LGA Corporate Peer Challenge: Swindon Borough 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 four days at Swindon Borough 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.

Swindon Borough Council (SBC) last had a Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) in March 2022, and in the intervening period has seen significant political and organisational change. In May 2023 the Council changed political leadership for the first time in 20 years moving from a Conservative administration to a Labour majority of seven seats. In May 2024 - following the election for a third of the borough’s councillors - that majority extended further to 25.

The change in political leadership has been mirrored in the senior officer leadership of the council. A new chief executive - was appointed on an interim basis on 1 August 2023, having previously served as the council’s chief operating officer, and has subsequently been permanently appointed to the chief executive role. The chief executive has driven and overseen the recruitment of an entirely new Corporate Leadership Team - the last member starting in post on 1 July 2024.

Within this context, this CPC has been an opportunity to reflect on the wide-ranging changes that have been made over the past 15 months and provide recommendations from the peer team as to how the council could and should move forward at pace in key areas. This report does that as well as reflect on the significant progress the council has also made in this same time period.

An overarching challenge that dominates is the fact that the council is facing a burning financial platform – for 2024/25, a cost pressure of c£9m is forecast but tangible mitigating actions are not fully identified and tracked to ensure a balanced budget position is achieved in year with no unbudgeted impact into 2025/26. Some officers and members still seem to have an over optimism bias and assume that the issue will be solved because this is the nature of the budget cycle, but without targeted action, the current financial crisis could indeed be existential for the council.

In November 2023, the LGA undertook a Financial Peer Challenge in SBC and made the following recommendations:

• Produce a balanced MTFS that balances the budget for 24/25 and moves to a balanced position over the medium term, using the transformation programme as a key lever
• Work to ensure children’s services budgets are under control - consider developing a subset of the Medium Term Financial Strategy with a focus on children’s services
• Plan to get the Dedicated Schools Grant Deficit back into annual balance and address the deficit at that point.
• Develop a communications plan around the council’s financial position
• Deliver the transformation programme at pace and be clear about internal capacity
• Improve the quality of published financial reports.

The council has made progress against the majority of these recommendations, with transformation being the notable exception, as expanded upon in more detail within this report. However, the overriding message continues to be that SBC is facing a significant financial challenge. The council has a well-regarded finance team and whilst improvements have been made over recent months, the council now needs to take an urgent grip of the in-year position, prioritise the finalisation of the MTFS and ensure a laser focus on action and accountability. It is positive, and demonstrative of the strengthening culture of self-awareness, that the council has engaged in early conversations with MHCLG around the potential for Exceptional Financial Support (EFS), but there are still things that are within the council’s gift to address.

One such area is the council’s transformation programme. In its current form, the peer team felt the programme lacks clarity. Given the financial imperative facing the council and the integral part the transformation programme needs to play in addressing this, pace is now necessary across the whole council and at all levels to redesign services and structures, and this can only be delivered through a coherent and robust transformation programme.

The new political and senior officer leadership at SBC are clearly driving tangible cultural change, resulting in a council that has a real sense of positivity and where members and officers work well together, providing effective organisational leadership, which was reflected though our engagement with staff and partners.

The geographical and demographical context of Swindon are important defining features of both the council and the community it serves. Although within the South West, Swindon has close ties to the South East, particularly those places further along the M4 corridor such as Oxfordshire and Berkshire. Swindon itself is a large town with a population of approximately 234,400 and is a place deeply rooted in its railway and industrial heritage, but with an increasingly strong reputation for growth and innovation. In the last 10 years, the town has expanded significantly, due in no small part to the fact that house prices are comparatively low and proximity to nearby (and less affordable) cities such as Bath, Bristol, Reading and even London is only 75 miles away. The council is starting to recognise these positive attributes, but there is more to do create a more compelling narrative that celebrates all that Swindon has to offer – and to translate this into greater economic prosperity for both the council and its residents. Greater capacity in this priority area would be advantageous and allow Swindon to play a more proactive role regionally and nationally, a role more befitting a council, and place, such as Swindon.

