LGA Corporate Peer Challenge: Tandridge District Council

Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) is a highly valued improvement and assurance tool that is delivered by the sector for the sector. It involves a team of senior local government councillors and officers undertaking a comprehensive review of key finance, performance and governance information and then spending three days at Tandridge District Council to provide robust, strategic, and credible challenge and support.

CPC forms a key part of the improvement and assurance framework for local government. It is underpinned by the principles of Sector-led Improvement (SLI) put in place by councils and the Local Government Association (LGA) to support continuous improvement and assurance across the sector. These state that local authorities are: Responsible for their own performance, Accountable locally not nationally and have a collective responsibility for the performance of the sector.

CPC assists councils in meeting part of their Best Value duty, with the UK Government expecting all local authorities to have a CPC at least every five years.

Peers remain at the heart of the peer challenge process and provide a ‘practitioner perspective’ and ‘critical friend’ challenge.

This report outlines the key findings of the peer team and the recommendations that the council are required to action.

Tandridge council, a small district council with a population of approximately 88,000, is situated in an area where 94 per cent of the land is classified as green belt, the highest percentage in the country. Around 16 per cent of the district is designated as a National Landscape. Historically a Conservative stronghold until May 2019, the council has been under no overall control since then, managed by a minority Residents’ Alliance administration. The council’s political composition is 20 Residents’ Alliance, 11 Liberal Democrats, 7 Conservatives, and 5 Independent Group councillors. The council usually elects in thirds, but the most recent election in May 2024 was an all-out election with 15 new councillors elected out of 43.. The next local election is scheduled for 2026. The current leader has been in the role since May 2021, and the chief executive joined in June 2021. Both stepped into their roles during a challenging period for the council.

Elected members and staff demonstrate a strong commitment to the council and its residents. Since 2021, the council has focused on resident needs and financial stability, avoiding a section 114 notice and reducing reliance on reserves through significant savings over the past four years. A new corporate plan prioritises protecting greenbelt land, delivering affordable housing, and maintaining high-quality statutory services to ensure financial stability. The plan also emphasises strengthening community leadership and responsiveness to resident needs.

However the peer team identified the need to develop a long-term vision for Tandridge the place, by working with the community and a wider range of partners. The establishment of a Tandridge Leaders Board bringing together public, private and community partners to work on shared priorities should be considered to strengthen the council’s important place leadership role.

Performance monitoring is inconsistent, with no systematic approach to data collection and action. Improved benchmarking and greater attention to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) is also necessary. Political leadership is energetic and community-focused, but the leader's style is sometimes perceived as unreasonable, with members overly involved in operations. This involvement stems from a perceived lack of responsiveness and communication from officers who have limited capacity. Clear service delivery standards and timescales need to be established with members to manage their expectations.

Since the new chief executive's arrival, staff morale has improved, evidenced by improved staff survey results. However, the peer team heard from members more energy, visibility, and urgency is needed. Recent senior leadership appointments have positively impacted the council, fostering good relationships and effective communication. The peer team also heard that staff are committed and hardworking and the organisation runs on good will, with many officers consistently working out of normal office hours.

Despite political challenges, there is a collective desire among officers and members to develop a collaborative working relationship based on trust and respect. Clearer roles and responsibilities are needed to build a cohesive leadership team and continue to improve organisational culture. The council has a positive relationship with its council neighbours, although some see it as lacking ambition. The council heard that the current shared service arrangements in place are mostly working well. There is an opportunity to build on this experience and knowledge and explore further opportunities to share services with neighbouring authorities to increase the capacity and resilience of the organisation. Community partners view the council positively (the business awards were particularly welcomed) and are keen to explore where shared priorities can be delivered together.

The council's focus on planning has sidelined other services. The Planning Inspectorate found the Local Plan unsound. Therefore the council is currently operating using its adopted development plan of the Tandridge District Core Strategy 2008, the Tandridge Local Plan Part 2: Detailed policies 2014 - 2029, the Tatsfield Neighbourhood Plan 2024, the Caterham, Chaldon and Whyteleafe Neighbourhood Plan 2021. the Limpsfield Neighbourhood Plan 2019, the Woldingham Neighbourhood Plan 2016 and the Surrey Waste and Minerals Plan. The planning service is under significant pressure, requiring urgent attention and a reduction in costly interim consultants. A clear definition of officer and member roles to enhance service delivery and develop a new Local Plan is urgently needed.

Member development is crucial for good governance, yet the current training budget is insufficient, and engagement is inconsistent. The audit committee needs training to improve its understanding and effectiveness.

Internal audit capacity is limited, though the recent opinion showed 'reasonable assurance.' The council needs to improve its approach to managing the audit process and relationship with external audit The council has made significant progress in financial sustainability, delivering £6 million in savings over four years. Reserves have stabilised, with a £1.1 million 'smoothing' reserve in place. However, finance remains overstretched and under-resourced with a £2 million funding gap over the next two years. A transformation programme has been developed to address this; however it needs to be prioritised and aligned with the council’s MTFS (medium term financial strategy), so it is resourced appropriately and deliverable. The financial risks of not having a Local Plan and the associated increase in planning appeals and enforcement cases need mitigation.

