Corporate Peer Challenge: Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council

Redcar and Cleveland is an attractive place with huge potential and many opportunities. The area enjoys beautiful rolling countryside, an attractive coastline and there is nearly £6 billion of investment coming in. 

Residents, elected members, staff, and strategic partners have a sound knowledge of the local place and its context, and they are playing an active part in its development. There is clear affinity to Redcar and Cleveland among stakeholders with a strong desire to see improvements across the board.

The potential of these assets and strengths needs to be maximised by profiling, promoting and celebrating them. At present it is difficult to understand the Redcar and Cleveland story. There are a lot of strategies in place and the council has outlined its vision for the area in its corporate plan, but a strong sense of identity for the place and passion about its future should be further strengthened.

This can be done by developing a strong narrative for Redcar and Cleveland through a compelling shared vision and strategy for the future. This means working with key stakeholders to map out how the area needs to be developed, the kind of economy the area wants to foster, and the outcomes people can expect to see in the short, medium, and long terms. This story should then be communicated through simple messaging about how it will impact on residents, partners, and businesses so they can understand what their responsibilities are and how they fit into its future. 

The council has a visible and valued leader who is respected for providing strong and active political leadership in the borough. People speak very highly about the commitment, resilience and energy she brings to her role. This political leadership is complemented by a dedicated and committed team of senior managers and staff who are committed to the borough and positive about the future.

Elected members at Redcar and Cleveland Council are committed, engaged, and embedded in their local communities. This member capacity can be further utilised by providing more structured support to them in their roles and meeting their skills and development needs through a structured and managed member awareness and development programme. They have the potential to provide more active and consistent political and community leadership and become forceful ambassadors for the area with the right kind of educational development.

The council enjoys good relationships with its strategic partners and has established solid links into the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA), South Tees Development Corporation, Teesworks and the Redcar Town Deal Board.  Going forward, and to maximise the opportunities for Redcar and Cleveland, the council should ensure that its strategic intent for the area is better aligned with these and other regional and sub-regional structures so that it can both influence investment decisions and position itself to benefit from them.

The council has an ambitious capital programme with large regeneration schemes in place. However, it lacks an overall strategy on how these schemes link together and fit into the overall vision for the area. This approach comes across as opportunistic and reactive rather than planned and strategic - thereby creating confusion among key stakeholders about the council’s strategic intent and the long-term ambitions for the area. A more strategically aligned and planned approach to regeneration and economic growth (financed through the capital programme) for the area is needed.

The council’s finances are stabilising and improving, however funding variables and future financial pressures due to increasing demand, revenue implications of capital schemes, and financial uncertainties will need to be analysed in the development of the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) to address future financial pressures in a timely sustainable way. This should include the modelling of alternative scenarios to fully understand and reflect the impact of variables and build these into the MTFS.

The council is widely recognised as having dealt with the concurrent cyber-attack and the COVID pandemic in a professional and effective way. It has learned valuable lessons and has “locked good practice” to help the organisation move forward. Council staff are particularly appreciative of the way the managing director communicated with them and helped stabilise the organisation at a critical time. The organisation has also accelerated its use of modern technologies, developed flexible ways of working, and fostered more collaborative working between directorates and partner organisations. 

There are now opportunities for the council to build on these improvements further as it moves into the post-cyber and pandemic ‘new normal’.  It will be important to ensure that internal management processes, such as performance management, equalities, diversity and inclusion policies, staff appraisals, etc, and the general culture of the organisation are further developed and geared to the emerging opportunities and challenges of the organisation to enable it to effectively deploy its capacity and maximise its potential.

There are a number of observations and suggestions within the main section of the report for the council to consider. The following are the peer team’s key recommendations to the council:

Recommendation 1

Develop a compelling narrative, a shared vision, agreed priorities and regeneration & economic growth plans for Redcar and Cleveland and communicate these widely.

This will help set the strategic agenda and enable staff, partners and residents to visualise the future and their place within it. It will also assist in influencing the alignment of external investment decisions to the key priorities of the council.