Notably, the new political and organisational leadership have made a concerted effort to work with partners, residents, colleagues and members to develop the Swindon Plan and should collectively reflect with pride on both the ‘Lets Talk Swindon’ engagement exercise and the resulting plan. The Swindon Plan outlines the administration’s three missions of building a fairer, better and greener Swindon. However, as with the rest of the sector, continuing financial pressures mean that the council now needs to inject a sense of reality and pragmatism into plans for the delivery of these priorities. The peer team recognised that senior officers and members are starting to create conditions across Swindon and the wider partnership that will ensure success and - whilst partners were appreciative of the collaborative approach adopted to developing the plan – there remains work to be done to identify shared delivery objectives and accountabilities.

Reflective of the cultural change within SBC over recent months, the peer team heard that internal communications have greatly improved with staff feeling engaged, challenge welcomed and a clarity of organisational messaging. This level of coherence and fluency is yet to be replicated in terms of how the council engages with partners, residents and other stakeholders. Building a stronger, more positive narrative of place will underpin so many elements of effective delivery of the Swindon Plan.

The peer team found an organisation that has a real awareness of in the challenges it faces - ranging from significant financial pressures, OFSTED improvement requirements in children’s services and challenges with quality of housing stock. These (and other) challenges are well articulated and spoken about with honesty and clarity, supported by a strong data set to evidence this. How the council plans to address these challenges is the vital next step, and as we set out in this report, moving purposefully into action must be a priority.

A full OFSTED ILAC inspection took place in Swindon in July 2023 and the Children’s Social Care service was graded Inadequate. Swindon’s Ofsted Improvement Plan is overseen by a Partnership Improvement Board, chaired by an independent chair and scrutinised by a DfE Advisor. Support for improvement is provided by a Sector led Improvement Partner which is another Children’s Service which is graded “outstanding” – in this case this is Hertfordshire Local Authority.

SBC has had two monitoring visits to date (February and May 2024), and these have focussed on the ‘front door’ (duty service) and Children in Need of Help and Protection, with the next visit planned for September 2024. The findings and feedback from these visits thus far are generally positive. Given the other challenges facing the council, it will be important that focus and momentum on this improvement journey are maintained.

Members and officers at SBC have achieved much in the past 15 months and should be congratulated for putting in place sound foundations upon which to build. However, there remain significant challenges ahead. Recent changes have ensured the council is now better placed to address these challenges, but pace and focus are of the essence. The recommendations within this report are intentionally action focused to support this.

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 and have been written with a focus on immediate steps for the council to consider – for example, within the next 100 days. As the report goes on to explain, the council is in position to capitalise on recent improvement but there is now a need for action:

1.Take steps to urgently address the financial position.

Take steps to review the in-year budget timeline so that remedial action to review forecasted expenditure can be reviewed at the earliest opportunity. Prioritise agreeing a three-year (rather than a five year) MTFS and as part of this focus on the need for action and provide clarity on accountability and ensure a grip is taken of the challenges faced.

2. Review and re-focus the transformation programme as a matter of urgency.

There is a need to review the programme and establish a clarity of purpose across both the programme and the wider organisation and this must happen immediately. There needs to be collective focus on agreeing delivery priorities and ensuring action. There is a need to review strategic capacity to drive and deliver the programme.

3. Establish a credible, focused and prioritised delivery plan for the Swindon Plan.

Consider producing a ‘plan on a page’ which focuses on what success looks like in the short, medium and longer term and establish a phased improvement journey.

4. Maintain momentum on your children’s services improvement journey

Whilst encouraging progress is being made, significant risks remain.

5. Build partnership engagement and commitment to the delivery of The Swindon Plan

Seek to establish a shared set of deliverable objectives and ask partners “What will we all agree to relentlessly pursue above all else?” and look to share resources where possible and appropriate e.g. comms.

6. Review Cabinet Portfolios to build upon a successful change of political administration

Build on the momentum of a new administration with continuing support for ongoing development and review political portfolios e.g. children's, economy to maximise capacity and ensure best practice is reflected.

7. Enhance your approach to external communications

Create a coherent narrative of both the place and council. Be more proactive in promoting Swindon focusing on celebrating the strengths of the place and working more impactfully with partners.

8. Review some elements of internal governance arrangements to ensure best practice is reflected and to ensure effective assurance measures are in place.

