LGA Corporate Peer Challenge: Wandsworth Borough Council

Wandsworth Council is a strong performing Inner London borough in South West London. Children’s Services were rated ‘good’ overall in January, receiving their highest rating in more than eight years. At the elections in May 2022, there was a change of political control of the council, with Labour taking control and forming the administration for the first time in over 40 years. Wandsworth Borough Council has been in a Shared Staff Arrangement (SSA) with the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 2016 which has delivered substantial savings for both authorities. Both authorities continue to be separate sovereign bodies with their own elected councillors, cabinet, and leaders.

The new administration’s aspiration is to increase momentum and pace to deliver their manifesto and focus on clear outcomes for residents. Members, staff, and partners are energised and excited to work on the new agenda, particularly the council’s ambitions around housing.

The new Leader and administration are clear and ambitious for Wandsworth and how they want to see the council change and deliver for residents. Overall Wandsworth’s members are highly engaged, diverse and motivated at every level and have a strong sense of place and want to work together on the key issues. However, there is further work to be done around continuous member development for the diversity of roles they undertake.

The new chief executive and the changes he has made since joining the organisation have been well received by staff, members, and partners.

Member and officer relationships are good. However, the peer team continually heard from officers and members that the Wandsworth governance system is ‘flat out’ due to its volume and complexity. There is a need to streamline the existing governance model to increase the required pace and capacity to drive change and realise the ambitions of the new administration in Wandsworth. The scrutiny function mainly focuses on ‘pre-decision’ with limited post decision ‘overview’. There is an opportunity to co-produce and improve the model so there is still value in the scrutiny function with a better balance of pre and post decision scrutiny.

The council has for many years regularly used its urgent and routine procedure SO83(A) process to take decisions in between committee cycles and for routine matters. This frequency of use is unusual and suggests there is inadequate delegation to officers and cabinet members with an over reliance on its use as a means of decision making.

Members are frustrated and would like the council to be more 'member led’. There is an opportunity to create more space in the governance timetable for joint policy development with members, senior officers and partners and build consensus on what that looks like for Wandsworth.

The new administration’s ambition is to be ‘fairer, compassionate and more sustainable' while making Wandsworth a 'fantastic place to live’. The peer team highlighted that there is a need to clarify how these two aspirations link together, and to articulate to staff and residents what this means in tangible delivery terms. The peer team was told that the council had not facilitated a full residents’ survey for a number of years, with the last being just before the pandemic. The authority may wish to consider commissioning a residents’ survey so that communities’ views continue to shape council policy and priorities.

Place leadership and place making is a key priority for Wandsworth. The borough has seen significant developments such as the iconic Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms developments. That said, it is clear that the ambition of the new administration is for a more inclusive and sustainable approach to place making that better benefits the wider community. There is a recognition that there is a challenge around the scale of the ambition and a need to think about how to fund and invest in placemaking as part of the next stage of the council’s place transition agenda, especially given the new administration’s 'fairer, compassionate and more sustainable' agenda.

Partners told the peer team they ‘welcome the new strategic outward looking administration, to harness 'green shoots' and ensure it grows.’ Partners felt it was refreshing and were also positive about the council’s Covid response, joint work on Homes for Ukraine and the cost of living response was also really valued. Partners recognise that Wandsworth is changing, and the community and voluntary sector are keen to partner more with the council around the new political agenda. To support this, there is work to do to build trust and confidence with partners and use the power of the council to convene and lead around these new strategic priorities. There is also refreshed appetite from neighbouring boroughs to work jointly on place shaping around travel, retrofit and climate change. Neighbouring boroughs are also keen to work together on development, transport and place making along the Thames riverside.

Partners were also aware of the ‘heavy’ bureaucratic systems, seeing the governance as excessive compared to other London Boroughs, particularly when the council fund or commission a partnership programme.