Recommendation 2

Systematically deliver and track progress against these priorities and plans to ensure they deliver real impact to local communities.

This will give members and senior management a better grip on delivery, progress and the outcomes being achieved so that they can demonstrate the return on investment to key stakeholders.

Recommendation 3

Maximise the opportunities and potential of strategic partners and regional and sub-regional structures by aligning priorities.

This will help to boost and utilise the resources and capacity of all stakeholders because they will all be working to the same or similar priorities and objectives.

Recommendation 4

Maximise member and officer capacity through educational and skills development and develop a ‘one council’ organisational culture.

This will help to maximise the resources, expertise, and capacity of the whole organisation, so that it is pulling in the same direction to deliver the same priorities on behalf of the residents of Redcar and Cleveland.

​​​​​​​Recommendation 5

Further develop some of the necessary management processes to ensure the council is maximising its potential and effectively deploying its capacity.

There is potential for the council to further develop and finetune its management processes so that it can make timely evidence-based decisions, maximise its resources, and demonstrate achievements.

​​​​​​​Recommendation 6

Use scenario planning when developing the Medium-Term Financial Strategy to consider the options because of uncertainties over future funding arrangements.

This will enable the council to fully understand and reflect the impact of variables and ensure a robust strategy going forward that is not overly reliant on aspirational income.

​​​​​​​Recommendation 7

Further embed its approach to developing the capital pipeline to ensure that all additions are evidence-based, fully considering the revenue (debt funding and operational) costs.

This will help mitigate against consequential revenue implications that could place a substantial additional burden on the revenue budget.

2.1 The peer team

Peer challenges are delivered by experienced elected member and officer peers. The make-up of the peer team reflected the focus of the peer challenge and peers were selected on the basis of their relevant expertise. The peers were:

• Dwayne Johnson - (Chief Executive at Sefton Council)
• Mayor Dave Hodgson - (Elected Mayor at Bedford Borough Council)
• Councillor John Kent - (Former Leader at Thurrock Council)
• Nicola Monk - (Corporate Director for Inclusive Economy at Luton Council)
• Andrew Hardingham - (Finance Improvement & Sustainability Adviser, LGA)
• Jessica Madden (Shadow Peer) - (Policy Officer (Equality) at North Tyneside Council)
• Satvinder Rana - (Programme Manager, LGA)

2.2 Scope and focus

Peer challenges are improvement-focussed and tailored to meet a council’s needs. They are designed to complement and add value to a council’s own performance and improvement focus. 

The peers used their experience and knowledge of local government to reflect on the information presented to them by people they met, things they saw and material that they read. 

The team provide feedback as critical friends, not as assessors, consultants or inspectors. 

The peer team considered the following five themes which form the core components of all Corporate Peer Challenges. These areas are critical to councils’ 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? 
2. Organisational and place leadership - Does the council provide effective local leadership? Are there good relationships with partner organisations and local communities?
3. Governance and culture - Are there clear and robust governance arrangements? Is there a culture of challenge and scrutiny?
4. Financial planning and management - Does the council have a grip on its current financial position? Does the council have a strategy and a plan to address its financial challenges?
5. Capacity for improvement - Is the organisation able to support delivery of local priorities? Does the council have the capacity to improve?

In addition to these questions, the council asked the peer team to provide feedback on ‘how well is the council maximising the current and future economic opportunities that exist for the economic and community benefit of all its residents, and how well positioned/resilient is the council in order to continue to make progress?’

The peer team has covered this within the main body of the report and has offered some concluding observations in section 4.6.

2.3 The peer challenge process

Peer challenges are improvement focused; it is important to stress that this was not an inspection. The process is not designed to provide an in-depth or technical assessment of plans and proposals. The peer team used their experience and knowledge of local government to reflect on the information presented to them by people they met, things they saw and material that they read.