Best practice refers to a Golden Triangle between the Head of Paid Service, s151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer. The council’s current arrangements would benefit from a stronger Golden Triangle relationship. Again, best practice advocates for independent members of the audit committee and this is currently missing from the SBC arrangements.

9. Build and maintain corporate management team (and wider officer leadership capacity) to provide greater strategic support to the chief executive.

Prioritise permanent director recruitment, building on the welcome stability at CMT level. As part of the future council plans ensure there is a focus on accountability and a commitment to distributive leadership.

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:

• Sir Steve Bullock – ex Mayor of LB Lewisham - Member Peer (Labour)
• Councillor Gareth Barnard – Bracknell Forest Council (Member Peer (Conservative)
• Matthew Gladstone - Chief Executive, Peterborough City Council, Lead Officer Peer 
• Dawn Calvert - CFO and s151 Officer, Thurrock Council, Officer Peer
• Tracy Darke – Assistant Director for Economy and Place, Shropshire Council, Officer Peer
• Rebecca Purnell – Assistant Chief Executive West Northamptonshire Council, Officer Peer.
• Emily McGuinness – LGA Peer Challenge Manager

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.

In addition to these themes, the council asked the peer team to provide feedback on:

• the extent to which the Swindon Plan strikes the right balance between ambition and the reality facing the council in terms of financial sustainability
• Is the council beginning to create the conditions for the Swindon Plan to be a success in terms of governance, culture and partnerships:
• What areas of improvement do the peer team believe we should prioritise?
• How well does the council know itself – and our strengths and challenges?

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 Swindon Borough 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 four days onsite at Swindon Borough Council, during which they:

• Gathered evidence, information, and views from more than 40 meetings, in addition to further research and reading.
• Spoke to more than 175 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.

‘Let’s Talk Swindon’, the process followed to produce the Swindon Plan has been a welcome improvement on previous approaches. The plan itself was approved by Full Council in July 2024 and has three clear ‘missions’;

• Build a Fairer Swindon - Making Swindon a fairer place, reducing disadvantages and reducing big disparities in life expectancy, education levels and social justice.
• Build a Better Swindon - Creating a town ready for the challenges of the coming decades. Where possible, leading town centre improvement and creating more affordable housing with the private sector
• Build a Greener Swindon - Fully playing our part as a council and a town in combatting climate change. Working with communities to find new ways of doing things that help, not hinder, the natural environment.

As part of ‘Let’s Talk Swindon, the council carried out a number of ‘roadshows’, where the leader and members, along with Senior officers engaged directly with communities in their local communities. This initial exercise which took place in Jan/Feb 2024, saw seven resident roadshows, one partnership event, one event with adults with LD and neurodiversity, two events with young people take place. 

The peer team were told that engaging in this more proactive and honest way was welcomed and valued by residents, partners and businesses. Through this new way of working, the council has built its reputation and credibility with a full range of stakeholders, who all now support the intent of The Swindon Plan. The challenge now is to maintain this momentum and positive regard, as realistic and tangible delivery plans are developed. The partners we spoke with stand ready to work alongside the council in pursuit of shared objectives but would value greater clarity around delivery activity in the short, medium and longer term.

The new Administration at SBC is enthusiastic and passionate about Swindon and has a clear sense of ambition, clearly articulated in their 3 ‘missions’. Members and officers are working well as a top team - we heard that challenge is welcome and underpinned by shared principles of honesty and transparency. This positive relationship will be increasingly important as the council begins to work through where to focus time, energy and resources and the inevitable difficult conversations that will ensue as they continue to navigate a challenging financial position.

There is a ‘Golden thread’ starting to emerge and a performance framework published alongside the Swindon Plan sets out quarterly deliverables for each objective over the next three years, along with how progress will be measured using a starting point and target. The range and scale of the objectives ranges widely, from things that the council can solely control to others where they are making a direct contribution alongside other organisations or simply enabling third parties to progress projects.

Delivery against the Swindon Plan will be reported twice yearly into Cabinet. Given that the Swindon Plan was only agreed in July this year, work is still underway to produce more detailed Business and Service Delivery Plans across the whole council.

