LGA Corporate Peer Challenge: Preparation guidance for peers

Thank you for agreeing to be part of a Corporate Peer Challenge.

This note provides guidance on:

• The LGA Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) offer
• The scope and purpose of the CPC
• The peer challenge team
• The approach and methodology
• The principles and ground rules
• Freedom of Information and data protection guidance
• Peer charter and terms & conditions
• Issues for the peer team to explore (Appendix 1)
• Facilitating meetings and focus groups (Appendix 2)

Additional information and advice will be provided by your LGA Peer Challenge Manager.

The LGA’s sector support offer provides a range of tools and resources to help councils improve. Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) is a core part of this offer; it is a robust and rigorous assurance and improvement tool managed and delivered by the sector, for the sector. 

CPC continues to be one of the most valued improvement and assurance tools the LGA offers to councils. In our most recent evaluation, 100 per cent of respondents indicated that the process of preparing for and participating in a CPC had a positive impact on their council

The newly enhanced CPC offer considers the challenging context in which councils are operating.  Local government officers and members – as ‘peers’ – remain at the heart of the process. They support councils with their improvement and learning by providing a ‘practitioner perspective’ and ‘critical friend’ challenge. 

Your LGA Peer Challenge Manager (PCM) will support you throughout the process.

Every CPC considers the following five core areas as these are areas that are critical to council performance and improvement.

1. Local priorities and outcomes - Are the council’s priorities clear and informed by the local context? Is the council delivering effectively on its priorities? Is there a robust organisational-wide approach to continuous improvement, with regular monitoring, reporting on and updating of performance and improvement plans?
2. Organisational and place leadership - Does the council provide effective local leadership? Are there strong and effective relationships with partner organisations and local communities?
3. Governance and culture - Are there clear and robust governance arrangements? Is there a culture of openness, transparency, challenge, and scrutiny?
4. Financial planning and management - Does the council have a clear understanding of its financial position?  Does the council have a strategy and a plan to address its financial challenges? What is the relative financial resilience of the council like?
5. Capacity for improvement - Is the organisation able to bring about the improvements it needs, including delivering on locally identified priorities? Does the council have the capacity to improve?

As part of the five core areas every CPC will have a strong focus on financial sustainability, performance, governance and assurance.

Appendix 1 highlights the lines of enquiry and issues that will inform the peer team’s consideration of the five core themes.

In addition, the council has may also ask the peer team to provide observations and feedback in relation to the council’s approach and this will be detailed and shared with you for each peer challenge.

The Corporate Peer Challenge team comprises of the following member and officer peers – the peer challenge team will let you know who they are once the team is complete. Typical configuration would be:

• Member Peer (one or more depending on political makeup of the council) – Leader or Senior Councillor
• Serving Chief Executive Peer
• Serving officer / member peers as required
• LGA Peer Challenge Manager

The LGA have sourced the peer team and the make-up of the team has been informed by the LGA’s commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, the skills required and the range of stakeholders the council would like the peer team to engage with.

Peers understand the current challenges faced by local government and they bring credibility, trust and mutual respect to the improvement process. They engage, listen to, explore, and question officers, members and other stakeholders of the council. They work as a team to bring innovative ideas and experiences from elsewhere.

Peers not only support and challenge councils. During the process, they also benefit from the places they visit and always take back learning and practice that will help their own organisations.

As outlined in section two, the LGA have worked with the local government sector to enhance and strengthen the CPC offer to meet the ever-changing needs of councils. The strengthened approach continues to be underpinned by the tried and tested peer-led approach the LGA has facilitated for many years. This is built on the principles of sector-led improvement which states that local authorities are: responsible for their own performance, accountable locally not nationally and have a collective responsibility for the performance of the sector.

