‘Bureaucratic’ city council slammed over ‘lack of trust’

New report criticises slow decision-making

THERE is a “lack of trust” in the way Birmingham council is run and its “slow” decisionmaking must be improved urgently, it is claimed.

There is also “little understanding” across the city council of the benefit of scrutinising decisions, a report by the Local Government Association (LGA) has revealed.

But opposition councillors are now concerned the report’s recommendations will be used by the Labour leadership to restrict backbenchers’ powers to challenge decisions.

The report states: “Members have a lack of trust in the governance service because of problems with late reports, lack of confidence and skills of committee clerks, and lack of support for member casework.

“We have heard that the council’s decision making processes are difficult to navigate, slow, lengthy and an obstacle to efficient, effective and dynamic operations.

“Given the number of major projects and initiatives being undertaken by the council this is a serious business risk which must be addressed as a matter of urgency.” The document was produced following a peer review carried out in September last year by eight representatives from other councils, the LGA and the Centre for Public Scrutiny.

The report did praise the “level of insight, ambition and scale of the council’s plans for Birmingham”.

But there were also damning criticisms within it, including that “this is the most bureaucratic, processdriven organisation I have ever worked for”, and that “scrutiny is not playing its strategic role”.

The report says “the number of call-ins are disproportionately high due to the fact that the criteria for call-ins are not rigorous enough”.

But the Conservatives now fear the Labour response to recommendations on ‘call-in’ criteria, where scrutiny councillors can intervene to send decisions back to cabinet. Cllr Ewan Mackey, deputy leader of the Conservative group, said one of the reasons for the high proportion of call-ins was a “lack of meaningful backbench engagement ahead of decisions”.

He added: “From

late, rushed, missing information, lack of public consultation or consideration of wider impacts and risks, the quality of reports to Cabinet are frequently well below the standard needed to make well informed decisions.

“Rather than address this issue, Labour are instead seeking to cull the key tool available to challenge those decisions.”

A city council spokesperson said: “Whilst much of the commentary focuses on internal processes, there are some key areas for the council to address, in particular the development of a scrutiny framework.

“This work has been disrupted by the pandemic, but will involve all scrutiny members, as well as the executive and officers. It is being supported by the Centre for Public Scrutiny.

“The call-in report to co-ordinating committee was on the agenda for the co-ordinating meeting of July 3 and at the meeting it was agreed to defer consideration of the report.

“This report stemmed from feedback from members as well as the peer review – which in turn would have resulted in recommendations to the council as part of the constitution review – and was an opportunity for scrutiny members to provide input.”

The report will be presented to cabinet in September.

Rather than address this issue, Labour are instead seeking to cull the key tool available to challenge those decisions. Cllr Ewan Mackey