This work is important in terms of bringing the plan to life and moving as quickly as possible towards delivering tangible outcomes. Robust service planning will also be essential as the council seeks to address in year budget pressures and develop a more impactful transformation programme. There is a real opportunity for the council to articulate what good looks like for staff, residents and partners as work continues to introduce the ‘Golden Thread’. With the need to be more action focused in mind, the peer team would recommend that the council keeps this work simple, concise, deliverable and quick!

Given the financial pressures, refining the considerable number of priorities so that limited resources can be targeted more effectively will be crucial to ensure financial sustainability. As is the case nationally, as public spending continues to be a concern, there is a need to re-visit previously stated priorities and ensure activity is aligned to available resources. Creating an honest narrative and dialogue with all stakeholders, including staff and residents, will help and enable the council to build upon the goodwill fostered though the ‘Let’s Talk Swindon’ work. The Peer Team suggest that now is an opportune moment to refine the delivery plan from its current (and very detailed) form into a ‘plan on a page’ – with a focus on what does success look like in three years? Partners would welcome this clarity of purpose.

SBC is a self-aware organisation with members and officers able to clearly articulate the significant and immediate challenges they are facing e.g. finance, housing, children services. In addition to the OFSTED improvement journey and the financial challenges referenced elsewhere in this report, the council is facing significant challenges around the quality of some of its housing stock, some of which has listed status. SBC has not yet had an inspection by the Regulator for Social Housing. However, a mock inspection was completed in late 2023 which does not paint a particularly positive picture. That has since become the basis for a housing improvement programme along with intelligence and insight from other sources over the last six months. An interim director of housing was appointed for 12 months in February 2024 and that post holder’s focus is entirely on addressing the issues in the mock inspection report and subsequent housing improvement plan .

The council are in active discussions with the housing regulator to discuss their planned improvement journey. It is testament to the more open and transparent culture that is embedding at the council that these challenges are acknowledged, discussed and help, guidance and advice is sought and welcomed.

As already stated, SBC has undergone a period of significant political and managerial change and the chief executive has worked tirelessly to stabilise the organisation through permanent appointments to the Corporate Management Team (CMT). This ‘forming’ cohort of senior officers will be pivotal in continuing to model and embed the improved organisational culture and will need to ‘hit the ground running’ if the council is to move swiftly into a focused delivery phase of The Swindon Plan.

SBC has a wealth of data which it uses to good effect to articulate the challenges it faces and to describe its current position e.g. financial and housing challenges. However, the council is less effective at translating data into insight to help predict future service demand and shape delivery plans and priorities – a refreshed and refocused data strategy as part of a more effective transformation programme would be beneficial.

The peer team found greater internal and external focus and clarity on the ‘Fairer’ and ‘Better ‘Swindon missions than on ‘Greener Swindon’ This is understandable given the real and pressing financial pressures facing the council and the more tangible nature of the other two missions. However, the new Labour Government has clearly expressed a commitment to a ‘green agenda’ and SBC should ensure this third mission area is not lost in the short/medium term. Devising a phased approach to the delivery of the priorities within The Swindon Plan will allow the council to clearly state what and when activity is planned.

Performance

SBC has an emerging performance management framework – although at more than 150 pages, further refinement to produce a more ‘user friendly’ and targeted process may help embed the framework. Given that the council is still working to embed business and service planning, at this stage it is hard to judge the efficacy of the arrangements. However, there is a clear commitment to ensuring the council has robust performance management in place to support and inform its future service delivery as demonstrated using corporate scorecards as the means in which performance is monitored, scrutinised and escalated to the Corporate Management Team. Performance management arrangements have also been strengthened with some good use of data using PowerBI.

The Performance, Intelligence & Insight team (PII) support the council to understand its performance. This is done through a range of channels including completing statutory returns, producing management Information reports, operational reports, strategic performance reports and corporate scorecards. The way in which performance reporting is conducted in not consistent across the council and is dependent on the needs of the service area.

The team, and the way in which the wider council has ‘leaned in’ to supporting the improvement journeys in Children’s Services has been to demonstrably good effect and now other services could benefit from the lessons learnt from this performance driven approach, whilst maintaining focus on OFSTED driven improvement programme.