The LGA have developed an improvement and assurance framework to assist councils in providing assurance of the performance of local government. The strengthened CPC offer will support this work. The CPC is delivered at no cost to the council. Having a CPC will also assist councils to meet their Best Value duty with the Government expecting all local authorities to have a corporate or finance peer challenge at least every five years, to publish the outcomes and deliver on the recommendations of that review.

The changes made to enhance and strengthen the CPC process are reflected throughout this guidance document. They include an increased focus on council finance, assurance, performance, and governance. The LGA have intensified the evidence-based approaches to inform robust CPC recommendations. This includes the provision of improved finance data and analysis of comparative performance data and metrics for peer teams.

In the spirit of openness and transparency, there is a clear requirement for councils to publish their CPC report, associated Action Plan and the follow up Progress Review report; the latter takes place approximately ten months after the original CPC. The LGA will also publish the CPC report and Progress Review report on their website.

As outlined above, peers remain at the heart of the peer challenge process and provide a ‘practitioner perspective’ and ‘critical friend’ challenge. The strengthened CPC approach has involved work to support and develop peers through a new programme of training and development.

The peer challenge process consists of the following stages and activity:

Peer team preparation and pre-onsite activity

The peer team review the Information and Data Pack comprising of key briefing information. This pack will include the council’s Position Statement, LGA Finance Report, an LG Inform comparative performance report and an onsite timetable.

In addition to this, the LGA Peer Challenge Manager (PCM) will consider the following areas:

• Value for Money (VfM) – commentary on VfM arrangements in the council’s last external audit annual report. Have any areas of significant weakness been identified?
• Annual Governance Statement
  • Does the statement evidence a robust and honest assessment of the effectiveness of the council’s governance arrangements?
• Is there an action plan for areas identified for improvement?
  • Has progress been made on areas for improvement identified last year?
• Cabinet agendas or relevant policy/resources committee meetings (latter where the council has a committee system form of governance). The PCM will review agendas for the last two to three meetings and consider:
  • Are agendas lengthy or focused?
  • Are reports well written/clear business cases/options analysis/consideration of risk/recommendations?
• Corporate Risk Register
  • How recent is the Risk Register?
  • Are the risks strategic?
  • Is there read-across between the council’s Corporate Plan and the Risk Register? Do they, taken together, tell the story of the organisation and is this consistent with the council’s Position Statement?
  • Are any obvious risks missing?
• Key Performance Data
  • Are the council’s performance reports shared regularly with councillors?
  • Do they contain benchmarking information?
• Member Development programme
  • Is the programme focused only on the new councillor induction period or does it also include briefings and ongoing development throughout the electoral cycle?
• Staff survey
  • Was there a good response rate? Would any of the results suggest there may be issues in relation to staff feeling supported or able to speak up on matters of concern?
• Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s annual letter – copies of annual review letters for all councils can be found via this link. The information offers valuable insight about a council’s approach to complaints.

Briefing Meeting – the Peer Challenge Manager will co-ordinate an online peer team briefing call ahead of the onsite visit. This will provide an opportunity for peers to meet each other (virtually) ahead of the time on site, to discuss initial perceptions and plan the approach. During this meeting, the PCM will bring any relevant matters arising from consideration of the additional documentation (highlighted above) to the attention of the peer team.

As outlined above, in advance of the Corporate Peer Challenge, an LGA Finance Report will be shared with peers as part of the Information and Data Pack. The LGA’s Finance and Improvement Adviser (author of this report) will be invited to attend the peer briefing meeting to verbally brief peers and answer questions about the finance report. For councils where there may be a higher risk, the LGA will produce a more detailed financial briefing. On occasions the LGA’s relevant Principal Adviser may attend the peer team briefing call to provide a high-level brief to peers.

During the peer team briefing call, the PCM will discuss performance data (including the LG Inform report). For upper tier councils this includes performance in relation to social care (Children’s and Adults). The meeting will also agree initial virtual engagement with the council and other stakeholders – for example, some initial peer meetings and discussions and viewing council committee meetings online. In particular, the LGA will ask the chief executive peer and member peers to connect with their equivalents at the council and have pre-onsite call. Where possible and available online, the LGA also encourage peers to view a council meeting. The PCM will discuss and agree this with the peer team.

