Supporting councils’ assurance and improvement
The City of Manchester played host to almost 170 of the LGA’s member peers and staff in March, for our ninth annual member peer conference.
This year, the theme was ‘Supporting councils in an ever-changing local government context’, highlighting the critical work of member peers, especially given the increased focus on devolution, local government reorganisation, councils facing challenges, and rising demand.
This work includes helping to deliver the LGA’s corporate peer challenge programme, peer mentoring support, top-team development, and a wide range of other peer support work.
In my role as Chairman of the LGA’s Improvement and Innovation Board, I opened the first day of conference – alongside Cllr Garry Bridges, Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council and fellow member peer – with a warm welcome to attendees.
I was also hoping to be joined by LGA Chair Cllr Louise Gittins, who had recorded a short video message for us, only for the tech to let us down. But in the spirit of the event, we kept calm and carried on!
Jim McMahon OBE, Minister for Local Government and English Devolution, delivered the keynote address, sharing the Government’s approach on the challenges and opportunities faced by the sector, including devolution and reorganisation.
Speaking as a former LGA member peer himself, he also talked about the importance of sector-led improvement and, in particular, the unique role of LGA member peers in supporting assurance and improvement across the sector.
A lively Q&A session followed, with the minister being joined by a panel comprising myself, Cllr Bridges and Dennis Skinner, LGA Director of Partnerships and Improvement.
Member peers were keen to take the opportunity to ask the minister and our panel a range of questions about future plans for local government, sector support and the LGA’s role.
All member peers then moved onto their political group sessions, before a fantastic and engaging open-space session, delivered by long-standing LGA peer Peter Fleming OBE.
The last day of conference had a thought-provoking plenary session led by Cllr Eamonn O’Brien and Lynne Ridsdale, respectively Leader and Chief Executive of Bury Metropolitan Borough Council.
They spoke engagingly about their council’s improvement journey and how they had harnessed the song, ‘Let’s Do It’, by local legend Victoria Wood, to drive their improvement.
The session also covered their experience of working within the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and how this has helped with their ambitions for Bury.
Member peers then moved on to a number of training workshops covering a diverse range of subjects, including: strengthened corporate peer challenge; learning from national peers; striving for financial resilience; artificial intelligence; having difficult conversations; and regional peers and the role of the LGA’s regional support teams. There were also workshops on social care, planning and transformation.
Our pilot peer ambassador communications toolkit was also launched at this year’s conference. The toolkit has been developed for peers to use to champion sector-led improvement.
It contains key messages, example content, and ways for peers to support the delivery of peer challenges through advocacy and demonstrate impact by leveraging their networks.
- The next LGA member peer conference is scheduled for 4-5 November 2025. Details will be available soon at www.local.gov.uk