The peer team prepared by reviewing a range of documents and information in order to ensure they were familiar with the council and the challenges it is facing. The team then spent four days onsite at Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, during which they:

• Gathered information and views from around 48 meetings, in addition to further research and reading.
• Spoke to around 100 people including a range of council staff together with members and external stakeholders.

This report provides a summary of the peer team’s findings. In presenting feedback, they have done so as fellow local government officers and members.

3.1 Local priorities and outcomes

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council is an ambitious council with clear commitment to tackling climate change, enhancing prosperity, regenerating the borough, meeting residents’ needs, and achieving financial sustainability. These priorities are articulated in the council’s corporate plan with members and staff signed up to them. Elected members, staff and strategic partners all have a sound knowledge of the local place and its context and are clear about the need to regenerate the local economy and bring in well-paid jobs.  There is clear affinity among key stakeholders to Redcar and Cleveland with a strong desire to see improvements across the board – “you can sense the raising of spirit, optimism and aspiration locally”.

However, the borough’s identity, the opportunities the area offers for economic growth, and its unique selling point need to be better articulated at a political and managerial level to help leverage partner capacity and attract inward investment. The council can do further work with its strategic stakeholders to develop the Redcar and Cleveland story and articulate it into a strong narrative through a compelling shared vision and strategy for the future. This means agreeing on the type of economy Redcar and Cleveland is vying for (i.e. should it be a tourist economy, an industrial economy, a mixed economy, etc); being clear about plans for the future of Redcar as well as other towns centres, villages and neighbourhoods; and clarifying what needs to be done to achieve those ambitions in terms of land use, investment in infrastructure, skills, etc.   

This should then be communicated through simple messaging about how it will impact on residents, partners, businesses, and staff so that everybody understands how they fit into its future, what their responsibilities might be, and what outcomes they can expect. Currently there are a lot of strategies and programmes in place but that strong sense of identity for the place, Redcar and Cleveland’s unique selling points and assets, and the local passion for its future can be strengthened.

Relationships with strategic partners are positive and they are generally supportive of the council’s ambitions, though they were unclear about what the council was trying to achieve in the long-term. This came out strongly with people the peer team met. By better defining these ambitions in terms of desired outcomes and under-pinning them by a vision and narrative that is clearly understood by residents, partners and staff, these partnerships can be strengthened even further, and their capacity leveraged to deliver against those ambitions.

The council has a big regeneration programme with schemes such as the new swimming provision, The Regent, railways station, improvements to Redcar town centre to connect it seamlessly to the coastline, etc are all in the pipeline. It has been successful in attracting grants and external funding, including the Redcar Town Deal, the Loftus Future High Street Fund and the £20 million TVCA Welcome to Redcar & Cleveland Fund through the Tees Valley Combined Authority.  However, what is not clearly coming out is an understanding of how all the projects fit into the bigger plans for Redcar and Cleveland and what outcomes they will bring to the area and its residents.

It appears that the council has been chasing the money and developing schemes to fulfil funding criteria rather than developing schemes it wants and needs and then pursuing grant funding opportunities. Whilst there is nothing wrong in chasing the money, the approach does come across as opportunistic and reactive, particularly if the organisation is retro-fitting business cases to ad-hoc development projects outside of the strategic context. This has the potential to generate confusion among key stakeholders about the council’s strategic intent and the long-term ambitions for the area.

Going forward, the peer team think the agreed priorities of the council needs a systematic process for delivery and a robust corporate performance management framework to track progress. This will call for the priorities and actions in the corporate plan to be underpinned by visible targets, identified resources, and key milestones to track progress. It also means making better use of analytics and quality data in decision making processes to ensure that strategic decisions are based on evidence and not reactive to external pressures.  

3.2 Organisational and place leadership

The council has effective political and managerial leadership in place. It has a visible and valued leader who is respected for providing strong and active political leadership in the borough. People speak very highly about the commitment, resilience, and energy she brings to her role, especially her active involvement in regional and sub-regional forums for the benefit of Redcar and Cleveland. This political leadership is complemented by a dedicated and committed cadre of senior managers and staff who are committed to the borough and positive about the future.

