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Broxtowe Borough Council – Progress Review

Feedback : 6 - 7 March 2024


1. Introduction

The council undertook an LGA Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) in December 2022 and published the full report with an action plan.

The Progress Review is an integral part of the Corporate Peer Challenge process. Usually taking place approximately ten months after the CPC, it is designed to provide space for the council’s senior leadership to:

  • Update peers on the early progress made and to receive feedback on this including how the action plan aligns to the CPC’s recommendations
  • Consider peer’s reflections on any new opportunities or challenges that may have arisen since the peer team were ‘on-site’ including any further support needs
  • Discuss any early impact or learning from the progress made to date

The LGA would like to thank Broxtowe Borough Council for their commitment to sector led improvement. This Progress Review was the next step in an ongoing, open and close relationship that the council has with LGA sector support.

2. Summary of the approach

The Progress Review at Broxtowe Borough Council took place 6th-7th March 2024. 

The progress review fed back comments under the following theme headings, after considering the Improvement Action Plan based on the original Corporate Peer Challenge Recommendations: 

  • Theme 1: Housing Repairs
  • Theme 2: Communications
  • Theme 3: Members
  • Theme 4: Budget

For this progress review, the following members of the original CPC team were involved: 

  1. Councillor Elizabeth Dennis – leader, North Hertfordshire District Council
  2. Stephen Evans – chief executive, Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
  3. Cassandra Clement – managing director of East Suffolk Services
  4. Becca Singh – peer challenge manager, Local Government Association

The peer team met at Broxtowe Council over the course of two half-days with Senior officers, frontline staff and Members from the council.

3. Progress Review - Feedback

Broxtowe Borough Council had a Corporate Peer Challenge in December 2022, after which the council created an Action Plan based on the peer team’s recommendations:

  • Enhance your approach to medium-term financial strategic planning
  • Further develop the interplay between the green futures climate change plan and the medium-term financial strategy
  • Develop a comprehensive workforce strategy overseen and driven by the general management team (GMT)
  • Establish an officer-led improvement board for housing repairs
  • Explore ways to provide cabinet with information on corporate risks
  • Review delegation arrangements
  • Continue to embed the cabinet and scrutiny arrangements
  • Further analyse the staff survey responses

The peer review improvement plan was published by the Council with the LGA peer review report in papers for the Cabinet meeting on 14th March 2023, available here: Agenda for Cabinet on Tuesday, 14 March 2023, 6.00 pm : Broxtowe Borough Council

Broxtowe has made impressive progress across all areas of the Improvement Plan. The positive staff culture witnessed on the CPC has continued to improve. The council took on board suggestions regarding the availability and visibility of the general management team (GMT), and about conducting staff surveys anonymously to encourage staff take up. 

The corporate ownership of housing, through the housing improvement board, has driven a strong response to the problems seen in Housing during the peer challenge, particularly in housing repairs. The re-organisation and recruitment of staff in Housing has led to a renewed energy and drive for improvements and an effective response to clearing a backlog of repairs. 

The May 2023 election saw an influx of new Members. Staff commented how positive this had been, with a re-invigoration of community work and commitment particularly from the new members.

The council has successfully put itself forward for awards, and it has been recognised as a good partner to work with. It is notable that the Leader and his team have identified the importance of the arts and culture to their residents’ wellbeing, mental health and sense of community. There is a real opportunity for this to be developed, particularly to try to mitigate the impact of Nottingham City Council (NCC)’s cuts to their arts and culture budget. Previously, NCC had provided significant arts and culture services, which residents of Broxtowe were able to easily access. Broxtowe is continuing to develop its arts and culture offer to ensure its residents do not miss out, particularly where there had been joint projects.

Staff had concerns about the role and reach of the forthcoming East Midlands Mayor (to be elected in May 2024). Some good communications about how Broxtowe is involved, influencing and in some cases leading the work in the combined authority would be useful to allay worries and reassure staff and residents that the council is taking every opportunity it can to do the best for its communities with this new strategic role.