Wandsworth has a reputation for sound financial management and the lowest average council tax in the country. The council clearly has a tight set of financial controls which provides rigour to all proposals and policy documents before submission to committees. It has significant reserves compared to some London Boroughs which is recognised by members and partners. However, it is important to have a long-term strategy that everyone can buy into around the use of reserves. There is a need for conversations to take place further upstream with lead members so they can influence spend on proposals and policy development. While Wandsworth has a reputation for an efficiency mindset, it is important to ensure that it does not stifle the generation of new ideas, prudent investment, or quality services.

There is a need to make the space for wider EDI (Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) (Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) conversations and ensure all members and officers feel seen and heard. Wandsworth has an equalities member policy champion. However, the council might explore how the organisation reflects the experience of its staff internally and improves its response externally and when listening to and serving their diverse communities?

Staff reflected on the benefits and challenges of working for the SSA. Senior staff recognised how working for two councils contributed towards their career development, although the peer team questioned if this benefit was being realised by all staff.

Navigating across two different systems of governance and sets of meetings across two councils was seen as a challenge by staff across the board, constraining their capacity to be innovative. Cumbersome processes were mentioned on numerous occasions as driving the work that the officers do and are sometimes used as a barrier to action. Some staff described how they had found it necessary to find work arounds and ‘swerve’ some of the non-statutory processes put in place which they did not see adding value and were draining capacity. Senior officers should work to find processes that work for the future, using best practice from elsewhere. There is appetite and energy across the whole organisation to streamline and improve processes to create the much-needed capacity required to realise the ambitions of members. As part of the SSA’s transformation programme there is scope to review opportunities to reinvest in the officer core to ensure both councils and the SSA are fit for the future.

There is clear commitment from the senior leadership team to deliver change through the transformation programme. With the arrival of a new chief executive and a change of administration, staff felt this has created the space for open conversation on ‘how to challenge each other constructively’.

Retaining separate identities and sovereignties are essential to both councils, however it is important that there is a balance when considering the culture, capacity and values of a single workforce that serves both organisations and how these feeds into the recruitment and retention approach of the SSA.

There is a perception from members and staff that HR and Organisational Development (OD) is too low in the management hierarchy and not valued as highly as it could be. There is a sense that the OD could be doing more in giving opportunity to the organisation.

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: Review the governance model and processes to ensure there is efficient decision making which enables the organisation to support the new administration’s strategy and deliver for Wandsworth’s residents.

Recommendation 2: Capitalise on member, staff, and partner enthusiasm for a new agenda by creating a compelling narrative for Wandsworth building on the vision to be ‘fairer, compassionate and more sustainable’.

Recommendation 3: Use the council's power to convene and establish a new, strategically focused 'Borough Place Partnership' to provide strengthened governance, strategic civic leadership, and a new way of working with statutory partners.

Recommendation 4: Define more clearly the council's agenda for placemaking and what it incorporates.

Recommendation 5: Consider reviewing the oversight and functional delivery model for place functions, to ensure this meets the new administration's expectations for agility, pace and thematic delivery of outcomes and ensure the change programme addresses capacity for placemaking.

Recommendation 6: Develop and support members (training, culture, infrastructure, awaydays – joint working with directors) and take full advantage of re-joining LGA & working with other partners/boroughs/London Councils.

Recommendation 7: Fully align manifesto to financial planning, change programme, staff capacities and efficiencies e.g. maximising the application of HRA reserves and maximising the use of CIL, NCIL and S106 for placemaking, leverage and improving fairness across the borough.

Shared Staff Arrangement (SSA)

Recommendation 8: Continue development of the emerging change programme, attending to co-design with members, employees, and partners

Recommendation 9: Ensure link is evident between the intent of the emerging change programme and investment and the delivery of member agenda for residents

Recommendation 10: Accelerate the development of your employer brand under the 'Great Employer' workstream

Recommendation 11: Review schemes of delegation and empower streamlining of forms and processes to create capacity, increase pace, reduce duplication and motivate staff to increase productivity – learn from the ‘swerve'!

