish progress review reports.

Overall, authorities reported that an average of 94 per cent of actions in CPC action plans had been progressed, indicating strong follow through across the sector. Where progress had slowed on actions or limited progress had taken place, LGR was the most frequently cited factor, often affecting organisational capacity, prioritisation and resilience. PRs also surfaced new or emerging themes that had arisen since the original CPC, again with LGR the dominant issue, particularly pressures linked to capacity, business as usual delivery and organisational stability. Other new themes included political or leadership changes, upcoming elections and shifts in political control, all of which had influenced councils’ ability to maintain consistency and pace.

Analysis of Corporate Peer Challenge reports provides critical insight into the vital role authorities continue to play in delivering key services and improving outcomes for local communities. This is against a backdrop of sustained and escalating pressures include rising demand and costs in children’s and adult social care; growing SEND pressures; workforce challenges; increasing housing and homelessness pressures, inflationary pressures and the requirement to maintain service performance while delivering significant transformation and savings. These issues are compounded further for councils undergoing local government re-organisation.

The report shines a spotlight on the resilience shown by authorities in continuing to deliver within this context, while also highlighting the scale and nature of the financial pressures facing the sector. Despite these challenges, councils continue to drive innovation and seek to harness the opportunities presented through devolution to improve outcomes for their communities. However, while the increased certainty offered by a multiyear funding settlement is welcome, the cumulative pressures identified in this report increasingly constrain the sector’s capacity to sustain delivery and improvement in the years to come.