Agenda item

[Report of the Interim Assistant Director for Strategy and Communications. To be introduced by the Leader of the Council.]

Response to recommendations from the LGA Corporate Peer Challenge that took place in February 2019.

The Leader introduced this report which sets out the Council’s response to the recommendations from the Corporate Peer Challenge carried out in February 2019 by a team of local government peers, and facilitated by the Local Government Association

The Leader noted the Local Government Association (LGA) had been invited earlier in the year to carry out a corporate peer review of the Council. The peer review process was part of an important approach to local government-led improvement and mutual support. This had been an opportunity to establish the current position of the Council and to show how far it had come since the last peer review in 2014. The peer review detailed the various challenges faced by the Council and further advised what it needed to do to ensure it was in the best position to be able to deliver its ambitious plans.

The Leader stated it was important to celebrate the positive role that Councillors, staff, partners and residents played in making Haringey such a positive place to live and work. The Leader was mindful of the key challenges set out in the report and stated the Council had taken active steps to address its financial position and the delivery of the borough plan objectives.

The Leader closed by welcoming the findings set out in the report and thanked the peer review team for their hard work and honest feedback. The Leader noted the Council was committed to addressing issues raised in the report.

In response to questions from Councillor Barnes, the following information was noted:

• The creation of the Head of the Leaders Office was not a new role but rather the renaming of a former role. The previous holder of the post had left the Council and the role had since been advertised with a re-profiled job descriptor and job title.
•  Assured that the Council sought to be aware of all challenges it might face in the future as early as possible. However, it was difficult to fully prepare for services where demand was unpredictable. The Council had a statutory duty to provide for certain services and the peer review would help the Council prioritise its budget accordingly to ensure that it was able to meet its obligations. This was not a unique situation to Haringey Council and other Councils faced the additional pressures of providing for unpredictable demand-based services.

RESOLVED

1. To note that the highest priority recommendation put forward by the peers related to the budget. The report recommends that the Council agrees “a sustainable Medium-Term Financial Strategy by October 2019 with a clear decision-making pathway.” Progress on this is the subject of a report elsewhere on this Cabinet agenda, titled “Budget report and MTFS update”.

2. To note that the second highest priority recommendation related to prioritisation within the Borough Plan, with a suggestion that the Council sets out an annual delivery plan for each year of the life of the Borough Plan 2019-23, and that these delivery plans are aligned to the Medium Term Financial Strategy. The year one delivery plans for each Borough Plan priority are set out in a report elsewhere on this Cabinet agenda, titled “Borough Plan 2019-2023 year 1 delivery plan”.

3. To endorse the action plan in response to the remaining findings of the LGA Corporate Peer Challenge as set out in appendix B.

Reasons for decision

There is no requirement to formally respond to Peer Challenge reports, but it is considered good practice to publish the findings in the form of the LGA’s formal report, and to set out the Council’s plans to respond to any recommendations for improvement.

In addition, the risks of not responding effectively to the LGA’s highest priority recommendations in relation to the budget are very significant. The report states that the Council’s financial position is “very challenging”, and that the “policy ambition of the Council makes this position even more challenging.” There is an urgent need to address the requirement for significant savings in 2020-21. The report states that to facilitate decision-making by Councillors “a clear decision-making pathway through to autumn 2019 is required,” and that, “Failure to take this action would result in the further depletion of reserves and a precarious future for the Council and its services.”

Alternative options considered

The option not to respond to the Peer Challenge with a formal report was considered. The decision has been made that it would be better to publish the report, and the Council’s response to it, so that the Council can be held to account on its improvement plans.