Recommendation 12: Raise profile and strengthen OD specialism across the organisation and be prepared to invest in people with the skills to enable change

Recommendation 13: Consider the value and opportunity of senior leaders spending planned, purposeful time together to develop the strategic agenda

Recommendation 14: Consider how to develop a greater sense of joint political governance for change

The peer team

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

• Lead Officer Peer: David Williams, Chief Executive, Portsmouth City Council and Gosport Borough Council 
• Joint Lead Member Peer: Mayor Philip Glanville (Labour), Mayor of LB Hackney 
• Joint Lead Member Peer: Cllr Vikki Slade (Lib Dem), Leader of the Opposition at Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole Council 
• Officer Peer: Alison Stuart, Chief Legal Officer and Monitoring Officer, LB Barking and Dagenham 
• Officer Peer: Cherry Bennett, Director of People and Policy, Bath and North East Somerset Council 
• Officer Peer: Kate Martin, Executive Director for Place, Sheffield City Council 
• Officer Peer: Rachel Crossley, Joint Executive Director, Public Service Reform, Surrey Heartlands ICS (Integrated Care Systems), and Surrey County Council 
• LGA Peer Challenge Manager: Sophie Poole, LGA (LGA Lead and Wandsworth) 
• LGA Peer Challenge Manager: James Mehmed, LGA (Richmond)

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.

• Local priorities and outcomes - Are the council’s priorities clear and informed by the local context? Is the council delivering effectively on its priorities? 
• Organisational and place leadership - Does the council provide effective local leadership? Are there good relationships with partner organisations and local communities?
• Governance and culture - Are there clear and robust governance arrangements? Is there a culture of challenge and scrutiny?
• 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?
• Capacity for improvement - Is the organisation able to support delivery of local priorities? Does the council have the capacity to improve?

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

• Decision making and governance - this is reflected in the section under ‘Governance and Culture’
• Transformation and capacity for change - a strong focus on capacity to deliver future transformation programme across both councils. Is your corporate capacity able to deliver? HR, organisational development, and communications? This is reflected in the section under ‘Capacity to Deliver’
• Placemaking – how to create a ‘place’ strategy for Wandsworth based on growth and investment, with a focus on sustainable, inclusive, and transformational investment that benefits existing residents. This is reflected in the section under ‘Organisational and Place Leadership’

The peer challenge process

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

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

• Gathered information and views from more than 39 meetings, in addition to further research and reading.
• Spoke to more than 130 people including a range of council staff together with members and external stakeholders.

As the peer challenge was delivered jointly for both Richmond Council and Wandsworth Council who have a shared staff arrangement, some of the documents that the peer team reviewed and people that the peer team spoke to, were relevant to both councils.

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.

Wandsworth Council is a strong performing Inner London borough. Children’s Services were rated ‘good’ overall in January, receiving the highest rating in more than eight years. Wandsworth has been in a shared staff arrangement (SSA) with London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 2016. In May 2022, the local elections resulted in a change of political control, with a Labour administration taking control after 44 years. The new administration’s aspiration is to increase momentum and pace to deliver their manifesto and focus on clear outcomes for residents.

The Peer Team heard that Wandsworth had historically been perceived as a ‘closed organisation’ by partners. However, the members, staff, and partners that the peer team spoke to were energised by the recent changes. They reflected that they could see and feel a difference and are excited to work on the new agenda, particularly the council’s ambition around housing. Partners told the peer team they ‘really welcome the new strategic outward looking administration, to harness ‘green shoots’ and ensure it grows.’ Partners saw the recent Homes for Ukraine work as a very positive stakeholder experience and partnership demonstrating a willingness for further joint working, shared resources and planning together – ‘the council really listened and worked with partners in a new way.’.

Partners were also positive about the council’s Covid response and reflected how the whole organisation came together working in partnership with community partners and the NHS. The cost of living response was also valued.