Through various means – including using national and regional benchmarking and LGInForm - SBC are good at collecting data across a range of services and user perspectives. This provides sound evidence bases to articulate issues and describe what has already happened and the council is aware of the need to now build on this to offer greater insight to shape, inform and predict future service design. This will be increasingly important as part of the Future Council programme and addressing the pressing financial pressures/concerns.

There is evidence of the council making good use of performance data to enable service improvement. For example, using planning performance data to drive a planning improvement programme - this work has so far reduced a backlog from 700 to 336 with more work still to do.

The peer team found a council which has undergone a period of significant organisational change with both a change of political leadership and new chief executive and Corporate Management Team within the last 15 months. It is evident that the new leadership team – both members and officers – have prioritised resetting the organisational culture and they have done this to good effect with those that we spoke with describing an open, transparent and collaborative organisation and the leader and chief executive in particular should be commended for their leadership by example in this space.

The leader and chief executive have a strong working relationship, which provides dynamic and purposeful leadership at a time of change – both within the council and the wider local government sector. This is clearly demonstrated through the “At Our Best” programme which provides the framework for the leadership development offer. This is an emerging area but if delivered as intended will provide informal and formal leadership development programmes alongside an already launched member development and will enable the council to continue to build upon the promising foundations of an effective and impactful organisation.

The peer team found that both senior members and officers are valued by staff for their commitment to enhancing levels of organisational transparency, resulting in a workforce that is positive about the council despite the challenges they are facing. The recent permanent appointments to CMT are equally seen very positively and there is a collective ambition and energy which is valued internally and externally.

Staff told us they welcome the improvements in internal communications. They reference the monthly all colleague Teams call hosted by the council leader and chief executive to update on the latest developments on council-wide business. This also features a ‘celebrating success’ slot where call participants are invited to acknowledge the achievements of colleagues. Around 500 colleagues regularly dial-into these call each month. These calls have been used previously and will be used in 2024/25 to provide information and context around the council budget setting process.

There are plans in place to recruit to permanent directors positions and every effort should be made to ensure this process is expedited because this level of leadership is pivotal in delivering improvements and achieving distributive leadership. We found a cohort of heads of service that are capable, well regarded and a force for good in terms of delivering organisational change – they need to see this mirrored at director level to maintain current high levels of engagement and enthusiasm.

There is a need to move to a more distributive model of leadership at a director, and some extent corporate management team level. The chief executive personally leads a lot of activity and holds a significant workload – this is understandable for the present given her personal commitment to driving organisational change and reframing partnership relationships. However, into the future, developing a more adaptive and distributive leadership style across the top tiers of the council is needed to address challenges at the required pace. As CMT continues to embed and the new cohort of directors come onboard, a more action focused approach with clear expectations around individual and collective accountability and responsibility is needed to maximise capacity and maintain the required depth, breadth and pace of change.

Given the timelines for recruiting to director posts coincides with key milestones in the emerging Golden Thread plans (e.g. production of business and service plans) there is a risk to the delivery of this activity and seemingly ambitious timescales may need to be revisited.

The Let’s Talk Swindon process has provided the council (both at a political and officer level) with enhanced credibility in the partnership arena and a window of opportunity now exists to maximise this for the benefit of Swindon as a whole. Other key public sector partners have seen changes in leadership too. Wiltshire Police have a new chief constable, and the Integrated Care Board is continuing to evolve two years after implementation across a Bath and North-East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire footprint. As is commonplace across the Health/Local Authority landscape, relationships within the Integrated Care Board (ICB). have been tested by some significant financial pressures but the peer team found partnership relationships that are sufficiently mature and grounded in mutual respect that these issues are being addressed with a focus on delivering the best possible services for residents within the appropriate cost envelopes, at both system and individual organisation level. We heard these strategic relationships being described as ‘having turned a corner’.

Conditions exist for a more proactive approach to partnership working, not only with key public sector partners, but also with businesses and the community and voluntary sector. The peer team found a plethora of agencies and organisations who stand ready to work with the council to establish, and more crucially, deliver shared objectives. This is currently hindered by a lack of clarity around priority actions to support the delivery of The Swindon Plan. Whilst we heard a commitment to putting active partnership and collaboration ‘at the heart of our Swindon Plan’ there is more to do to provide a strategic approach - an approach which could enable the council to draw upon partnership resources in pursuit of common objectives.