Organisational development capacity is overstretched, and a clear workforce strategy is needed to address recruitment and retention challenges. The council should capitalise on being 30 minutes from Clapham Junction, which is accessible to a wide catchment area across the South East as well as explore apprenticeship programmes as one way of addressing its recruitment challenge. Hybrid working needs to be consistently implemented and can also help to attract a high calibre of staff. Communications was praised at the council with staff feeling informed. Streamlining processes, reducing duplication, and enhancing the use of data and insight can improve productivity, increase capacity and enhance decision-making.

The council faces numerous challenges but demonstrates a strong commitment to serving its residents. Clearer long-term vision, enhanced performance monitoring, improved member development, and strategic financial planning are critical. By addressing these areas, the council can build a more collaborative, high-performing organisation that effectively meets the needs of its community.

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

Recommendation 1: Collaborative Political and Managerial Leadership
Invest urgently in creating a more collaborative, political and managerial shared leadership team. This includes creating space for this leadership team to come together to think strategically, horizon scan and identify issues earlier.

Recommendation 2: Statutory Officers 
Foster a more collaborative relationship between the three statutory officers so that they work together as a team as set out in the Best Value Statutory Guidance.

Recommendation 3: Corporate Narrative 
Develop a clear vision for the place, building on the foundations of the new corporate plan, ensuring this vision is understood and articulated by all.

Recommendation 4: Place Leadership 
Create a Tandridge Leaders Board which brings together public, private and community partners to identify and work collectively on shared priorities.

Recommendation 5: Organisational Development and Workforce 
A workforce strategy is urgently required to understand the council’s organisational development needs and will need to consider areas such as recruitment and retention and management development.

Recommendation 6: Member Development 
A more structured approach to ongoing development is required, given the high number of recently elected members, with more focus on individual development needs. Consider the adequacy of member training budgets and driving up levels of memeber engagement with training opportunities.

Recommendation 7: Transformation 
Align the transformation programme with the council’s MTFS. Clarity around the priorities within the transformation programme is needed to provide a more targeted approach. To reengage the transformation programme across the organisation a reframing of how the programme is communicated is required

Recommendation 8: Shared Partnership 
The council has a strong reputation of working in partnership with neighbouring authorities. There is an opportunity to extend existing and new shared partnership arrangements into other service areas to help increase capacity and resilience across the council.

Recommendation 9: Planning 
Some parts of the planning service require urgent attention with direct CEO intervention, to include the immediate progression of a Local Plan.

Recommendation 10: Capacity 
Review longstanding working practices to streamline processes and reduce paperwork and mitigate duplication across services. Reduce the number of meetings taking place across the organisation to free up much needed capacity.

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 by the LGA on the basis of their relevant expertise. The peers were:

• Lead Officer Peer: John Robinson, Chief Executive at Newark and Sherwood 
• Lead Member Peer: Cllr Shane Moore, former Leader of Hartlepool Council 
• Opposition Member Peer: Cllr Richard Keeling, Interim Leader and Executive Member for Corporate Resources at Teignbridge Council 
• Officer Peer: (Transformation): Kate Blakemore, Strategic Director at East Suffolk Council 
• Officer Peer: (Governance): Jane Ellis, Executive Director for Legal and Democratic Services and MO at Hyndburn Council 
• Officer Peer: (Finance): Russell Stone, Director of Resources at North Kesteven Council 
• Peer Challenge Manager: Sophie Poole, LGA Senior Advisor for London and the South East

Scope and focus 

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? Is there an organisational-wide approach to continuous improvement, with frequent monitoring, reporting on and updating of performance and improvement plans? 
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? 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 elements outlined above, every Corporate Peer Challenge includes a strong focus on financial sustainability, performance, governance, and assurance. The council also asked the peer team a number of questions before coming on site which fall within the five core elements and are addressed under the relevant section. Those questions are:

• How does a small council ensure it achieves its transformation ambitions? 
• How can we create capacity? Is our approach achievable? 
• How do we make support services more sustainable?
• How do we reassure ourselves we have adequate financial resilience? 
• Do you have any best practice around recruitment and retention? 
• How do we create a high performing “let's do this” culture?

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. This included a position statement prepared by the council in advance of the peer team’s time on site. This provided a clear steer to the peer team on the local context at Tandridge District Council and what the peer team should focus on. It also included a comprehensive LGA Finance briefing (prepared using public reports from the council’s website) and a LGA performance report outlining benchmarking data for the council across a range of metrics. The latter was produced using the LGA’s local area benchmarking tool called LG Inform.

The peer team then spent three days onsite at 16-18 July 2024, during which they:

• Gathered evidence, information, and views from more than 40 meetings, in addition to further research and reading. 
• Spoke to more than 140 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.

Local priorities and outcomes

It was clear to the peer team that both elected members and officers are passionate about Tandridge and understand the needs of local residents who engage with the council. At the time the peer team were on site, the council’s current corporate plan was in the process of being replaced by a new corporate plan which was going through committee, having been agreed at the Strategy and Resource committee before going to Full Council for approval.