Onsite activity

• Peer team meet at the peer team’s hotel the night before the CPC.
• On the morning of day one, the peer team travel to the council.
• Series of meetings and visits over three to four days in accordance with the timetable.
• Some meetings may take place virtually – due to peer or council / stakeholder availability, but most meetings will take place in person and on-site at the council.
• Appendix 2 provides further peer guidance about facilitating CPC meetings
• Feedback presentation delivered to the council on the final day – the audience will be agreed with the council but typically include, as a minimum, the council’s leader, chief executive, members of the corporate leadership team, cabinet members/lead members and opposition members. There will also be the opportunity for clarification and questions.

Post-onsite activity

• Draft feedback report (based around the feedback presentation) produced by the PCM and circulated to the peer team for comment no later than two weeks after the CPC.
• Peers are asked to comment on the report within a one-week time frame
• Draft report is then shared with the council – the aim is to share this within four weeks of the CPC – including one week for peers to comment.
• When sharing the report with the council, the PCM invites comments on factual inaccuracies only.
• Report signed off by the council and published on their website within three months of the CPC. The LGA will also publish the report on their website.
• The council publishes an action plan in response to the CPC. The council are required to publish their action plan no later than five months after the CPC.

Progress Review

• Every council that has a CPC is required to have a follow up CPC progress review and publish the findings from this within 12 months of the CPC.
• Will be delivered on-site over one day.
• Will involve, as a minimum, the lead chief executive and lead member peer. The progress review may also involve other peer team members who took part in the original CPC as appropriate/necessary. The PCM will discuss this with the council and peers.
• The purpose of the progress review is to provide space for a council’s senior leadership to update on the progress made against the CPC recommendations, discuss early impact or learning and receive peer feedback on the implementation of the CPC action plan.
• In advance of the progress review, the council are required to provide a RAG rated CPC action plan and short position statement which clearly sets out the progress made in relation to each of the CPC’s recommendations. During the progress review, peers will review this action plan and the progress made against each recommendation.
• The peer challenge manager will draft a short report following the progress review, including the peer team’s key observations, and as outlined above, the council are required to publish this. The LGA will also publish this on their website.

The progress review is complemented by the council’s ongoing relationship with the LGA’s regional Principal Adviser.

It is important that all peers understand, and are confident with, the peer challenge process. Please contact your PCM if you have any questions.

The peer team is undertaking the peer challenge at the invitation of the council. It is important that the process is underpinned by trust and takes place in an environment in which everyone feels they can be open and honest.

The following principles apply to all peer challenges:

• Peers will not act as ‘inspectors’ judging the council’s approach to date – the peer challenge will focus on improvement and assurance.
• All council and peer participants will be treated as equal partners who shape the direction and focus of the conversation.
• The contribution of council participants will provide mutual learning for peers and the LGA.
• Peers respect that some information captured during a peer challenge may be confidential or sensitive in nature.

Notes taken during a peer challenge should be considered confidential and managed as such. Draft reports, background documents and notes (including those held electronically) should be destroyed (deleted) in an appropriate manner once the report is finalised and signed off. Please see the LGA’s published data protection policy for further information including the data protection principles.

The LGA is required to comply with the obligations under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. As peer challenges are conducted on behalf of the LGA, the information collated and held as a result by the peer team fall within the scope of the Freedom of Information Act. If a request is received, please send all the relevant information you hold to the LGA Peer Challenge Manager.

Peers are asked to familiarise themselves with the Peer Charter and Terms & Conditions. There is also a Peer Induction Pack which contains useful information for those acting as a peer for the first time. More information about being a peer can be found at: Information for Peers

This section will include contact details for your LGA peer challenge manager.