For example, Swindon as a place has a huge number of strengths and opportunities such as great connectivity, opportunities for inward investment, homes that are affordable and key development sites coming forward – these positive attributes create opportunities for partners as well as the council and so all would benefit from a more cohesive narrative of place – one which seeks to establish a more optimistic sense of Swindon. The council’s partners have both the capacity and desire to help drive this narrative and a joint approach could be an early ‘win’ for improved partner relationships.

Whilst there is undeniable intent to work more purposefully with partners under the umbrella of The Swindon Plan, there now exists a real opportunity to articulate much more clearly how the council, and partners, will bring the Swindon Plan to life- what are the council and partners seeking to collectively to achieve over the next three years? As part of this, the peer team would strongly encourage the council to think about delivery mechanisms that will drive pace and focus.

The peer team urge the council to build on these improving and seemingly productive relationships and seize the opportunity of devolution. The peer team acknowledge that the geography and demography of Swindon mean there are few, if any, natural devolution partners within the region, but focusing on differences rather than potential similarities and synergies could risk the council being left behind in the Devolution conversation. SBC needs to be clear about its future plans and aspirations and the role it could and should be playing on a regional and indeed national level.

A defining characteristic of SBC is the strong and effective Member/officer relationships which are based on mutual respect and a culture of enhanced transparency. The leader and chief executive work particularly well together and this maturing relationship, where challenge in both directions, is becoming increasingly (and openly) welcomed will be important as the council seeks to navigate the challenges ahead.

This positive member/officer relationship is reflective of an organisational culture which is described as having undergone a ‘sea change’ over the past 12 months and again, this will stand the council in good stead for the further changes needed if the Transformation Programme is reinvigorated and delivers the scale and pace of change needed to ensure financial sustainability.

Both members and officers are aware of and more importantly, value, the three missions articulated in The Swindon Plan. The organisational focus they bring is welcomed, although there is now a pressing need to produce a credible, phased delivery plan that will map which activities will be delivered when and aligned with future resource availability.

We have already referenced the ‘At Our Best’ organisational development programme which includes a refreshed member development programme. It is pleasing to note that members of the new cabinet are embracing sector support and are engaging with both the LGA Leadership programme and peer mentoring.

Both internal and external auditors report constructive engagement with SBC and describe and organisation where audit activity is welcomed and respected. There is a robust programme of internal audits in place which allows audit arrangements to provide necessary levels of assurance.

The corporate governance group, which consists of the head of paid service (chief executive) Section s151 officer, monitoring officer and head of internal audit meets monthly and is a valued forum for discussion and challenge around governance issues. Under the current management structure, the monitoring officer does not have a seat at CMT and this is a risk going forward as it’s not in line with Best Practice and Guidance relating to the all-important ‘Golden Triangle’ of statutory officers.

The audit committee provides effective oversight of the programme of internal audits, but there are no independent members of the committee. This again is contrary to best practice and guidance and has been referenced by the council’s internal and external auditors. The work of the audit committee could be further strengthened with a clearer process for providing members with feedback on actions following internal audit reports. Members of the committee feel well supported by officers when initially considering IA reports but greater oversight of subsequent actions would serve to enhance organisational assurance and reassurance.

The council’s approach to overview and scrutiny has significantly changed over the last two years, supported by the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny, and is in the process of being embedded. Initial changes saw the removal of the 5 overview and Scrutiny committees to be replaced with one main overview and Scrutiny committee and three policy development committees whose primary focus is to develop policy in support of the councils newly agreed missions. A review of the new arrangements was undertaken by CFGS and additional improvements were proposed. Those improvements included the implementation of a further overview and scrutiny committee whose focus is on children's, adults, health and education matters and a widening of the remit of the policy committees to incorporate Scrutiny of policy areas they have considered. To support those arrangements, a scrutiny protocol has been developed together with closer working links and meeting of the chairs of those committees. It is also proposed that the chair of audit attends these meetings to enhance links between Scrutiny and Audit functions. Those changes took effect from May 2024 and are in the process of being embedded. Training for scrutiny members to support effective scrutiny is required and is planned for Autumn 2024. Whilst the new arrangements are an improvement and it is recognised they are in the early stages of implementation, the peer team heard the process can be adversarial on occasion and prioritising a more collaborative, outcome focused approach would be welcomed as the function continues to embed and evolve.