The new corporate plan is based on feedback from a 2023 residents’ survey which shows a high level of resident satisfaction with Tandridge as a place to live and a strong desire to protect and enhance the environment. There was also increased satisfaction since the previous survey in 2021 with the way the council runs things and the number of people who feel the council provides value for money. Of the residents who responded, 50 per cent were over 65 and 43 per cent were age 35-64. The 2021 ONS (Office for National Statistics) survey shows 20.9 per cent of Tandridge is over 65 and just over 57 per cent of residents are 18-64. Therefore while the proposed corporate plan’s visions and priorities were based on the responses in the residents’ survey, it is important that the views of age groups below 65 are also proportionately represented.

A corporate plan survey, which asked if Tandridge’s priorities for the next four years were the right ones, was more representative of the age population, although in this survey staff and partners were invited to participate too. This survey shows the top priority is wanting a safe, healthy and caring community which supports those most in need. Equally placed as the second top priority was protecting and enhancing the environment, financial prudence and sustainability and putting residents at the heart of what the council does. Wanting a thriving community and delivering affordable housing for local people were highlighted as important too.

The new corporate plan prioritises protecting the council’s greenbelt land and delivering quality affordable housing. It also aims to deliver high quality ‘core’ statutory services, in order to retain its current financially stable position, which the council has achieved by making significant savings over the last four years.

The council has also identified the importance of strengthening the council’s community leadership role in the corporate plan at the same time as focusing on becoming more responsive to residents’ needs. While the corporate plan sets out deliverables for each priority, the peer team feels the council lacks a vision which sets out how the authority aims to work with its partners to meet the future needs of its residents. The council would benefit from developing a long-term vision for Tandridge through the establishment of a Tandridge Leaders Board which brings together public, private and community partners and strengthens the council’s important place leadership role. This would give the council a greater presence and visibility and could be useful in harnessing the experience and knowledge of other partners to achieve local priorities.

When asked, staff and partners were unable to describe a cohesive narrative about the council’s priorities other than planning. The peer team heard a number of times: “so much focus is placed on planning that everything else is sidelined” and “resources are largely tied up in planning which stops everything else”.

Given the council’s limited capacity, consideration could be given to focusing the council’s resources on a smaller number of ‘top’ priorities, to allow more focus on wider quality of life services not just planning. The peer team heard that there is a question about how supportive the political leadership is of the corporate plan beyond planning. There is also a need to engage newly elected councillors in the purpose of the new corporate plan as they were unable to shape the priorities. The corporate plan does not map out the timescales for delivery over the next four years, and how the authority will implement the delivery of its priorities, creating a sense of everything being urgent.

Performance

LG Inform Headline Report

Tandridge performs averagely across the majority of KPI (key performance indicators) as set out in the LG Inform Headline report which provides benchmarking data across a number of performance targets compared to Tandridge’s CIPFA neighbours and districts in the region.

The two areas where the council is an outlier is: 

• 55 per cent of major planning applications granted compared to 82 per cent in all English district councils (2023/4). 
• 42 days is the time taken to process housing benefit new claims compared to 17 days in all English district councils (2023/24 Q3)

The council acknowledges the importance of addressing these areas, however strained capacity in the workforce is impacting on the council’s performance.

Another high profile performance measure where the council is an outlier is in relation to the council’s Local Plan. The Planning Inspectorate concluded that the council’s Local Plan is not sound and recommended no adoption in February 2024. Adopting a Local Plan must be urgently addressed.

Collection of council tax and business rates is also an area where the council underperforms.

The peer team also heard widely held praise for the Housing Team, with ambitions to continue growing their housing stock to provide more affordable council owned homes. In line with the identified priorities in the resident survey, resources have been realigned to improve the planning service and from ‘back office’ functions to front-line services.

In terms of monitoring performance, performance data is reviewed by committee on a quarterly basis, while operational related KPIs go to management team every three weeks. However the peer team was unable to establish if there is a systematic approach to gathering data and how the council acts upon the performance data that it does collect. There is also inconsistency in the way performance data is presented across the organisation, making it difficult to manage change and drive improvement. Staff and members also felt that they didn’t know how they benchmark against other authorities. Most members had not heard of LG Inform and would welcome more benchmarking data.

In terms of staff performance itself, staff told the peer team that they would appreciate a firmer approach to tackling poor performance across the council. It was felt that poor performance was not managed in a consistent way across the services, leading to a sense of unfairness. Steps should be taken to review and challenge the robustness of current performance management arrangements as part of a wider workplace strategy.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion is an area of weakness and needs more attention at Tandridge. The extended management team had training and the council has a corporate equality policy. HR has limited capacity and no head of HR to corporately lead this piece of work which needs to be addressed.

Organisational and place leadership

The political leadership demonstrate drive, energy and a focus on community priorities. The leader is prominent and recognised as being highly driven, knowledgeable and passionate about planning in particular, although some questioned why the leader is the chair of planning policy, and not the chair of strategy and resources committee, overseeing the strategic direction of the council which is the usual role of a council leader.

Some perceive the style of political leadership as being ‘unreasonable’ and overly involved in the operations of the council. Members and officers both recognise this stems from a lack of responsiveness on occasion by officers. For example, officer communication with members is not as good as it should be in some areas, especially in relation to case work. Members have also expressed dissatisfaction with the timeliness and quality of committee reports which is impacting on their ability to contribute to agenda development and that officers need to “get the basics right”.