The following lines of enquiry are not intended to be an exhaustive or prescriptive list, but it is important that the peer team adequately cover all five core areas.

• Are the council’s priorities clear and informed by the local context?
• Is the council delivering effectively on its priorities?
• Is there an organisational-wide approach to continuous improvement, with frequent monitoring, reporting on and updating of performance and improvement plans?

Vision and Priorities 

• How is the council ensuring that the corporate plan is evidence based, current, realistic and enables whole organisational performance to be measured?
• How does the council ensure that there is a shared understanding of the council’s vision and priorities? e.g., across the organisation, partners, communities.
• How is the council’s vision and priorities aligned with the council’s financial strategy and delivery arrangements?
• How does the council ensure that there is a good understanding of current and future demand and needs?
• How is horizon scanning approached at the council?
• Is the council clear on its top three challenges over the next three years?
• How does the council engage with its communities and are community views informing the council’s priorities?
• How satisfied with services are residents, including under-represented groups?  How is this measured?
• How does the council collect, share and publish relevant EDI data and information about its communities?
• How does the council use equality impact assessments to develop and improve services and mitigate any negative impact for protected groups?

Performance Management

• How does the council manage performance?  (both internal performance and external performance through contracts)
• How does the council compare on headline performance measures?
• What are the key inspection results for the council?
• How does the council’s performance management framework link to the council’s overall strategy, corporate plan, departmental plans, individual appraisals or workplans?
• How does the council ensure effective governance and oversight of council performance?
• How is performance reported to the public? Is performance information presented appropriately to enable member and public scrutiny?
• How does the council use data and insight to drive improvement?
• How do they ensure a shared understanding (amongst staff and councillors) of performance management and how this can be used to inform improvement?
• How do staff and members describe the performance management culture at the council?
• How does the council demonstrate or show that there is a culture of trust, openness, inquiry and learning?

• Does the council provide effective local leadership?
• Are there strong and effective relationships with partner organisations and local communities?

Organisational Leadership 

• How is the organisation led politically and managerially – any key issues?
• How does the council ensure that there is effective organisational governance?
• Are the senior leadership (in particular chief executive and leader) aware of and using the LGA/Solace Leadership Standards for Excellence for local authority chief executives to self-assess their performance in role?
• Is the senior leadership using the Leadership Standards for Excellence as a framework to discuss performance and set developmental objectives for the chief executive and their direct reports?
• How do senior officers and members work together as the top team?
• How well do senior officers and members understand their respective roles?
• How effective is the senior management team? How are they ensuring that there is not an over reliance on interim statutory officers?
• Is the Monitoring Officer a member of the senior leadership team and do they meet regularly with the Chief Executive and Chief Finance Officer?
• How are both members and officers supported in their leadership roles – including through learning and development?

Is appropriate succession planning taking place on both the officer and the political side? 

Place Leadership

• How does the council provide effective leadership of place?
• How does the council work with partners to build a collective and shared narrative of the place? and is there a shared strategy and action plan to achieve the shared vision?
• How does the council describe its identity at a local, regional, and national level? 

Partnership Working 

• How does the council leadership ensure there is a clear and well-articulated vision and focus for joint working? Do partners share this vision?
• How effectively does the council work with partners at both a strategic and local level? How do partners describe their experience of working with the council? (Including the procurement related partnerships the council has with the private sector)
• How does the council influence across the system?
• Are there examples of how collective leadership could be improved?
• How effective/ constructive are the working relationship between the council and it’s MP(s)?

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

• How do leaders demonstrate personal knowledge and understanding of local communities? How do they demonstrate a commitment to reducing inequalities?
• How does the council collaborate with partners to reduce inequality and deliver services that are inclusive and accessible to a diverse community?
• How does the council advance equality of opportunity between different groups and promote and support community cohesion? 

Communication and engagement 

• How does the council communicate internally and externally?
• How does the council build community capacity to shape priority outcomes?
• How does the council listen, empower, co-produce, collaborate? 