Whilst other cabinet members are committed, engaged and embedded in their local communities, they do have the potential to play a greater role of distributed leadership in the delivery of the council’s ambitions. This calls for a more active and outward facing leadership role in discharging their portfolio responsibilities and acting as ambassadors for Redcar and Cleveland in external forums. To do this, cabinet members will need further officer support, better training through a robust member awareness and development programme that incorporates induction training, external mentoring for new portfolio holders, corporate governance, leadership skills, equality, diversity and inclusion, chairing skills, decision making, and communication – some of which should be mandatory for all members. Member attendance at training is an issue in the council and this should be addressed, including by the council’s political groups. Learning from other councils about incentives for attendance and sanctions against non-attendance might be helpful – particularly for mandatory training.

Place leadership is about providing clear and consistent messaging, engagement and communication to residents, businesses, and strategic partners about the future of Redcar and Cleveland. Getting this right will help to consolidate the council’s place leadership role and secure buy-in to its ambitions and priorities. There is work to be done to get a clear message out - particularly about the future, the kind of outcomes that people can expect, and Redcar and Cleveland’s positioning in the region and sub-region. The council already has in place the mechanisms to reach out to residents and businesses through the five parish and town councils, Neighbourhood Action Partnerships, the resident’s magazine, social media, newsletters, viewfinder panel, resident’s survey, etc and these can be used to share and engage people in the Redcar and Cleveland story and its key messages.

Getting this messaging, engagement and communication right can also help to influence and align the investment propositions of strategic partners with the council’s ambitions for Redcar and Cleveland. If the council has a compelling narrative and a shared vision for where the local area wants to be it makes it much more attractive for strategic partners such as the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA), South Tees Development Corporation, Teesworks, Redcar Town Deal Board and other such regional and sub-regional forums to align themselves and their land and investment propositions to that vision.

The council has an energetic and committed growth team with a series of regeneration projects in the pipeline. However, these projects do seem to have been developed in an ad-hoc manner and retrofitted to meet external funding criteria rather than an agreed and shared strategic plan for the borough or its communities. Therefore, there is a need for an overarching regeneration and an economic growth plan for the borough which may include skills, homes, jobs, transport, and digital connectivity, etc. This is essential and critical if the council wishes to grasp emerging opportunities to develop the area and its economy in a sustainable way for the future.

Furthermore, with the kind of opportunities for growth and regeneration that might be coming to the area from private enterprise and the Government’s ‘Levelling Up’ programme, there is now a need for dedicated senior managerial leadership in this area to give focus and provide additional strategic capacity. 

3.3 Governance and culture

Key governance structures are in place in Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council. The council’s administration is a partnership between two political groups and is held together by the ‘Partnership Agreement’.  This agreement is an amalgamation of the manifesto commitments of the two groups and forms the basis of the council’s core priorities. The cabinet has participated in facilitated team building and development sessions and these should be repeated periodically.

Scrutiny is provided through the Scrutiny and Improvement Committees. Scrutiny actively supports policy development through a process of considering all proposals and decisions pre-cabinet. Opposition members have been allocated chairing positions on Scrutiny and Improvement Committees and portfolio holders take responsibility to present reports to both cabinet and Scrutiny and Improvement Committees. These are all positive and should be commended. However, the peer team felt there was a lack of evidence of consistent challenge within this process. Scrutiny and Improvement Committee agendas appear to be weighed down by routine reports thereby offering little space for Scrutiny and Improvement Committees to develop a work programme that enabled scrutiny to challenge service performance, engage with the public, or challenge and scrutinise public services on behalf of residents. The council should ensure that the process of taking everything to Scrutiny and Improvement Committees before it reaches cabinet does not slow down decision-making. 