The peer team also heard that members get overly involved operationally, meaning that officers are “constantly firefighting” which reduces the organisation’s ability to think strategically about the place and horizon scan: "we don't look to the future, we just put out fires”. The peer team also heard there were “lots of single point of failures across the organisation. Capacity and resilience is a real issue”. The peer team would urge the officers to agree acceptable and realistic standards of service delivery and timescales with members, so their expectations are managed. It is also essential to be proactive and communicate even when there is no obvious progress to report, to help build trust. The peer team would suggest the council look at potential digital solutions and develop an online reporting tool so there is a single point of reporting and monitoring councillor queries. It would be helpful to agree a service level agreement to manage councillor expectations when responding to queries.

At the time the peer team were on site, some members expressed their frustration about the lack of communication with officers. The council holds a Member Reference Group where group leaders from the administration meet with officers. The peer team heard that meetings are constructive and are an opportunity for officers to brief members, so they’re kept informed. However it is understood these meetings were placed on hold in December in the lead up to the local election in May. The meetings hadn’t restarted when the peer team were on site, two months after the election. One member stated: “We used to have a monthly Management Review Group which was really helpful to understand and input into key issues. These haven’t happened since Christmas though there is one in the diary for next week.”

Staff told the peer team that morale is in a much better place than a few years ago and the culture of the organisation has significantly improved since the new chief executive joined the organisation. Staff at all levels welcome his open, honest and approachable managerial style. However the peer team also heard that more energy, visibility and a greater sense of urgency would be valued too.

The peer team heard on a number of occasions that the two recent appointments to the senior leadership team, the deputy chief executive and the director of finance have both had a positive impact on the managerial leadership of the council. The peer team also observed and heard that relationships between the majority of senior officers are generally constructive and liaison between senior and middle management tiers works well.

The government’s Best Value statutory guidance states: “It is essential that all officers with statutory responsibility, including the Chief Finance Officer….and Monitoring Officer uphold their duties, both individually and collectively and provide reports to the Chief Executive/Head of Paid Service and, as necessary, to full Council. Statutory officers must work effectively together, have access to the highest levels of council decisions and have a voice in important decisions.“

Given the challenging context facing the council, it is especially important that the three statutory officers work better together as a team as set out in the statutory guidance and foster a more collaborative relationship than they currently do.

It is clear that the challenging political environment at Tandridge can have a negative impact on the collective and individual performance of the council and can be counterproductive in meeting the ‘urgent’ demands of members. For instance, the peer team were told that officers are uncomfortable delivering difficult messages and can spend a disproportionate amount of time agreeing how to articulate emails to members in fear of the information not being well received. This is taking up unnecessary capacity and creates a strain in the relationships between officers and members.

Despite this tension, it was clear to the peer team that both officers and members want to develop a more collaborative, productive working relationship that is based on mutual trust and respect. Officers at different levels talk about their desire to be trusted and respected by elected members. The lack of understanding on the part of members about their roles and the suggestion that members interfere in the day to day running of the council was a recurring theme.

The peer team encourages the council to urgently invest in creating a more collaborative, political and managerial shared leadership team. This includes creating space for this leadership team to come together to think strategically, horizon scan and identifying issues earlier.

Tandridge engages in a handful of shared arrangements with its neighbouring authorities. This includes two shared services with Mole Valley - environmental health which is led by Mole Valley and building control which is led by Tandridge. It shares its revenues and benefits service with Reigate and Banstead. Surrey County Council also provides finance support to the council. The boroughs in the East of the county share a similar geography and population and meet regularly to discuss issues such as economic development. In addition Tandridge is part of the wider Surrey system with the chief executive and the leader attending regular meetings to explore ways the boroughs and districts across the county can work together. While Tandridge is represented and has a seat at the table, both the political and officer leadership were observed as being ‘one of the quieter voices in the room’. When Tandridge does participate, it was observed there can be a ‘scratchiness’ to the engagement rather than a collaborative approach. While neighbouring boroughs appreciate the council’s limited resource and capacity, they observed that the lack of participation and positive engagement can make it harder to work with Tandridge. The peer team urges the council to proactively identify what other shared service opportunities exist across the county as a way of continuing to deliver core services that are value for money.

Neighbouring Councils were unable to clearly articulate Tandridge’s priorities, other than its focus on planning. As a result, some perceived the council’s focus as narrow and lacking ambition. The limited capacity of the council impacts on its ability to play a broader community leadership role with partners. However where it does take place for example, with East Surrey College and with businesses and the Business Awards, it is valued and appreciated with one partner sharing “For a small district Tandridge punches above their weight” and the economic development officer was described by one business partner as ‘a dynamo’. Again when asked, partners such as public service partners, businesses and the voluntary sector, were unable to describe a cohesive narrative about the council’s priorities other than planning. The peer team would urge the council to consider agreeing a smaller number of ‘top’ priorities, which focus on wider quality of life priorities, that the senior political and managerial leadership could seek to influence through creating a new Tandridge Leaders Board with key partners. Health partners are very keen to work with the council to tackle health challenges such as an aging population that is asset rich but cash poor.

Governance and culture

Staff and members told the peer team that they recognise there has been an improvement in the culture and governance of the organisation over the last few years. A previous transformation programme had a detrimental impact on morale.