How does the council ensure there are mechanisms in place to ensure that under-represented groups are communicated and engaged with effectively? Do they have opportunities to be involved in decision making and the design and delivery of services?

• Are there clear and robust governance arrangements?
• Is there a culture of openness, transparency, challenge and scrutiny?

Governance and decision making

• How effective is governance and decision making?
• How does the council promote an understanding of good governance and compliance in all staff and members? E.g. member and officer development/training?
• Does the council’s governance operate effectively? E.g. are decision reports concise, well written, containing appropriate advice and consideration of options and risk, published on time? Is there evidence of appropriate member level oversight and challenge?  Is there appropriate separation between audit and standards?
• Is there a culture of good governance, transparency, accountability?
• Is there a documented organisational structure showing chain of command/the levels of approval for certain transactions?
• How often is the Constitution/Scheme of delegation reviewed?  Are they well understood; does this process appropriately involve members and officers?
• Does the Constitution clearly define key accountabilities and delegations?
• How is the Annual Governance Statement produced e.g., does it cover the key issues, include a range of perspectives, is it reflective / self-critical?  Does it provide evidence of robust review of the council’s governance arrangements and any relevant risks/ issues relating to governance – including review of the governance arrangements for any commercial local authority companies?
• Are there effective governance structures and processes to oversee and monitor the delivery of projects, equality objectives and strategies?

Audit and Risk

• How is audit viewed across the council?
• How does the council create its audit plan? Has the Audit Committee reviewed and approved the plan, and does it monitor its implementation?
• What are the views of internal and external audit about the major audit issues and what evidence is there of their recommendations being addressed?
• Is the council’s Internal Audit function compliant with the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards? Is an action plan being implemented to follow the recommendations from the last independent review?
• How does the council ensure there are clear strategic risk management arrangements in place?  What is the organisational understanding of these and how are they implemented and monitored?
• How does the Audit Committee review the risk management arrangements?
• Does the Audit Committee act independently, providing robust oversight?
• What audit training has been undertaken by staff and members?
• What is the view of the external auditor of the council’s arrangements for value for money?

Member to member and member/officer relationships

• How are the officer-member and member-member relationships? Are they positive?
• How effectively are behaviours and attitudes modelled by officers and members?
• Are the roles and responsibilities of members and officers clearly defined, understood and implemented?
• How are officers supported to develop the skills needed to work in a political environment? 

Scrutiny

• How is overview and scrutiny viewed? Is overview and scrutiny welcomed and supported – both formal Overview and Scrutiny (if applicable) and scrutiny and challenge more generally?
• Do all members have the opportunity to inform and influence scrutiny?
• Is there evidence of scrutiny leading to improved outcomes?
• How does the ‘call-in’ process operate (where appliable). Is the council aware of how the number of call-ins compares to other similar sized councils – if it is a lot, does the council know why this is and whether any improvements to decision-making might be/ have been appropriate?
• How does the council ensure robust and effective governance and scrutiny of any council owned companies, commercial interests and/or investment strategies?

Statutory Officers

• What role do the statutory officers have in decision making= and supporting good governance?  Are they able to bring effective challenge and scrutiny to proposals at an appropriate stage?  Are there good officer-officer relationships?
• Do the statutory officers meet frequently to discuss actions to address governance risks and issues?  Do relationships between the three corporate roles enable appropriate mutual challenge? In their discussions, do they consult other senior officers, such as the Head of Internal Audit?
• Does the Section 151 Officer and Monitoring Officer attend Strategic Management Team meetings?
• How are the enhanced roles of statutory officers reflected in member and officer development programmes including new member induction?

Culture

• Is there a culture of respect, transparency and challenge? How is this reflected in practice?
• Are there staff led networks or other safe spaces for staff from protected groups to discuss equality issues?
• Do staff networks feel able to influence the organisation? What do protected groups of staff say about the culture of the organisation?
• What are the processes in place to address allegations such as harassment and bullying from colleagues, members and service users?