To ensure rigour and make scrutiny more meaningful, the peer team would suggest that the forward work programme for the Scrutiny and Improvement Committees is further developed to enable them to not only participate in policy making in the council, but also to engage with the public to challenge and scrutinise the council’s services and performance, as well as the services and performance of the wider public sector on behalf of residents. This could build on the use of scrutiny task and finish groups to look in depth at issues through commissions and deep dives around the council’s priorities for the area and its residents.

Member-officer relationships are generally mature and open, and they work well together. Nevertheless, there is further work that can be done in some areas to ensure political consistency and to maintain these good relationships. The peer team heard of frustrations among members in getting timely responses to member queries, and officers shared examples of members getting involved in operational issues and micro-managing them outside the line management processes. These issues can be ironed out through greater clarity of roles and responsibilities of members and officers, a corporate system of receiving and responding to member queries in a co-ordinated and timely manner, and perhaps some joint member-officer development.

The council is widely recognised as having dealt with the concurrent cyber-attack and the COVID pandemic in a professional and effective way. It was a particularly challenging time for Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council because the cyber-attack compromised its IT systems and the pandemic that followed soon after required it to maximise its use of IT. Nevertheless, the council did very well in dealing with these challenges and kept essential services running. It has learned valuable lessons and has been able to “lock-in good practice” - which is commendable. 

The council is coming out of these challenges with an improved organisational culture and a sense of positivity among staff which should embed into the organisation over time. Council staff are particularly appreciative of the way the managing director communicated with them and helped stabilise the organisation during these critical times. Senior management style has changed recently and is now considered by staff to be supportive, collegiate, collaborative, safe and calm – making Redcar and Cleveland Council a “humane place to work”.

The council has accelerated its use of modern technologies, developed flexible ways of working, and empowered staff to take decisions at the point of service delivery.  There are now opportunities to build on these improvements further as the council moves into the post-cyber-attack and post-pandemic ‘new normal’. It will be important to ensure that internal management processes, such as performance management, equalities, diversity and inclusion policies, staff appraisals, etc, and the general culture of the organisation are further developed and geared to the emerging opportunities and challenges of the organisation to enable it to effectively deploy its capacity and maximise its potential.

Going forward, the peer team would like to highlight that the flat and autonomous senior leadership and organisational ethos being promoted is collegiate, but at the same time it does have the potential risk of creating three siloed organisations, each with their own systems, cultures, and outcomes. There are already signs of some of this happening with each directorate having its own communications functions, performance management arrangements, etc. This can, over time, mushroom into separate priorities and management / decision making processes, thus weakening corporate control and oversight in the organisation.  For high performing organisations it is important to ensure and demonstrate that everything is aligned with corporate priorities through a strong strategic ‘golden thread’ and that corporate line of sight on delivery is strong with senior managers championing and taking responsibility for the delivery of all corporate objectives.

There is an appetite among staff to have greater engagement with senior management in delivering strategic priorities. Staff were appreciative of the two-way communication in the council but felt they could contribute more to strategic thinking. This can be achieved by putting in place cross directorate officer working groups/project groups to find solutions to corporate issues and lead on corporate initiatives. This could be complemented further by re-stablishing the staff and managers conferences to enable staff to come together (albeit virtually for the time being) for briefings, team building, celebrating successes, and reaffirming corporate priorities.

Work on ensuring equality and diversity in employment and service delivery has recently been identified as an area which needs more focus across the council.  Concerted effort, focus and resources are needed to ensure that at least the basics are in place and that a culture of equality and diversity is developed and embedded across the organisation. This should include ensuring that equality is systematically considered in decision making to the benefit of staff and residents. This will call for the strengthening of the necessary policies, procedures and training; equality objectives to be built into service plans; initiatives championed by senior management; and progress against targets monitored through the corporate performance management framework. The peer team was pleased to note that a senior level team has been established to adopt and develop the Equalities Framework for Local Government.