The new administration have achieved a huge amount since May 2022, including starting to cost out and incorporate their manifesto into the council’s corporate plans. The new administration has also delivered its first budget. However, there is recognition it is still early days and there is need to build on the current momentum and being clear what the remaining years in the four-year term will look like.

The council’s relationship with the Greater London Authority (GLA) reflects a new political ambition to work together in partnership for the benefit of the borough. The work around the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) reserves is a potential game changer and has already enabled the authority to invest in the frontline housing staff and ensure that all of the 1,000 homes in the new build programme are now council homes. The peer team was impressed how the council has been in a position to achieve this in the first year of the new administration.

The peer team recognised that the tagline ‘Wandsworth is a fantastic place to live’ comes from the administration and links to the manifesto around being ‘fairer, compassionate and more sustainable’. The peer team question whether it is clear how these two aspirations link together and if staff and residents understand what this means in tangible delivery terms. What is the approach and how is this being articulated across all the council’s policies?

The peer team was told that the council had not facilitated a full residents’ survey since just before the pandemic. The authority may wish to consider commissioning a residents’ survey so that communities’ views continue to shape council policy and priorities.

The new political leadership is ambitious and there is a real desire to change the look and feel of the organisation. It is clear from the members that the peer team spoke to that there is a focus not to just set a new strategic direction but to also deliver tangible improvements for residents. However, there is a need to streamline the existing governance model and support the new administration’s strategy by increasing the pace and capacity to drive change and deliver for Wandsworth residents. The peer team also questioned whether the Transformation programme is sufficiently aligned to the administration’s priorities, especially around placemaking and the manifesto.

The peer team recognised that there is an evolving piece of work around equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and it is good to see that the organisation has new, diverse members who reflect the communities they represent. There is a need to be clearer on the EDI objectives for the organisation and where HR and OD member leadership sits and how that is projected back out into the community, articulating the council’s commitment to equalities.

Place leadership and place making is a key priority for Wandsworth. The borough has seen significant developments such as the iconic Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms developments. That said, it is clear that the ambition of the new administration is for a more inclusive and sustainable approach to place making that better benefits the wider community. The council has a clear housing aspiration and there is a need to look at the transport and infrastructure across the borough. There has been a powerful use of the Business Improvement Districts (BID). The peer team heard that there is concern that some areas of the borough are not included in similar projects, such as Roehampton and Tooting. There is an opportunity to ensure that future proceeds of growth are shared across the borough.

Partners recognise that Wandsworth is changing, and the community and voluntary sector are keen to partner up with the council around the administration’s new agenda. However, there is work to do in building trust and confidence. There are huge benefits to be realised by working with partners to help shape Wandsworth as a place, ensuring more equity in terms of benefits and resident involvement in the future.

There is an immediate opportunity to convene the borough’s key partners together to collectively agree what a borough place partnership could look like and harness their willingness and excitement around the strong political and civic leadership for place. This is already managed well by members and officers; however, the council could gain a lot by loosening some of its grip on this agenda. Partners are particularly keen to work together on cross cutting themes which deliver shared outcomes such as skills and employment, climate change, strategic asset management planning as well as transport. There is also an opportunity to bridge investments into the north of the borough by working with community organisations and brokering relationships with new businesses coming into the borough such as Apple and other key stakeholders.

There is a question around how the council works with health partners going forward who value the relationship with Children’s and Adult Services. There is potential to broaden how placemaking is perceived, using the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) to look at different parts of the borough and agree an approach to future place-based needs such as family health work and early intervention.

There is also appetite from neighbouring boroughs to work jointly on place shaping around travel, retrofit and climate change. Neighbouring boroughs are also keen to work together on shared issues such as riverside management, borough boundaries and strategic growth areas and corridors.