How are staff engaged with and listened to? How do internal communications operate?

• Does the council have a clear understanding of its financial position?
• Does the council have a strategy and a plan to address its financial challenges?
• What is the relative financial resilience of the council like?

Financial Planning

• Does the council have a clear understanding of its current financial position and the size of its financial challenge?
• Is there a robust process for reviewing and setting the budget – linked to priorities?
• How well does the council articulate its financial position? Does this reflect the reality of the organisation’s financial health?
• Has the council considered developments in the local economy, the impact of national and international forecasts and the effect of national policies such as the National Living Wage?
• Does the council have a strategy to address its challenge?
• Is there a credible plan to achieve and maintain sustainable and resilient finances?  Does it consider fully risk (eg equal pay), demand, savings, and income issues?
• How well do financial plans align? (Revenue budget, capital strategy, asset management strategy, workforce strategy, borrowing and investment plans)
• Is there a Plan B? Does the strategy rely upon the success of a high-stakes plan and are there sufficient contingencies for delays or sub-optimal delivery?
• Does the council’s financial plan look at the medium- and longer-term challenges as well as the immediate? 

Is the capital programme related to a clear and affordable forward projection of resources through the Capital Strategy and Treasury Management Strategy?

Financial Management and Oversight

• Are there effective budget monitoring arrangements?
• Is there a shared understanding of the situation which is owned by the organisation, including its political and managerial leaders?
• Are there effective governance and delivery arrangements for business as usual and for major projects and programmes?
• Are financial plans backed by business cases and delivery plans which identify the steps needed to achieve the desired outcomes?
• Is the scrutiny of financial decision making and delivery effective?
• Are the arrangements for managing and monitoring delivery fit for purpose?
• Does the organisation act decisively and in timely fashion to rectify matters when actuals diverge from budgets?
• Is financial reporting in general clear, with clear information on the decisions required and options available?
• How do the council’s levels of debt look in relation to its comparator authorities?

Risk

• Does the council have a clear and realistic approach to financial risk, which is neither too risk averse nor excessively bold? Has it set aside appropriate resources for the management and mitigation of risk and for financing unmanaged risks?  If the council is predicting that it will run out of resources in the future, what steps have been put in place to avoid this?
• Is the level of financial risk a council matched by its capacity to manage that risk? 

Audit 

• Does the council work positively with its Audit Committee and its internal and external auditors to ensure effective financial controls are in place and to address issues raised?
• Does the Head of Internal Audit have and use a direct route to the Chief Executive/ Strategic Management Team/ senior members to raise concerns

Commercial approaches/Investments

• Does the council have a current investment strategy? Has the council reviewed its investment strategy, supply chains and procurement models in the context of climate change impact?

Are new initiatives, including those involving significant investment, commercial risk and arm’s length delivery vehicles, subject to a robust business case and identification and management of risks? Does the council understand whether its investment and/ or commercial arrangements (independently and collectively) are within the norm?

• Does the council seek appropriately qualified independent advice to inform decision-making about complex commercial/ investment matters?

Is good practice (in relation to strategy, planning, reporting, risk management, governance, benefits realisation and delivery) applied to arm’s length bodies controlled by the council? Does the council have sufficient capacity and capability to undertake these activities?

• Is the organisation able to bring about the improvements it needs, including delivering on locally identified priorities?
• Does the council have the capacity to improve?

