Government watchdog says city council can hit targets
BUT DESPITE GOOD PROGRESS, THERE’S STILL MUCH TO BE DONE
THE man appointed by the Government to oversee the improvement of Nottingham City Council says he is encouraged by the progress so far – but says it still has a lot to do in very little time.
However, he still thinks it can be done. Asked if the council will get there, he said: “I believe it is realistic at this point in time.”
Sir Tony Redmond, a former local government ombudsman and former chief executive of the London Borough of Harrow, was appointed chairman of the Improvement and Assurance Board to oversee the council’s improvement after the demise of Robin Hood Energy.
It is estimated its collapse cost the taxpayer roughly £38m.
The council now has three years to improve its financial stability and other aspects of its operations.
Sir Tony reports back to Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, who is also the MP for Newark, on a quarterly basis.
If progress stalls, the Government may take control of various elements of the council, including its spending.
The council heard from Sir Tony at an overview and scrutiny committee meeting thsi week after the latest in a long series of reviews found the way committees held the council to account was not good enough.
The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny report said: “Scrutiny itself is essentially disconnected from the extraordinary challenge that the council now faces and has largely been absent in its duty to challenge the activities, decisions and events which have led it to the point of crisis.”
Scrutiny of finances and budgets was “superficial”, it found.
Sir Tony said the question of whether robust governance arrangements were in place would be one focus as well as a review of commercial and company activity alongside communication, consultation and engagement with the public.
Councillor Angharad Roberts asked: “Are there any things where your perception has shifted? Do you see things in a slightly less good place than you anticipated or a better place than anticipated?”
Sir Tony said: “The biggest challenge the council faces – and it is not an unreasonable challenge, to be fair – is the ability to produce a lot of fundamental change in a relatively short space of time.
“We were commissioned to carry out this work in January and already we have realised the council is carrying out a review of its strategic council plan.
“But that needs to be related to a service plan. In other words, how does it actually relate to the services the council is going to deliver over the next three years and how they are going to be resourced? Much still needs to be done.
“That’s an area the scrutiny committee could look at to see how these changes to the way you do things in Nottingham City Council are being effective in practice.
“The second area I think is around the constitution and again as a council you have produced a revised constitution. But within that is a very important question about decision making and to think about how decision making is undertaken by members and officers within the council and how individuals are held accountable.
“The final one is relating to the culture of the council.”
Sir Tony added such improvements prove a “very substantial challenge”.
So far, the council has devised a revised strategic plan, the draft of which it set out last month, as well as a recovery and improvement plan following the collapse of Robin Hood Energy.
The council’s constitution has also been rewritten, changing the way it makes decisions.
For example, the council’s executive leaders, such as portfolio holders, could previously make decisions with a value of up to £1m. Now they can only make one worth £150,000-£749,999.
The report said most council committees “worryingly” did not have sufficient anticipation of the implications of corporate financial challenges.
Sir Tony emphasised there “needs to be a very deep analysis in risk”.
Councillor Georgia Power questioned how the improvements on paper would best be put into practice.
Sir Tony said there needed “to be clarity in what exactly each individual does”.
He added: “Outcomes of the work people do will be measured and they will be the best test as to whether the culture has changed.
“It starts with the staff in how they are supported, trained and guided to the actual delivery of the service and outcome provided.”
After the meeting, Sir Tony told the Post that the council’s next big step was the production of a medium-term financial plan, which needs to be published towards the end of the year.
“A lot of the areas we wanted to see developed have been done and a lot of hard work has been done, there is no doubt about that, and we are very pleased to see that progress,” he said.
“There is now quite a lot to do in a relatively short space of time and we are looking for quite a lot of quick progress in the next two to three months and that is important.
“If one looks back and reflects on where we started in January this year, an awful lot has been done. At this point in time I can say I am encouraged by the establishment of a director of transformation and also the work that has already started.
“Lots of progress has been made but there is still more to come and the timescales are challenging.”