However the more open communication and accessible ‘with, not to staff’ approach from the chief executive has increased morale and restored confidence in the senior leadership of the organisation. Staff at all levels told the peer team how much they enjoyed working at Tandridge, although some parts of the organisation described it as “relentless and challenging” and a "tough place to work". All agreed that colleagues were collaborative and supportive, and the peer team could clearly see a collegiate atmosphere among officers.

It was clear to the peer team that staff they met at every level are committed, loyal and passionate to serve the community. While there is an acceptance that sometimes performance dips, the council has a workforce to be proud of. Many work above their contracted hours; the organisation is run on a lot of good will.

Communication with staff is good and there is an opportunity to give more praise and recognition wherever possible and reward positive performance, to create a high performing culture.

Members also told the peer team that relationships between members in the same group as well as cross party, had improved and there was more co-operation and a shared sense of purpose across the member cohort.

However the peer team heard and observed that there is a clear mismatch between member and officer expectations of each other and there is a lack of appreciation of each other's roles, requirements and capacity, resulting in a mutual mistrust and frustration which is hindering progress and delivery. While the need to address member conduct has reduced with most issues being resolved informally, the peer team heard there is still a ‘them and us’ culture. Officers gave examples of members making negative comments about staff on social media. Councillors expressed frustration that they are not informed about issues or events ahead of them happening in their ward. Improving communication between officer and members would help to improve this. Members and officers want to work well together and recognise they are ‘on the same side’, however both view the other as being resistant to change. There is a need to create more opportunities for officers and members to have more open communication with each other and mutual understanding to address the current mismatch. One member said: “Officers don’t understand our role, we don’t understand theirs and there is no real effort to push us together”.

Almost all of the meetings the peer team had with staff, members and partners over the three days included a reference to planning, which is reflective of the attention the council gives to the service. It is clear that parts of the planning service remains under significant pressure and requires urgent attention. The peer team heard that planning enforcement was ‘slow to act’. At the time the peer team were on site, there were 440 enforcement cases, 330 of which were categorised as a priority one. The council has put significant resource into managing this, investing in four members of staff with the monitoring officer also providing a significant amount of support. The leader told the peer team that she also serves stop notices. There is also an increase in the number of planning application appeals.

There is high demand for planners across the sector meaning there is a lot of competition to recruit staff. Therefore the ability to attract and permanently recruit planners is influenced by the service having a good reputation. Currently the planning service employs a number of interim consultants, which is not only costly to the organisation, but impacts on the continuity and consistency of service delivery. Recruiting permanent staff in vacant roles and reducing the number of interims and consultants should be a matter of urgency.

While there is a planning improvement plan in place, this needs to be further developed to bring together development management and strategic planning into an overall team and develop a local plan as a matter of urgency.

It is important that the roles of officers and members are clearly defined so they can work together to deliver on key decisions, improved services and a new local plan.

The definition of roles and the associated boundaries between them are now critical to upholding the integrity of the service and the council.

Member development is another area that needs urgent attention. The member training budget appears insufficient and member engagement with training opportunities is inconsistent. Where officers provide in house training, it is poorly attended by members. In the 24 years that the LGA has run a Leadership Academy Programme, a councillor from Tandridge has never attended. In addition, the LGA has no record of a member attending any of its leadership essentials programmes for the last three years. Member development should be continuous. It is not just for new councillors and is an important part of good governance. It helps councillors to undertake their roles as community leaders and elected representatives, develop their skills and knowledge to carry out decision-making, develop and review council policy as well as scrutinise decisions where relevant. Member development is particularly important given the high number of recently elected members – there needs to be more structured member development in consultation with members and more focus on individual needs. There is a question around whether members fully understand their governance and community leadership role, and if this is why members become overly involved in the operational running of the council.

The annual governance statement for 2022/23 went to audit and scrutiny committee in February 2024. A number of amber areas were flagged including the need to adopt a Local Plan, the need to develop a Climate Change action plan and although flagged as amber, the council has not drawn down on its general reserves since 2021/22. Also flagged as amber is performance indicators and the risk registers which are under review as part of the council’s service planning and are reported to the policy committee. Financial resilience and sustainability are also flagged as significant risks for the future.

Internal audit functions in the organisation but it was clear that organisational capacity can inhibit their work which is a challenge . The previous four years has resulted in ‘limited assurance’ with the 2023/24 opinion providing ‘reasonable assurance’. There has been some slippage on internal audit management actions, but this is transparently reported until completed.

There is a general view that the audit committee would benefit from training. Councillors on the committee are perceived as inexperienced and show a lack of understanding of the purpose of their role with the quality of the committee being described as “quite low”. There is a perception that members do not understand the difference between internal and external audit. Questions are rarely asked by councillors. The exception is the independent audit committee member who is reported as engaging positively and effectively scrutinising the data and information presented. The council needs to improve its approach to managing the audit process and relationship with external audit

Financial planning and management

The council has made significant progress on financial sustainability with £6m of savings delivered over four years. While reserves remain low, they have stabilised over the last four years and are not being relied upon. Instead a £1.1m 'smoothing' reserve is in place. Despite this the peer team heard that: “finance continues to be overstretched and significantly under resourced”. The chief finance s151 officer is well respected and knowledgeable. His open and accessible manner is valued by everyone the peer team spoke to. There is an understanding across the organisation from both officers and members of the financial challenges the council has and continues to face.