Delivery of Priorities

• Is the organisation confident of being able to support the delivery of local priorities?
• Are local priorities cascaded down to suppliers through the procurement process?
• Is the council confident that it can manage the size and complexity of their procurement portfolio, at least for their most important contracts?
• Are resources and skills aligned to those priorities?
• Do employees understand their role and where they fit within the organisation and its vision?
• Does the council have the knowledge, skills and experience to fulfil its priorities, performance and meet customer/client needs of local residents?
• Does the council know the current and future capability needs of its workforce?
• How effective is the council at managing its workforce through transparent employment practices and relevant employment law working effectively with employee representatives and Trade unions?
• Does the council have a positive working relationship between its leadership and its workforce? How effective is the council at being resolution-focused?
• Does the council use data effectively to inform its approach to organisational health & effective organisational decision-making?
• How effective is the council at managing pay, benefits, rewards and recognition?

Organisational Health

How is the overall organisational health of the council? What is the direction of travel of key indicators? e.g., staff satisfaction / morale, number of performance appraisals, sickness absence, grievance data, staff turnover data, senior management stability, succession planning, levels of grievances (particularly harassment and bullying cases)? 

• Does the council have a whistle blowing policy and does this include support for whistle blowers?
• How does the council communicate and engage with both its officers and members?
• How does the council develop its staff?
• How are managers trained and equipped to manage staff fairly and consistently? How are they trained in equality, diversity, and inclusion?
• How effective is the council at staff recruitment and retention?
• Does the council know it’s hard to fill / critical roles and the attrition rates for this over time?
• Does the council have succession and contingency plans to understand what talent exists within the organisation and the identification of individuals who are particularly valuable to the organisation?
• How many vacancies does the council? What are the hard to recruit to roles? What is the council’s agency/interim spend?
• Does the council have safe, healthy, positive workplaces and working practices that promote and support wellbeing; does the council manage sickness absence proactively?
• How does the council ensure their employees experience good mental and physical health at work so they are able to develop their potential, be productive and creative, build positive relationships with colleagues and customers, cope better with stressful situations and make more meaningful contributions?

Workforce demographics

• How (and to what extent) do workforce demographics profiles represent the community?
• How does the council support equality and inclusion? Are there established network groups? How is the council measuring equality gaps within the organisation (e.g., gender/ethnicity pay gaps, demographics at all levels of the organisation etc).  How does the council put in place plans to seek improvements?

Workforce Planning 

• Has the council got a Workforce Plan and how was this developed?
• How Is the council planning for the future and its future workforce needs?
• How is the council ensuring appropriate succession and scenario planning including the political and managerial leadership?

Values and Behaviours

• How does it feel to work at the council?
• How has the council developed and agreed established values and behaviours?
• How do staff and members know what the agreed values and behaviours are?  How are they engaged in these?  Do they feel the council genuinely lives these values?  How does the council ensure that there are measures or plans in place to demonstrate that?
• How effective is the council at using employee engagement and employee communication to motivate and encouraged staff to give of their best (high morale and increased discretionary effort)?

Transformation and Change

• How effective is the council at managing productivity and performance?
• Does the council take an OD&D approach to improving workforce performance?
• How is change and transformation led and managed?
• How does the council ensure that it has the capacity to improve?
• What are the key areas for development / capacity for improvement challenges? e.g., workforce and Organisational Development, digital and data, project and contract management, assets, commissioning and procurement, equality and diversity, communications, systems and processes?
• How did the council approach the return to the workplace (post pandemic) including the impact of any new ways of working on services and organisational culture?

Organisational Learning 

• How does the council adapt and learn? Is the council agile and able to pivot?
• How Is innovation encouraged and supported?
• How has the council learned from its response to Covid-19? What has been the learning for the organisation’s future capabilities and practice?
• Does the council have the right culture, defined through embedded values, behaviours, and effective working relationships?
• Does the council understand its current culture state and is it working towards a new desired future culture?

Role of peers in meetings and sessions

Peers normally work in pairs to facilitate meetings. Meetings should provide an opportunity for discussion, which explores issues, as much as evidence gathering.