As stated above, the new cabinet, supported by the impressive partnership between the leader and deputy leader are working well collectively. Given the nature of the challenges ahead (e.g. financial pressures and children’s improvement journey) and the need to establish a prioritised delivery plan the Swindon Plan, there now exists an opportunity to relook at the cabinet portfolios to ensure they are fit for purpose and in line with best practice/guidance. Considering portfolios with a specific focus on economic growth (in addition to the inherent leadership provided by the Leader in this area), Corporate Governance and children’s services could help strengthen focus and increase capacity.

The council has a Corporate Risk Register which is reviewed quarterly at CMT and then taken to audit committee twice a year. The new Corporate Management team have reviewed and updated the format and process for the Corporate Risk Register in partnership with members of the audit committee and the cabinet. The new format has landed well with members of audit committee, addresses recommendations made by internal audit, and ensures a more dynamic and managed risk register. There is a process of escalation/de-escalation from the Directorate Risk Registers.

The council has a stable and well-regarded finance team who work well together and are respected for the advice and support they provide. This is evident in the way that services take responsibility for their own finances and are supported by a dedicated head of finance. This is positive however the peer team would suggest senior leaders assure themselves there is sufficient level of challenge within these service-based relationships given the scale and pace of savings needed to address the in-year budget pressures.

There are effective financial performance reporting arrangements in place with monthly CMT reporting. There is an acceptance that budget forecasting is not as robust and consistent across directorates as it could be and the process would benefit from a more consistent approach to forecasting headline pressures alongside clearly identified mitigating actions, which may or may not leave a balance of unfunded pressures.

For 2024/25, a cost pressure of c£9m is forecast but the peer team could not see that tangible mitigating actions had been identified and tracked to ensure a balanced budget position is achieved in year with no unbudgeted impact into 2025/26.

Spending controls are in place but they have run the course in their current format and are not sufficient to address current and future pressures. A relaunch would be advised with elevated sign off procedures, including CEX and S151, covering clearly defined areas of expenditure and reinforcing individual accountability for delivery.

The council is well sighted on its financial challenges but understanding of the extent and immediacy is inconsistent. This applies to both in year and future year targets.

As already stated, directorate business plans and service plans are emerging as part of the ongoing change programme and the concept has been well received. Officers are particularly welcoming of this as an opportunity to challenge delivery expectations. Strengthening the relationship between this business/service planning process and the MTFS will be vital moving forward in ensuring a vice like grip on spending.

The council has an aspiration to move towards a five-year MTFS, however this is still a ‘work in progress’ in the view of the peer team and given the current financial and organisational capacity pressures, prioritising a robust three-year MTFS to 2027/28, in line with the capital programme, would be most valuable.

Work is ongoing to develop a separate MTFS for children’s ( recommended by the LGA Finance Peer Challenge). This is not yet in place but should be and when complete this must feed into the overall MTFS in order to assure a whole council perspective is available. Without this, the MTFS cannot be the ‘umbrella’ into which all other initiatives feed in order provide transparency and oversight on the council’s journey towards financial sustainability. Similarly, the lack of a Housing Revenue Account MTFS has a potential impact on transparency of risk.

In the view of the peer team the transformation programme is not sufficiently developed to provide the level of savings needed at the pace required. The programme lacks focus, clarity and deliverables – this is expanded further in the following section of this report, but lack of progress in this area poses a significant risk to the future financial sustainability of the council if not addressed at the earliest opportunity.

Processes are in place to identify saving proposals for 2025/26 for December Cabinet however this feels very late in the financial year and there is lack of clarity on proposals to date. The affordability of saving proposals remains unknown and this is linked to the point made above about the need to improve the rigour of financial forecasting.

The finance portfolio holder is seen as providing sound political leadership and is well sighted on the £9m in year challenge. The peer team repeatedly heard that as in previous years, the gap will be addressed by the end of the year ‘because ‘that’s what always happens’. It is the view of the peer team that the scale of the current challenge requires a different approach. The fact that the council has engaged in early conversation with MHCLG around the extent of the financial challenge it is facing and the potential for EFS is positive and speaks to the levels of self-awareness and transparency with the organisation. However, there is much that the council could, and should, do to mitigate the risk themselves, such as urgently review the Transformation Programme.