There are, therefore, some key management processes that need further developing and embedding into the organisation if it is to move to the next level. For example:

1. A much clearer and integrated strategic planning process that aligns the corporate plan with the financial plan, service plans, team plans and the employee appraisals process – all backed up with analytics and data.
2. A robust performance management framework that tracks progress against corporate priorities through SMART and ambitious targets for the outcomes the council wants to achieve and provides a clear line of sight on progress to senior management and cabinet through an easy to digest dashboard and traffic light system.
3. A centralised system for receiving, fielding, and responding to member enquiries and Freedom of Information requests
4. Ensuring the front office customer interface is effective and in line with the council’s customer care commitments, and that this includes digital communication, engagement, and transactions in addition to face to face interactions.

Getting these in place and strengthening existing management processes can provide some quick wins for the organisation.

3.4 Financial planning and management

The council’s financial position is stable although savings are required to balance the MTFS going forward.  The council was able to add £13 million to balances at the end of 2020/21, addressing concerns raised by the external auditors in the previous two years that reserve levels had been too low. This was underpinned by one of the council’s top 12 commitments regarding a focus on financial resilience and sustainability, and achieved through a mixture of planned replenishment, efficient management of COVID funding streams, and application of the government grant the council worked hard to secure in support of costs incurred due to the cyber-attack. 

The council is carrying a deficit of £2.7 million in relation to the High Needs Block (HNB) of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), which is forecast to reduce at the end of March 2022 to £1.9 million. The council should consider earmarking some of the 2020/21 additional balances to cover the eventuality of a potential write-off should the Government support not be forthcoming.

The budget for 2021/22 requires a relatively low level of savings at around £2.086 million. However, some of the savings in relation to children’s services remain at risk of being delivered. The outturn is forecast to break-even after the application of £4.5 million of COVID funding. Any underlying structural issue in terms of on-going pressure will need to be addressed in the development of the new MTFS from 2022/23 on top of planned savings of £2.683 million.

Concerns have been raised over the relatively high level of debt held and the associated financing costs, representing approximately 19 per cent of net revenue expenditure. However, it should be noted that this includes £8.5 million in relation to PFI (Private Finance Initiative) financing which the council is unable to “buy” out. The council has been prudent in not following a commercial investment strategy and is therefore not exposed to undue rent and interest income loss or asset value risk.

The council has an ambitious capital programme, and the core programme is largely driven by the regeneration agenda. Some schemes appear to be added in an ad-hoc way. The review mechanism allowing for the programme to be flexed within the existing envelope, and for the consideration of consequential revenue implications, should be more transparent so that it could be more clearly understood. Historic debt costs are relatively high and will continue to rise because of the ambitious capital programme. If the capital programme is delivered as planned the council will need to borrow an additional £40-£50 million to fund the work, thus placing an additional burden on the revenue budget.

Despite high levels of uncertainty regarding local government funding and the status of the Fair Funding and Business Rates reviews, the council is starting to develop a new five-year MTFS. Initial plans suggest a funding gap in year two, with the later years dependent on business rates income from Teesworks.

As part of this, the council needs to model alternative scenarios to fully understand and reflect the impact of variables such as pay and price inflation, changes to the benefits system, revenue implications of capital expenditure, and business rate structure and income as well as to ensure a robust strategy going forward that is not overly reliant on the aspirational business rates income. In developing the MTFS the council should be mindful that there is scope for savings or investing in transformation that would reduce reliance on reserves for meeting the budget gap.  

The council has a Governance Committee which meets regularly to consider issues such as internal audit reports, risk management, treasury management alongside the statutory requirement in relation to the annual statement of accounts. Cabinet and senior management should continue to take corporate responsibility for the budget and ensure a robust management process is put in place to ensure cabinet and the senior management team have oversight and ownership of all emerging risks and any proposed mitigating measures.

In terms of officer capacity, consideration needs to be given to bringing in additional expertise to ensure the finance service is future-proofed. This will be even more critical as the council moves forward with its ambitious long-term regeneration and economic growth plans for the area.