Peer team members allocated to a particular meeting or session are responsible for:

• Starting and finishing the session on time – it’s often helpful to finish early to allow some time to digest what you’ve heard
• Leading the discussion and questioning – it’s helpful to have a short discussion with your peer partner in advance to agree who is opening, asking the first questions, lines of enquiry, etc
• Making some key notes after each meeting / session of the main issues / insights / comments / questions / quotes – these are typically added as physical or virtual (Slido) post-it notes. Each post-it should cover one observation and include the source of that observation and your initials.

Tips for facilitating meetings and group sessions

Meetings are not formal interviews but an opportunity to discuss topics, gather evidence and explore issues. At times, focus groups or larger meetings will be the most productive way to gather the views of a wide range of people. 

At the beginning of each meeting or focus group, introduce yourself and other peers. Then invite the person(s) you are meeting with to introduce themselves. Briefly outline the peer challenge process, and explain that:

• We are there at the request of the council and that it is a voluntary process
• We are gathering the views of a wide range of people (members, officers, delivery partners and other stakeholders).
• We are part of a team with experience of local government and the voluntary sector
• Peers are ‘critical friends’, looking at both the organisation’s strengths and areas for development
• The process relies on people being open and honest about what the council is good at, what it needs to improve and the challenges that need to be addressed
• Information we collate from our discussions is non-attributable to individuals. But it will help us to form our feedback to the council at the end of the peer challenge. If people recognise issues that they have raised in the feedback, they can be assured it will be something that has also been identified from other meetings and sources.  All findings presented to the council will have been triangulated. 

At the end of the meeting / session:

• Ask if the person(s) you have met with have any questions they would like to ask or anything that they wish to add
• Thank them for their time and their openness and honesty
• Advise them of the next steps, i.e. informal feedback will be provided to the council on the final day and will be followed up with a written report shortly after
• Do not mention in any meeting comments made by named interviewees during the challenge (i.e. remember the non-attributable ground rule).

Group meetings

The following provides some specific suggestions for conducting focus groups / larger group meetings (off or online). The information below is provided as a guide – it is not prescriptive, and you should feel able to take the focus of the discussions wherever you feel is appropriate. 

Introduce the peer challenge team (see above) and ask each of the participants to quickly introduce themselves. 

Opening up discussions: 

• While you will have several specific themes to explore, it is often best to start a focus group with an open question exercise (either people in turn, or in small groups or using Zoom chat function if online) e.g. Highlight a key strength and area for improvement in relation to the theme under discussion

During the focus group: 

• It usual for some of the themes you had set out to explore will arise during the initial discussion and feedback from the open question exercise above.  Remember to ask for examples that illustrate what people are telling you.
• Check that all participants have an opportunity to contribute to the discussion.
• It can be helpful to close the session by asking each participant to write on a post-it note one recommendation they would make to the council if they were a member of the peer challenge team

Recording information and triangulating findings 

Typically, you will have flip chart paper on the walls of the council base room – one for each of the five core themes plus any other additional topics agreed with the council. Post-it notes are often used as a way of recording the key and most salient points from meetings. They can then be stuck on the most relevant flip chart. Each post-it should cover one finding / observation (and include the meeting source of that observation and your initials). Some peer challenge managers prefer virtual post-it notes using Slido – the Peer Challenge Manager will discuss this with you if they are using this method.

The timetable will include two to three peer team sessions during each day. These sessions are an opportunity to:

• Share key points from meetings to date
• Discuss, as a team, future questions / lines of enquiry in forthcoming sessions
• Challenge and test initial messages
• Ensure that emerging feedback is evidenced and triangulated

In addition, at the end of each day, there will be a catch-up meeting with the chief executive and leader. Typically, the lead officer peer, lead member peer and PCM will attend this meeting. The purpose of these sessions is to keep them informed of emerging messages throughout the process. In doing this it is important to stress that observations are being shared on an informal and confidential basis. Not all feedback will be fully evidenced until the final day. All findings need to be triangulated; some initial messages may not feature in the final feedback from the peer team.