Improvement programme delivers high-impact, low-cost support
The LGA’s newly published sector support annual report for 2023/24 shows we continue to play a vital role in delivering high-impact improvement programmes for councils at low cost.
The report sets out councils’ positive feedback on, and across, our wide-ranging support offer, which includes: sector support (covering governance, leadership, finance, workforce and transformation); children’s service improvement; Partners in Care and Health (adult social care); One Public Estate; the Planning Advisory Service; procurement; sustainability; communications; culture and sport; and cyber, digital and technology.
These offers reached every council across England in 2023/24, with the latest survey results showing that 100 per cent of chief executives and 97 per cent of council leaders say that LGA support has had a positive impact on their authority.
The report underlines the success of the LGA’s highly valued peer challenge programme, which provided 1,500 peer days and challenge at no cost to recipient councils, contributing to at least £1.5 million of savings to the sector in 2023/24.
Corporate Peer Challenges (CPCs), governance and finance peer challenges (FPCs), and peer challenges spanning areas such as adult social care, children’s services, communications and planning, are all part of this offer, with more than 140 peer challenges across this range of support taking place in 2023/24.
CPCs offer a focused look at the work of a council across five core themes: local priorities and outcomes; governance and culture; organisational and place leadership; financial planning and management; and capacity for improvement.
Expert councillor and officer peers, and regional teams, deliver the peer challenge programme, supporting councils to provide the best services for their communities.
Every council that had a corporate or finance peer challenge said it had a positive impact for their authority and 95 per cent reported feeling more confident about their council delivering its priorities. All member and officer peers said their involvement in a CPC had a positive impact on their own learning and development.
Earlier this year, we launched our strengthened CPC offer, providing a greater focus on assurance across the sector support programme. Building on these foundations, the focus of the programme is now on: improving the rigour, robustness and consistency of CPCs; ensuring all English councils have a CPC every five years; improving the preparedness for delivering CPCs to high-risk councils; continuing to improve the training and development of LGA member and officer peers; and improving the robustness, impact and consistency of CPC reports.
This sits alongside publication of a new improvement and assurance framework, to help local authorities understand the various components of assurance and accountability in local government, and providing access to guidance and support to increase the effectiveness of assurance activities in the sector.
The consultation and mapping exercise for the framework involved more than 160 senior officers and members from across the country.
These developments are part of our ongoing programme of work to strengthen the focus on assurance within the wider improvement offer, including helping councils ensure they have the tools and support they need to deliver good governance.
This includes new ‘assurance and support’ discussions, offered to all councils not scheduled for a CPC or FPC in 2024/25, and wider support options for councils facing the biggest governance and finance challenges.
Alongside support from expert officers and peers, experienced finance improvement and sustainability advisers offer dedicated support as part of the LGA’s finance improvement programme.
In 2023/24, this programme also featured guidance and resources, including ‘must know’ guides for combined authorities on sound financial management arrangements, and training and development opportunities, which 100 per cent of participants said improved their knowledge and skills.
The wide range of learning and development offers for members and officers have been shown to have positive impacts on professional development and delivery.
In 2023/24, more than 2,800 councillors accessed our political leadership programmes, making it a total of 13,000 since their inception, including more than 70 serving MPs.
The LGA, with the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers, has also launched a new chief executive programme, including a Chief Executive Development Framework. In 2024/25, this programme features a first-of-its-kind training offer, designed to help chief executives respond to the most pressing challenges facing the sector.
Elsewhere, in the context of 230 councils holding elections in 2023, the annual report notes the critical help provided by the LGA’s post-elections support programme – led by expert regional teams and peers – in smoothing political transitions for the 111 councils that experienced a change of control or leadership.
Meanwhile, more than 600 delegates attended our established and highly valued ‘Civility in public life’ programme, which supports councillors to deliver the responsibilities of their role, and includes sessions on harassment and intimidation. These increasingly popular events have achieved an overall satisfaction rating of 97 per cent.
We supported local government innovation through programmes to build capability and capacity in response to issues of sustainability, environment and new technologies.
More than 230 councils accessed sustainability learning and development opportunities throughout the year, and our new Artificial Intelligence Network has connected more than 1,000 officers.
The LGA also developed a completely new offer to support councils in achieving their transformation goals (see p21) and deliver continuous improvement across a range of service areas.
The LGA continued to provide collective bargaining support, which resulted in pay agreements covering 1.5 million employees. It also provided wide-ranging support responding to the critical issues that councils across the country face regarding workforce capacity and skills shortages, in areas including children’s services, adult social care and planning.
Offers in these key service areas demonstrated incredible engagement, with Partners in Care and Health alone engaging with 100 per cent of councils, while more than 530 councillors accessed children’s improvement learning events.
The LGA also piloted a new local government recruitment campaign to attract new talent to the sector, to be launched nationally this autumn (see p24), and set up new specialist graduate programmes for finance and planning – which attracted thousands of applicants in their first year.
These programmes sit alongside Impact: The Local Government Graduate Programme (previously known as the National Graduate Development Programme).
In 2023/24, this well-established programme recruited 270 graduates, as well as registering 106 councils to take part – on both counts, the highest numbers for the programme to date.
Our annual sector support report shows the difference that a sector-led approach can achieve.
Learning and successes from the past year are being carried forward to enhance offers, now and in the future, to ensure councils have the support they need to harness opportunities, and respond to today’s challenges and those that lie ahead.
- ‘Supporting council improvement: 2023/24 highlights’ can be read in full at the LGA website.
- See the LGA’s sector support programme for councils