The council’s transformation programme ‘Future Tandridge Programme’ has been created to close the funding gap for £2 million over the next 2 years. However there is no clear plan of how this will be achieved. Currently themes are being developed but the detail beneath this is limited.

The MTFS (Medium Term Financial Strategy) of one year plus two years limits longer term financial perspective. The peer team suggests aiming for a five year MTFS to enable finances to be managed more proactively rather than reactively

The year end is producing significant swings from in year budget monitoring. Movements in the council’s outturn was not excessive in terms of overall budget levels (circa 1.5 per cent last year) but is significant in term of cash.

This is an opportunity to create a culture of openness and develop a corporate approach to budget management to improve budgetary controls. The peer team heard how service areas report overspends but hold onto underspends later in the year, as they worry they won’t have enough budget to cover their costs by year end. More training on good budget management for budget holders would also be helpful.

The full financial cost of not having a local plan, the increase of planning appeals, an increase in enforcement cases all pose a significant financial risk to the council. It is important that the council implements mitigations to reduce these risks as soon as possible. The council is also missing out on raising council tax revenue from restricting or limiting housing development as well as the loss of income from building control.

The finance team has a support arrangement in place with Surrey County Council. Despite this, capacity and resilience remain an issue. Therefore there is a need to review this to ensure Tandridge is getting the best outcome from this arrangement.

The peer team suggests there are a number of opportunities open to Tandridge to increase income and identify savings:

As set out in the performance section, council tax and business rate collection is low. Improving collection will drive greater income generation, therefore it is worth investing in debt collection. The peer team understands this work is underway.

There is also a need for the council to review and increase its fees and charges to ensure full cost is recovered as a minimum such as car parking which is currently operating at a loss and pre-planning advice fees.

There is also an opportunity to consider the use of assets and delivery of localised amenities in partnership with parish councils. For instance, is there an opportunity for the parish council to take over the running of assets such as public toilets or playgrounds.

There is also an opportunity to review how the Housing Revenue Accounts (HRA) functions are recharged to the council, particularly services that can be overlooked, such as internal functions like communications.

Also the council can make more use of the capital programme in terms of supporting officers in the delivery of capital works.

As sighted earlier in the report, the high cost of using consultants is a risk to the council and the authority should reduce the use of consultants.

Capacity for improvement 

The transformation programme introduced by the current chief executive is widely recognised as being an improvement on the previous programme. It has rebuilt trust, confidence and morale; consulting and engaging staff throughout and has delivered tangible benefits.

The peer team questions whether the new transformation programme is too broad and might be more tightly focused on those areas of the council that have the greatest potential for financial savings. There is also a risk that members do not understand the objectives of transformation and see it purely as making savings, as opposed to an opportunity to streamline and innovate services. This was evidenced with members stating: “Transformation is about saving money”.

While the next phase of transformation is clearly well thought out; it lacks a narrative that is understood and needs to be prioritised. There is an opportunity to reframe the transformation programme as the organisational understanding is mixed. A fresh, engaging narrative would help to ‘sell’ the purpose of the transformation programme and inject energy and commitment from all corners of the council to ensure it’s a success.

The transformation programme should be mapped against the MTFS to better understand what savings need to be achieved and by when.

The council has a track record of working in partnership with neighbouring authorities, however there is a political and managerial willingness to expand this even further which should be explored as an opportunity to create capacity. However to make this happen, the council needs to be more visible on the county stage and be an active voice and participant in the Surrey Resilience Programme work. There is a need to continue the modernisation of the council to include a review of longstanding working practices to streamline processes, reduce paperwork and mitigate duplication across services. In particular, the use of data and insight needs to be embedded across the organisation to understand organisational performance and inform decision making.

While face to face communication has decreased since the last organisational transformation at Tandridge, there remains a perception that the council has ‘too many meetings’. Given the council’s limited capacity, the peer team recommends that the council reviews its current internal meeting cycle, being clear about the purpose of each meeting, what actions and outcomes are expected and agree when and where these will be followed up so that expectations are realistically managed.

The council would also benefit from having a more consistent approach to organisational responsiveness in terms of responding to customer, member and internal enquiries. It may take time to give a full response but make sure this is communicated, and people are kept informed.

There is also an opportunity to look at tightening up processes across the organisation, as a way of freeing up capacity. The peer team heard that services across the council can work in silos, meaning there is a lot of duplication asking for the same information when completing internal forms for different internal services. One staff member said: “we are very good at creating our own work”.

Some staff suggested there was a culture of over governance with four senior officers required to sign off contracts and that any spend over £5k (increasing to £10k shortly) must go to the procurement board for sign off. It was recognised that this was required when the council was in a financially precarious situation, however it seemed disproportionate to the council’s financial position now and was perceived as the organisation not having trust in the budget holders who were responsible for managing their budgets. There is an opportunity to consider proportionality in terms of governance.

The head of human resources post has been vacant for some time, resulting in HR becoming transactional. The peer team would urge the council to build HR strategic capacity into the workforce. Currently the council lacks organisational development capacity and a clear strategy for workforce development, recruitment and retention, job evaluation and pay and reward, to support the council's work to improve capacity. In terms of increasing productivity and quality of service, consideration should be given to strengthening management development with a view to driving service improvements and managing performance.