The council undoubtedly needs to take an urgent grip on the financial challenges in year and future and encouraging steps towards this are already being taken. As part of a more ‘laser like’ focus on ensuring financial sustainability there are series of steps the Peer Team suggest the council considers:

• Ensure that in year people are held to account on spending plans and the mantra of delivering a balanced budget without the use of reserves is reinforced;
• Build a realistic budget timeline for next year. Set out what’s really important over the next 3 years (as part of a focused Swindon Plan delivery plan) and align financial resources through your MTFS - support this with consistent messaging around the need to be realistic in your ambitions and expectations in light of the financial climate.
• Build upon work already undertaken to further challenge the capital programme with the aim being to release capacity and reduce pressure on the revenue budget.

The positive cultural and organisational change referenced throughout this report and the high regard in which the senior leadership team is held provide a conducive environment to forge ahead with ambitious and necessary programmes of change.

There are numerous programmes in train such as At Our Best (At Our Best Programme provides the platform for the delivery of the People Strategy and associated workforce strategies.) and Future Council – both of which have laudable intentions. However, how all activity comes together under a transformation programme remains unclear.

The council has put in place some key conditions to support a period of organisational change including greatly improved levels of staff engagement with staff describing the organisational culture as a ‘breath of fresh air’ along with a shared acknowledgement of the need for transformation across the whole organisation. This provides the perfect springboard for a purposeful transformation programme and is an opportunity which should be seized. These optimal conditions for significant change are supplemented by partners who are very engaged in the Swindon Plan and stand willing to enhance capacity and build shared problem-solving capacity.

The transformation programme is the lynchpin for the council’s future success, and indeed survival and in its current form, the programme lacks clarity and substance. Transformation means many things for many people, but for SBC it is imperative that its Transformation Programme is well governed and has clear objectives (primarily service redesign to ensure a fit for the future council with affordable ways of working and structures. Senior members and officers are aware that the transformation programme is ineffective and are cognisant that remedial action needs to happen quickly in light of financial challenges and pursuant to the recommendations made as part of the previous finance review.

An important next step to maximise capacity for improvement is to clearly articulate what success will look like and in the immediate term, invest precious resources in strategic design capacity. There are various delivery options available to the council, but the peer team advise them to choose carefully and ensure they maintain control and oversight. The council may well have the capability to lead this from within the existing workforce and there are many lessons to be learned from the wider sector e.g. the LGA’s Transformation Improvement Programme.

Beyond the transformation programme, SBC have invested in digital innovation and the business improvement team have impressive levels of knowledge and enthusiasm. The emerging technology team works to identify and explore potential benefits from new technologies to support the wider council objectives of being a modern, effective and efficient organisation including the use of technology to support independent living and reduce care costs, the use of AI tools to reduce administrative costs and the use of drones to eliminate the costs of scaffolding for roof inspections There is scope to make better use of this team by embedding them more in the transformation programme so that future service design is informed by their digital expertise from the outset.

There has been an increase in the focus on social value in the councils’ procurement activity as shown by the application of a minimum weighting for social value in high value tenders and additional tender clauses seeking to support the use of local contractors. The Swindon Plan includes an objective for building community wealth within the ‘Build a Better Swindon’ mission. The actions underneath the ‘building community wealth’ objective include undertaking various actions to seek to increase spend with local suppliers. These plans are at an early stage as The Swindon Plan continues to embed and so it will be important to ensure consistent application and monitor the impact of this policy directive.

Given the level of operational change facing the council, protecting strategic thinking space for the chief executive and CMT is a challenge. Creating the necessary and important thinking space will help SBC continue to identify opportunities for change and take advantage of them to the benefit of residents, businesses and partners in Swindon.

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. Following publication of CPC report you need to produce and publish an Action Plan within five months of the time on site. 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 Swindon Borough Council will be July 2025.

In the meantime, Paul Clarke, Principal Adviser for the South West, is the main contact between your authority and the Local Government Association. As outlined above, Paul is available to discuss any further support the council requires. [email protected].