3.5 Capacity for improvement

Externally, the existing and emerging regional, sub-regional and local architecture is complex. The roles and responsibilities of the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA), South Tees Development Corporation, Teesworks and the Redcar Town Deal as well as the structures that might emerge from the Government’s ‘Levelling Up’ programme will call for an in-depth understanding of how this architecture works and fits together if the council is to position its capacity where it can make the most impact. This understanding needs to be developed beyond the leader and the managing director so that cabinet members, senior/middle managers, and partners all understand how things work and where opportunities might lay.

To develop borough-wide capacity to make Redcar and Cleveland more attractive to potential employers, the peer team would recommend that the council:

1. Review the use of training and employment hubs to ensure they target the skills needs of the emerging economy; and ensure the skills strategy of the council is shared and developed further with strategic partners. The council’s skills strategy is impressive but there was a lack of awareness about it, particularly among some partners.
2. Harness the opportunity of the green skills academy and wider skills pipeline to provide a diversly skilled workforce to attract a wider cadre of investors and potential employers offering a diverse range of high-quality jobs in the area.
3. Consider developing a concerted programme of support to existing and new Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), particularly around net-zero carbon, connectivity, skills etc. This will ensure that existing SMEs are not forgotten and can flourish at the same time as attracting and embedding new SMEs to the area.
4. Develop a medium to long-term benefit analysis for the area of the big development projects such as Wilton International Enterprise Zone, Teeside International Airport, Tees Valley Combined Authority infrastructure programmes, Teesworks, Freeport, etc. This will enable the council to ensure that its strategic intent for the area is aligned with these and other regional and sub-regional structures.  

Internally, in line with many other councils, the council’s capacity is stretched – particularly at director level. A robust workforce strategy therefore needs to be implemented to ensure that the right capacity is in the right places at the right time to deliver the ambitions of the council. This may also call for a review of senior management capacity and back-office functions such as procurement, business intelligence, and commercial skills to help place the council in a stronger position to deliver its ambitions going forward.

Aligned to a workforce strategy the council should also develop and put in place a council-wide transformational plan that can help to embed new ways of working, improve the digital offer to self-serve, and deliver future savings.

3.6 Specific area of focus

In order to maximise the current and future economic opportunities for the benefit all residents, build resilience, and position the council to enable it to continue to make progress, several suggestions have been made throughout the report around the need for an overall vision for the area; the need for a more strategic and planned approach to regeneration and economic growth; the need for strategic alignment with the regional and sub-regional architecture; and the need for greater clarity about the outcomes to be achieved. In addition, the peer team would suggest the council consider the following actions:

1. Look at the development, growth potential and sustainability of all town centres, villages and neighbourhoods in the borough so that they are aspirational places where people are keen to live, shop, and spend their leisure time.
2. Support the skills and qualifications of all the potential workforce in the borough - including the mature and aging workforce.
3. Facilitate connected transport networks so that people from across the borough can move around easily to take up employment opportunities.
4. Maximise the economic potential of the local health system as a major local employer and through the Health and Wellbeing Board work with them to develop and deliver integrated services.
5. Be at the cutting edge of green technology and green skills development to provide growth opportunities and deliver against the council’s climate change objectives.
6. Further develop and promote the overall visitor economy, particularly in relation to maximising the borough’s landscape and seascape assets.

You can find the council's published report on their website.

It is recognised that senior political and managerial leadership will want to consider, discuss, and reflect on these findings.

Both the peer team and the LGA are keen to build on the relationships formed through the peer challenge. The CPC process includes a six-month check-in meeting. This will be a short, facilitated session which creates space for the council’s senior leadership to update peers on its progress against the action plan and discuss next steps. 

In the meantime, Mark Edgell, Principal Adviser for East Midlands, Yorkshire & Humber and North East, is the main contact between Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council and the Local Government Association. Mark is available to discuss any further support the council requires. His contact details are: [email protected] Tel: 07747 636 910

Satvinder Rana

Programme Manager

(On behalf of the peer challenge team)