Highlights
- We delivered 134 peer challenges or programmes of remote peer support to councils across all regions of England and Wales.
- 100 per cent of councils participating in an LGA Corporate Peer Challenge said the process had a positive impact on their councils.
- 95 per cent of all respondents receiving post-election support said the support helped their council.
Our council improvement and peer support programme allowed councils to harness their potential and respond to key challenges. We provided access to a wide range of peer challenges, as well as bespoke and remote peer support options, delivered by peers and our expert regional teams. The range of on-site and remote options we offered in 2021/22 meant that support remained flexible, adaptable and tailored to meet individual councils' needs. Our research and data programme complemented this support by giving councils increased capability to measure their impact and take a data-orientated approach to service delivery.
Peer challenge and remote peer support
Our peer challenge and remote peer support programme provided councils with a unique opportunity to engage with chief executive, and councillor, peers with current or previous experience in the sector. Peers provide challenge, support and guidance through peer-led reviews of specific areas or issues such as finance, governance, communications and equalities.
Peer challenges play a valuable role in supporting councils to continuously improve their services. They are undertaken in a collaborative and constructive way that enables the sharing of learning and best practice. We have benefited from peer challenges on planning, and legal and governance, and would highly recommend the process.
– Birmingham City Council
Our peer challenges and remote peer support were highly utilised in 2021/22, helping councils to drive improvements and address challenges across areas including corporate capacity, finance, leadership and governance. We delivered 134 peer challenges and programmes of remote peer support to councils across all regions of England and Wales, including through our Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) programme.
CPCs are a highly valued and effective tool of support and a cornerstone of our sector support offer. They take place on-site and support councils to improve across areas including local priorities and outcomes, organisational and place leadership governance and culture, financial planning and management, and capacity for improvement. From 2021/22, all CPCs included follow-up reviews, providing councils with a further opportunity to reflect and take stock of their progress.
Case study: LGA Corporate Peer Challenge
Cambridgeshire County Council was one of the first councils to undertake an LGA Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) in the 2021/22 financial year. The initial CPC reviewed previous recommendations, and developed further recommendations, across areas including: finance, governance arrangements, capacity and capability, and ensuring greater clarity about shared services arrangements. The council had its progress review in March 2022. A thematic approach was taken on three of the most strategically important and impactful areas: finance and budget strategy, shared services, and place-shaping with partners.
The process allowed time and space for the council to reflect on progress, associated impacts, and next steps. Peers asked questions to help them understand impacts and offer feedback, and made suggestions to drive progress.
The progress review highlighted that the initial CPC had prompted the following impacts:
- the appointment of a dedicated chief executive for the county council
- a focus on financial planning and budget setting by the joint administration of the council
- provision of greater direction to staff around the future delivery of shared services
- consideration of future place-shaping governance
- a review of the council’s political management arrangements and committee system.
The process was seen as valuable both by councillors and senior officers.
We were really delighted with the effectiveness of the Corporate Peer Challenge. The experience and expertise which the peers brought into our council was amazing, and the opportunity to work with them has been enormously valuable. The benefit of having an outside view of our council across a wide area has been very thought-provoking, and the ongoing engagement with the LGA has also been great.
– Cambridgeshire County Council Leader, Councillor Julie Nethsinga
Although COVID-19 restrictions meant that we were not able to provide face-to-face support until July 2021, more than half of all the peer challenges we carried out were CPCs.
As indicated by comments below, feedback from councils participating in our Corporate Peer Challenge programme has been highly positive. A survey of councils undergoing CPCs highlighted that 100 per cent of councils said that the process of preparing for and participating in a CPC had positively impacted their council.
Senior officer and councillor peers involved in peer challenges and other bespoke and remote support also reported high levels of satisfaction in participating in the programme – as highlighted by the following comments:
Reflections from councils on the LGA Corporate Peer Challenge programme:
“The insightful, balanced and objective feedback and recommendations for services and approaches for us to work on that the CPC team provided us with have genuinely helped us to make our services better, our systems more efficient and our councillor / officer working relationships more effective. For me, one of the key strengths of the LGA’s Corporate Peer Challenge process is that it is undertaken by councillors who are current members of the 'local government family' who truly understand the sector we operate in and who bring a real depth of experience, knowledge and skills with them... I would thoroughly recommend to any council that has either never undertaken a CPC, or has not undertaken one recently, arranges one in the near future.”
– Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council
“The peers brought us valuable challenge which highlighted the strengths we have as an organisation, but also provided constructive feedback on some areas where there is still room for us to improve. The process was very well managed with excellent support throughout. It's been a valuable exercise for all of us and one I would recommend to other authorities.”
– Lancashire County Council
“These Corporate Peer Challenges play an important role for our sector – sharing knowledge, learning and best practice to drive improvement and innovation through the local government family. This is so important if the sector is to remain best-placed to support our communities and deliver effectively as leaders of place.”
– Telford & Wrekin Council
“Two things [about LGA CPCs] stand out for me. Firstly, how well the peer team – which is drawn from all corners of the country – comes together to share knowledge, experience and insight during an intense period. The second is that despite us all sharing the same statutory framework, how different each authority is by virtue of the people, place, and priorities. [CPCs provide] a rare opportunity to inquire and to challenge in a constructive way but also to reflect and to learn.
– East Devon District Council
We are committed to ensuring that officer and member peers bring diverse and varied voices to our support offer. We continue to identify ways to ensure diversity among peers. In 2021/22, 300 peers supported the delivery of our Corporate Peer Challenge programme. We encourage those working in senior leadership roles across local government to find out more about becoming a peer.