Staff said they were happy with the training and support the council provides through Surrey Learn, however they would like more clarity about how to access opportunities, as the budget is centralised which staff felt was slowing up decision making.

Appraisals and regular reviews are taking place, and it is understood a training plan will be developed once appraisals are complete which identify development needs. There was a suggestion that the council hasn’t been through a robust job evaluation process. While there have been no equal pay claims to date, this could potentially pose a risk to the council down the line.

Recruitment and retention at the council is a challenge. The peer team were told this is due to competition from neighbouring boroughs and Tandridge being an expensive place to relocate with the average property price estimated at £600k. The council offices are a five minute walk from Oxted station, and 30 minutes from Clapham Junction which services all parts of the South East which the council should capitalise on. Apprenticeships is another way to ‘grow your own’ and fill gaps in the workforce and create job opportunities for local people. Hybrid working is increasingly becoming an incentive for attracting staff and provides an opportunity to recruit a high calibre of staff from a wider catchment area. Unfortunately though, the perception of hybrid working from the current workforce is that it is inconsistency implemented across the council, which needs to be addressed.

There is confusion around the number of days staff are expected to come into the office, due to the policy being too loose. The peer team also heard reports from both staff and members that some staff do not answer their phones or respond to emails when they are working at home. However staff did raise this could be partly due to challenges when turning on their out of office across all of the communications channels they use, giving the impression they are available and not responding. The council’s approach to hybrid working needs to be reviewed immediately.

The communications team was praised for the work they do. Staff felt well informed and plugged into what is happening at the council. There are regular staff briefings and various networks. Although staff told the peer team that limited capacity ‘gets in the way of being able to engage’ as much as they’d like to.

It is recognised that senior political and managerial leadership will want to consider, discuss and reflect on these findings. The LGA will continue to provide on-going support to the council. As part of the CPC, the council are also required to have a progress review and publish the findings from this within twelve months of the CPC. The LGA will also publish the progress review report on their website. The progress review will provide space for a council’s senior leadership to report to peers on the progress made against each of the CPC’s recommendations, discuss early impact or learning and receive feedback on the implementation of the CPC action plan. The progress review will usually be delivered on-site over one day.

The date for the progress review at Tandridge District Council is due to be set for nine months’ time in April 2025.

In the meantime, Will Brooks, Principal Adviser for South East and Sophie Poole, Senior Regional Advisor are your main contacts between your authority and the Local Government Association. As outlined above, Will and Sophie are available to discuss any further support the council requires. [email protected] and [email protected]

It is recognised that senior political and managerial leadership will want to consider, discuss and reflect on these findings. The LGA will continue to provide on-going support to the council. As part of the CPC, the council are also required to have a progress review and publish the findings from this within twelve months of the CPC. The LGA will also publish the progress review report on their website. The progress review will provide space for a council’s senior leadership to report to peers on the progress made against each of the CPC’s recommendations, discuss early impact or learning and receive feedback on the implementation of the CPC action plan. The progress review will usually be delivered on-site over one day.

The LGA is well placed to provide support, advice, and guidance on a number of the areas identified for development and improvement and we would be happy to discuss this. 

Member support

Leadership Academy: The Leadership Academy is the LGA's flagship development programme for councillors in leadership positions. The programme is recognised by The Institute of Leadership, the UK's leading award winning body for leadership and management.

For more details visit Leadership Academy

Leadership Essentials: is a series of series of programmes and workshops designed as themed learning opportunities for councillors.

Each event concentrates on a specific portfolio or service area or a specific theme: 

• Audit committees 
• Being an effective cabinet member 
• Enhanced Communication and media: political leadership masterclass 
• Cultural services 
• Digitalisation 
• Effective scrutiny 
• Finance 
• Finance for non-finance cabinet members 
• Financial governance 
• Getting your message across 
• Leading healthier places 
• Licensing 
• Planning Committee 
• Prevent and counter-extremism: Leadership essentials 
• Risk management: political leadership masterclass 
• Sport and physical activity

For more details visit Leadership Essential.

New Councillors Hub: We offer councillors a diverse range of support and we're here for you every step of the way in your journey as a councillor. Refine your leadership skills with our councillor e-learning modules and workbooks, expand your knowledge and networks at our councillor events, and subscribe to our local government e-bulletins on the policy areas that most interest you.

For more details visit: Councillor hub

Effective member and officer relations: This workbook has been designed as a learning aid for elected members. It makes no judgement about whether you have been a member for some time, or whether you have been elected more recently. If you fall into the former category the workbook should serve as a useful reminder of the key features of effective member/officer relations in local government.

For more details visit Effective member and officer relations

Place Leadership

Place Leadership: Locally accountable arrangements encompassing community, political, clinical and professional leadership which transcend organisational boundaries, are collaborative, and are where decisions are taken at the most appropriate local level.

For more details visit: Leadership

Partnerships and collaboration: The nature and type of partnership working in community action projects is wide-ranging: no single approach is appropriate for all.

