Peer support

The LGA’s member peers are a key part of our improvement offer

It was great to see so many of you at the LGA’s Member Peer Conference in Bristol in November. 

For the first time, the conference was held over two days, with 140 member peers from across the country gathered at what is a critical time for local government and sector-led improvement (SLI).  

Developments such as the establishment of the Office for Local Government, and a series of high-profile cases concerning a small number of challenged councils, have led to an increased focus on council performance, and questions around what we can do to deliver greater improvement and assurance for our sector. 

The conference gave us time together to consider the role of SLI in this context, including what this means for the LGA’s Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) programme and our work as member peers.  

A thought-provoking and engaging keynote address was delivered by experienced commissioners Tony McArdle OBE, Best Value Inspector at Thurrock Council and Lead Commissioner at the London Borough of Croydon, and Gavin Jones, Chief Executive of Essex County Council and Lead Commissioner at Slough Borough Council and Thurrock Council.

Both shared insights and learning from their work with challenged councils that are subject to intervention, including what this means for SLI and CPC. 

Key themes highlighted were the importance of strong and effective political and managerial leadership, positive organisational culture and narrative, robust approaches to governance, financial oversight, and risk management.  

We also heard from Torbay Council’s Leader, Cllr David Thomas, and Chief Executive, Anne-Marie Bond, about the council’s significant improvement journey, which led to it being named Most Improved Council at the Local Government Chronicle Awards 2023.

A key take-away was how Torbay’s openness to external challenge and learning – through SLI and CPC – has been instrumental to its improvement journey.  

Peers also participated in a series of development sessions – covering assurance and governance, the future of SLI, people services and regulation, and transformation, and a separate session on Corporate Peer Challenge for less-experienced peers. There were also some practical demonstrations of LG Inform, the LGA’s free benchmarking tool, which can be used to explore the performance of councils.  

We also delivered a highly energetic, interactive and fun ‘Open Space’, facilitated by Peter Fleming OBE. Peers set the agenda, with topics ranging from ‘how to get the most out of meetings’ to a more serious and, in my view, often neglected area of focus for councillors – ‘how to look after our own mental health and wellbeing’.  

We will certainly be looking to replicate this approach at our future peer conferences. 

The conference also provided lots of opportunities to network. 

I hope, like me, peers left the conference with learning and new ideas, feeling energised, enthused and motivated, so they can continue to champion SLI across the sector.  

As Chair of the LGA’s Improvement and Innovation Board, I am committed to working with my fellow board members and national and regional peers, to take forward the feedback and insights from the conference and ensure that we use this to inform our thinking in the year ahead, so that we can ensure that our SLI offer is ‘best in class’.

Mentoring handbook

Councillor mentoring undertaken by the LGA’s member peers is an important part of our Sector Support programme, funded by the UK Government. Our councillor mentoring helps councils and councillors to receive the support they need to deliver services to the public as effectively as possible. ‘The councillor mentoring handbook’ looks at the mentoring relationship, and provides resources for practical support and downloadable forms to track mentoring progress.

• Find out more about the LGA’s peer support programme. The presentations from the conference are available on our website.