Peer reflections
“The CPC acts as a critical friend while, at the same time, allowing peers to develop their own learning about other local authorities. The learning and good practice enables the local government sector to continuously improve – this is possible through the non-threatening and collaborative manner in which the CPCs are carried out.”
– Kirklees Council
“By taking part in the review, I learned skills that I could take back to my own authority... The Corporate Peer Challenge process teaches you to give things a shake and see what falls out – and what does is really interesting.”
– Eastleigh Borough Council
"Being a peer is a fantastic opportunity to learn from other authorities, expand your knowledge, and also enable to time to reflect on best practice. I feel that anyone can be a peer – we all have different skills and experience to bring to the table. I found it to be an extremely rewarding, challenging and, yet, fun process to be part of and would highly recommend it.
– Elmbridge Borough Council
"The privilege of being invited into another authority and learning how they tackle and challenge many of the same issues that your own authority faces cannot be underestimated. The shared learning and constructive challenge really enables you and the host authority to see the different approaches and opens your eyes to the possibility that doing things differently really can work well."
– Breckland Council
“Being a peer is a great privilege as it involves being welcomed into a council to hold up a mirror to them and play back their strengths as well as to highlight the challenges and areas for improvement they should consider. It is an opportunity not only to contribute and share learning, but also to take away examples of great practice. The chance to work with colleagues from the LGA and councils across the country just adds to the richness of the experience.”
– Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council
Post-election support
We provide councils with access to support following local elections. We offer targeted support to councils experiencing changes in political control or political leadership. In 2021/22, all councils that experienced a change in political control were offered post-election support, with 29 councils (82 per cent) taking up support such as top team development sessions, mentoring and officer and / or member development sessions including induction events for new members, and other forms of post-election support. Feedback was extremely positive, with 95 per cent of all respondents receiving post-election support saying that it helped their council.
We supported councils through these transition periods and beyond by promoting the range of resources and opportunities we offer on our new changes in political leadership hub. More than 30 councils experiencing a change of leader and / or portfolio holder without any change in political control also benefited from our post-election support and mentoring.
A councillor reflects on our post-election support
“I am delighted to say that [the support] has been both extensive and very beneficial. As a new cabinet with a considerable number of first-time councillors, we have all benefited from signing up to a myriad of courses... We were given invaluable support and guidance by the LGA, and the LGA councillor lead, around key issues as well as the brokering of relationships with other councils with a shared experience. This was most enlightening... I would urge all councils and councillors to make full use of the LGA and the expertise it possesses. I feel confident in saying our local authority will become more effective, and individual councillors better informed, as a result of developing our relationship with the LGA.”
– Councillor Bryan Jones, Cannock Chase District Council
Research and data
Being able to access and analyse research and data on council performance, demographics, and live trends and issues, is critical to ensuring high quality services and informed decision-making in local government. In 2021/22, we supported councils to access the tools and resources they needed to achieve this through our research and data programme, which includes our free data benchmarking platform – LG Inform – and our analytics-focused training and development opportunities.
Highlights
- LG Inform received ‘Highly Commended’ awards at both the Local Area Research and Intelligence Association (LARIA) Awards and the Analysis in Government Awards – in its 10th anniversary year (2021).
- LG Inform received more than 927,000 page views and reached the milestone of four million total views since 2013.
LG Inform – our free data benchmarking platform
LG Inform uniquely integrates thousands of local-level data items in a single system and is free for councils and fire and rescue services to access.
In 2021/22, LG Inform continued to provide current performance data relating to councils and local areas, and we launched new LG Inform themed data reports in response to live issues. New reports visualised data on Ukrainian settlement in England, greenhouse gas accounting, homelessness, childhood immunisations, local digital skills, and on Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman annual statistics on complaints, decisions, uphold rates, and remedy and compliance outcomes.
We also updated LG Inform themed data reports on key financial indicators, children in need and care, special educational needs and disability (SEND), children’s health and wellbeing, and police-recorded crime – helping to ensure that councils had access to the current data they needed.
In recognition of its continued valuable contribution to the local government sector, in 2021 – its tenth anniversary year – LG Inform received a ‘Highly Commended’ award in both the Local Area Research and Intelligence Association (LARIA) Awards and the Analysis in Government Awards.
LG Inform was widely utilised by the sector in 2021/22, achieving more than 927,000 views during this financial year alone.
Spotlight on: COVID-19 workforce data
Our workforce data supported service delivery in councils throughout the pandemic. Our monthly COVID-19 workforce data collection provided the single national source on how the sector responded during the pandemic. The data, collected directly from heads of human resources across local government, provided timely, reliable, and comprehensive information on staffing numbers, reasons for staff absences, capacity to run services, and contingency and mitigation methods. Councils were able to access regular COVID-19 workforce survey research reports, and interactive and comparative charts, tables and trend data on LG Inform.
Advanced and Predictive Analytics Network (APAN) for local government data practitioners
With councils moving to adopt more intelligent data systems, we established the Advanced and Predictive Analytics Network (APAN) and online hub. In 2021/22, the hub provided a forum for data analysts and data scientists in local government to meet, share and learn from each other, focusing on the rapidly changing techniques for collecting and analysing data to inform council decision-making. Data practitioners reported that support offered through the hub helped them to gain “clear insight into some of the practicalities and impact of undertaking this work” and provided a “comprehensive and inspiring look at what is possible, particularly around access and sharing of data”.