Launching the new corporate plan is an opportunity to get staff really on board with where the council is heading and be part of shaping the vision and approach. The peer challenge team would encourage Broxtowe Borough Council to give some focused attention to how the golden thread, from the council’s aims, through service and team objectives reach individuals’ objectives. This would better ensure that everyone has ownership of the corporate plan and are committed to delivering it.

Housing

The governance of housing has been strengthened through the Housing improvement board, being led as a corporate responsibility and risk, rather than being a specific service problem. A plan for improvement is in place, and work is progressing well. The re-organisation and recruitment of senior staff within housing has made a positive difference to staff morale. There is a plan in place which is reducing the backlog of repairs.

The team suggest that Broxtowe considers how this approach could be used in other directorates and/or service areas where there may be specific issues learning lessons from the successful recruitment in housing. There may be good practice other parts of the council could adopt in addressing recruitment difficulties which those service areas are also facing.

The council may find it useful to develop a comprehensive HRA strategy to link financial decisions through to housing development and statutory requirements around EPC categories.

Communications

The communications team is a small central resource for the council. The team suggests that the team clarifies what it can do, and what individual services do, and how central communications can assist individual services. What can central comms do to improve consistency in communications by different services?

Staff report that leadership team are increasingly approachable and available for advice and direction. It is noticeable that they don’t have a separate office, they are around the office building, and staff feel able to discuss matters with them.

The team suggest that the communications team run a survey about internal comms to ensure it is using the right channels for the right things. It may be helpful to look at a different balance between in person and digital comms, including more informal mechanisms such as lunch talks, face-to-face and virtual meetings over coffee.

The central comms team could have a more strategic approach to and oversight of both internal and external council communications. This could ensure that the council is clear about the priority messages and themes it wants to communicate, as well as ensuring a two-way approach to communication.

Members

Broxtowe has introduced more varied methods of training and development for Members since the CPC. This includes in-person and live Teams sessions, as well as a suite of online training. The LGA online training courses are also available to all Members. This could be extended to include partners briefing Members on their priorities for the borough and broadening the dialogues that take place. The council could establish a member development working group, along with democratic services, to ensure that the right opportunities are available at the right time for councillors with different commitments to attend. Encouraging long-standing Members to attend workshops would also ensure that all Members are up to date with all the changes in local government. There has been good feedback about the Member induction programme last year.

There is more work that could be done to ensure the council is clear about what information and communications Members want as well as how and when they wish to receive it. The peer team suggest the council aims for greater consistency about briefing opposition members. One example of how this could be improved is to offer a briefing as soon as the Cabinet papers have been published.

The peer team also encourage Members to use national development opportunities, such as attending LGA conference, and participating in Leadership Academy sessions. This would be particularly beneficial for newer members, especially those who may have cabinet positions. There would be positive value to their personal development if they were to build and utilise networks across the country of councillors from other councils who have similar experiences to them.

Budget

Leisure and temporary accommodation tend to be the biggest pressures for district and borough council budgets, but Broxtowe appears to be managing these well. The budget seems stable, and work has been done to improve capital spend. The council has used £2m of reserves to balance the budget this year. The peer team recommends that in future budget rounds, a balanced budget is set without the need to use reserves. This may require some tougher decisions but is a more sustainable approach to budgeting particularly given the ongoing likely pressure on local government funding. The team attended a council meeting with the budget on the agenda. Budget papers had not been published with the agenda, which affected the quality of the debate. Together with the lack of an Equality Impact Assessment on the budget, the council could be risking accusations of lack of scrutiny.

4. Final thoughts and next steps

The LGA would like to thank Broxtowe Borough Council for undertaking an LGA CPC progress review.

We appreciate that senior managerial and political leadership will want to reflect on these findings and suggestions to determine how the organisation wishes to take things forward.

Under the umbrella of LGA sector-led improvement, there is an on-going offer of support to councils. The LGA is well placed to provide additional support, advice and guidance on several of the areas identified for development and improvement and we would be happy to discuss this.

Mark Edgell (principal adviser) is the main point of contact between the authority and the Local Government Association (LGA) and his e-mail address is [email protected].