For more details visit: Partnerships and collaboration

Workforce Local authorities face increasing pressures on their abilities to recruit and retain sufficiently skilled staff into many critical roles. This is at a time when demand for local government services continues to grow. We have resources that can help:

Workforce Data 

New ways of working in local government 

Recruitment and Retention: Six P's best practice 

Workforce planning 

Workforce wellbeing

For more information please visit Workforce capacity

Apprenticeship Support Programme

The LGA’s apprenticeships support programme provides a range of practical support and advice for local authorities and their maintained schools on developing and enhancing their apprenticeship programme. The bulk of our delivery is carried out online to ensure we can support councils effectively across the whole of England. 

For more details visit: Apprenticeship Support Programme

Transformation 

The LGA has developed a wide-ranging transformation offer:

Transformation Capability Framework - Our Transformation Capability Framework establishes what works well and ‘what good looks like’ in relation to transformation activity across different types of councils. There are ten strategic transformation capabilities. Four are essential for all types of transformation:

• Leadership and management 
• Governance and control 
• Change management 
• Data intelligence 
• Six are specific to the type of transformation being undertaken: 
  • Finance
  • Service design 
  • Business analysis 
  • Digital and technology 
  • Procurement and commissioning 
  • Organisational HR change

For more details visit: Transformation Capability Framework

Transformation peers provide councils with access to support from skilled and experienced officers and elected members with relevant transformation expertise. For more information visit: Transformation Peer Support programme

Transformation Innovation Exchange (TIEx): The Transformation and Innovation Exchange (TIEx) self-assessment tool provides a comprehensive overview of your organisation's performance across the characteristics of a high functioning local authority, identifying areas to focus and to prioritise, with an extensive library of tailored resources to support you at every stage of your transformation journey.

For more details visit Transformation Innovation Exchange

Transformation Case Studies: Innovation in local government is about improving the lives of the people in our communities. Browse through our case studies to see the many innovative programmes councils are involved in. 

For a list of our case studies visit: Case studies

The LGA also provides:

Productivity Plan panels, bringing together groups of local authorities to share learning and best practice relating to common themes and topics arising from their Productivity Plans. 

Member Peer training programmes, providing specialised training to build the expertise and capability within local government and support delivery of successful transformation programmes. 

Transformation Partners, a new pilot programme building on the Transformation. Peers programme whereby councils with particular transformation challenges are matched with officers/councillors from local authorities with specific expertise. 

Communicating during change Top tips for communicating through change 

For more details about all of our transformation offers visit: Transformation

Building a narrative for your council

Developing a council narrative – the ‘why’ of your organisation is a fundamental part of an effective communications strategy. It defines an organisation’s purpose; it brings people together around that purpose. It directs action, and in a democracy, it gives people a marker against which a public body can be held to account.

Our toolkit looks at why and how a more engaging approach to developing and communicating a narrative works and offers some practical models and approaches you can use right now. For more details visit Building a narrative for your council

Digital 

The LGA has launched a new Local Government Digitalisation Almanac for councillors and officers, containing simple steps, practical examples, and resources to support councils on their digitalisation journeys.

For more details visit: The Local Government Digitalisation Almanac

Performance Management 

We offer a range of resources to help councillors and officers to deliver effective performance management, including performance management guides for councillors and officers, case studies and our free data benchmarking tool LG Inform.

For more information visit: Performance management for local authorities

Planning 

The LGA provides high-quality help, advice, support and training on planning and service delivery to councils. We help local government officers and councillors stay effective and up to date. We have a ‘sector-led' improvement approach, where local authorities help each other to continuously improve.

For more information visit Planning Advisory Service

Governance 

The LGA offers a Governance Peer Challenge Programme which dovetails closely with our Corporate Peer Challenge Programme. There is an opportunity to review the council’s progress around governance at a later date.

Governance Peer Challenges focus on how councils demonstrate good governance and scrutiny, including a positive organisational culture, across all their functions including their approach to risk management. The Governance Peer Challenge peer team involves LGA officer and Member peers from across the sector who are experienced in governance and culture including monitoring officer peers. Each Governance Peer Challenge includes a focus on the following themes as these are critical to council performance and improvement:

• Roles, responsibilities and relationships 
• Effective governance and scrutiny 
• Governance essentials 
• Risk management and audit 
• Organisational culture.

For more information visit: Governance Peer Challenge

Top Team Development 

The LGA can design a bespoke top team programme with your political and management teams to explore how you strategically work together to deliver the council’s key priorities: Some areas the programme can cover:

• Roles and relationships 
• Leadership styles 
• Budgeting and financial monitoring 
• Performance management 
• Communication 
• Visioning

This is something that your Principal Advisor and Senior Regional Advisor in the London and South East Regional Team can design with you.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

Equalities hub: The LGA’s Equalities Hub provides officers and members with a range of tools and resources to support councils – spanning topics including workforce, health, community cohesion, cost of living and more. We also provide councils with support to meet their obligations as set out in the Equality Act 2010.

For more details visit: Equalities hub

Climate Change

Alongside the majority of councils, the LGA has declared a climate emergency. We offer a wide range of resources to help councils address environmental sustainability. 

For more details visit: Sustainability hub

Being a peer 

The LGA offers local government a range of peer-supported improvement programmes, including Peer Challenge and Councillor Mentoring and we welcome interest from both senior officers and councillors in becoming peers.

For more details visit: Become a peer