LG Challenge 2018 - challenge five

And so to the final challenge of the series. Ten contestants – four final places on offer – one last chance to gather those vital points.



For challenge five we headed north – as far north as the LGA boundaries will allow. At 9am sharp the contestants met outside Cumbria County Council’s purpose built and impressively high-tech HQ for a whistle-stop tour of Carlisle’s historic city centre, including hidden Freemason marks and gruesome tales of bereavement.



Back at the council offices the contestants split into two teams for the last time. Ambition team captain Peter (MHCLG) was joined by Hannah (Kent), Ellen (Bexley), Dan (Swale) and Richard (Shropshire), whilst Karter (Wiltshire) took the hot seat for team Vision with Nikki (Luton), Usman (Tower Hamlets), Amanda (Cambridgeshire), and Natalie (Staffordshire).



After a warm Cumbrian welcome from Deputy Leader, Cllr Ian Stewart, Chief Executive Katherine Fairclough set the Challenge for the next 24 hours. The teams must prepare a business case demonstrating how Cumbia’s face to face offer for customers can be developed to encourage greater take up of digital services by residents - with a 10 minute presentation to the judges. The Challenge was set against a backdrop of Cumbria’s predominantly rural nature and lack of broadband access in a number of places, making this a particularly tough one for the council to crack.



Straight down to work and as some team members began on the mountain of background documents, others headed off to visit Carlisle Library and Harraby Community Campus to see at first-hand Cumbria’s customer service offer and meet the residents who use the services.  



After a long day meeting residents, staff and community representatives, developing proposals and drafting business cases, the teams came together for a meal at the local Italian, where they had the chance to pitch their preliminary ideas to the Deputy Leader and Chief Executive. But fun and good food are a fleeting luxury on the Local Government Challenge. Both teams worked late into the night fine-tuning their proposals in the light of the initial responses to their ideas.



Next morning, an early start for all and drama for team Ambition - Captain Peter had abandoned them and was hot-footing it back to London where his wife had unexpectedly gone into labour with their second child.



But this is local government and we manage crises all the time. Ambition decided to share the leadership for the last few hours and the business of refining proposals and testing them against a focus group of service delivery heads continued seamlessly.



Business cases submitted by the 11.30 deadline, the teams gathered together to be judged one last time. Head judge Claire Holloway from the LGA was joined by the now familiar Deputy Leader and Chief Executive, along with cabinet member Cllr Janet Willis.



Both teams opted to use role play to present and support their business cases. Through a programme of awareness training and funding, Ambition’s Digital Leg Up would enable and empower frontline staff to work with service users to build their skills and confidence to access more services digitally, improving their independence and quality of life, and freeing up resources.



Team Vision’s Thriving Cumbria sought to develop resident engagement by drawing together both face to face and digital opportunities into one easily recognisable brand, delivered locally and promoting digital and tech enabled solutions. Both teams were at pains to point out the importance of retaining face to face service alongside the digital options.

After lengthy deliberation the panel returned and with all the aplomb of a celebrity reality TV judge, Ian Stewart announced that the winner of the fifth and final challenge in the series was - Team Ambition. But nobody goes home empty handed in this show – Claire Holloway awarded a bonus point to Team Vision for an excellent piece of comedy role play and Ian handed out Cumbria mugs and Kendall mint cake all round.



The contestants joined the organisers in thanking Cumbria for an excellent finale to the 2018 heats, whilst the hosts were equally enthusiastic.



"The challenge happened at a time-critical moment, when the Council was agreeing its new Customer Strategy & had just agreed its Council Plan - this discussion really helped to bring staff together to focus on the face to face/digital offer."

Katherine Fairclough, Chief Executive



"The other thing is the legacy it leaves behind. The buzz here at the council afterwards was phenomenal - our staff loved being involved and got loads out of it. It gave them an opportunity to talk about things to someone different and made them think about the art of the possible. We have team members taking forward ideas themselves which is one of the best outcomes I could have hoped."

Helen Blake, Senior Manager, Policy & Scrutiny

So five challenges complete and all that remained was to throw all the scores in the LG Challenge super Excel spreadsheet and announce that … Amanda, Ellen and Kartar had all made it through to the final!



But with less than a piece of Kendall mint cake between them, Dan, Hannah and Nikki went head to head in a tie break, based on their Bruce Scholarship proposals – from which Hannah emerged victorious as the fourth finalist.



So it’s off to LGA Annual Conference in Birmingham from 3-5 July, where the four finalists will be selling their proposals from a stand close to the main plenary hall, and at a “Meet the Contestants” session from 6-6.30pm on Tuesday 3 July at the LGA Hub. Please do come and find them and vote for your favourite to win. 



Local Government Minister Rishi Sunak MP will announce the winner at a drinks reception in the LGA Hub at 6pm on Wednesday 4 July.

The finalists are:

Amanda Askham - Cambridgeshire County Council

Ellen Care – London Borough of Bexley

Kartar Singh - Wiltshire Council

Hannah Lucey - Kent County Council