There is a recognition that where there’s ambition, there is a challenge around scale and a need to think about how to fund and invest in the next stage of the council’s place transition agenda, in light of the new administration’s 'fairer, compassionate, and more sustainable’ agenda. There is a need to develop a new delivery model and embed sufficient placemaking support into the transformation programme, as focus, capacity and resource appear to be limited at present.

Member and officer relationships appear to be good. However, the peer team continually heard from officers and members that the Wandsworth governance system is ‘flat out’ due to its volume and complexity and relatively low levels of delegation to officers and members. There is a question around the extent to which the governance system is an enabling force for delivery. Both officers and members said they found the system ‘restrictive’. There is a need for the governance to be reviewed at Wandsworth and to streamline processes. The peer team heard that lead-in times are long, which can create delays causing decisions to be rushed in the final stages. There is a risk of having ‘papers for papers sake’ with one person describing it as a “quantum of papers”. Several members commented that committee papers and meetings are ‘too long’, describing the system like ‘wading through mud’ and reflecting that there are no committee meetings due to take place for three months at the time the peer team was on site. Staff talked about writing reports that do not go to committee for two months, by which time the initial data provided is out of date. One staff member also described how she took a paper through ten different meetings to approve £350k spend on a contractor, creating significant delays. Partners were also aware of the ‘heavy’ system, seeing the governance as excessive compared to other London Boroughs, when the council fund or commission a partnership programme.

Wandsworth’s members are highly engaged, diverse and motivated at every level and have a strong sense of place and want to work together on the key issues. However, there is further work to be done around member development. Members told the peer team: ‘There is not enough training for new councillors. It is very minimal, with a more structured induction around the council and how each bit of it works.’ Another reflected that there had been minimal officer support with ‘no member development discussion about how members are getting on in their role, what their training needs are and no support in ward frontline roles except for casework.’

While a training package was initially put in place immediately after the election, a more mature and in-depth development programme which identifies what skills members need as they go through the four-year term in their different roles in the organisation, is essential and would be welcomed by members. There is also a need to think about what member development means in terms of executive roles, scrutiny, regulatory and audit beyond the new member work and put that into a bespoke member development plan.

The peer team was told by officers that the increase in new members, with lots of ideas about what they wanted to do, was resource intensive ‘when capacity is already stretched’. Levels of casework work being processed by members also appeared to be on the increase. Creating the space for early engagement with members around proposals and a full member development programme will help to ease some of the demand as members develop the skills and experience required in their new roles.

Members appear to be frustrated and would like the council to be more ’member-led’. There is an opportunity to create more space in the governance timetable for joint policy development with members, senior officers and partners and seek consensus on what that looks like for Wandsworth.

Wandsworth’s scrutiny function focuses on ‘pre-decision’ with limited if any post decision ‘overview’. One member of staff commented: ‘Pre-decision scrutiny makes the decisions. It is not like any other executive system I’ve experienced. This leads to barriers to efficiency especially when capacity is already stretched.’ There is a need to create the space for more outward facing capacity for post decision scrutiny of policy impact and external ideas such as deep dives into shared areas of concern with partners. There is an opportunity to co-produce and improve the model so there is still value in the scrutiny function with a better balance of pre and post decision scrutiny.

There are opportunities to use informal structures within the governance framework to support prioritisation and policy development including manifesto delivery, place making and property and procurement.

The council has for many years used its urgent and routine process (SO83(A)) regularly which suggests there is inadequate delegation to officers and cabinet members. The use of the standing order was not well-understood, with Cabinet Members referring to approving ‘their SO83s’ when in fact they are officer decisions ‘rubber stamped’ by members. One member of staff described their experience of the council’s governance system: ‘There is red tape to get the most basic things done. It’s the Wandsworth way or the highway – this is the way it’s always been.’  There is clear commitment from the senior leadership team to commit to change through the transformation programme. However, the challenge is how to change the perception of Wandsworth’s pervasive and ingrained persona - one member of staff describing the culture as being “in the walls”.

While it is clear that certain values have been positive and should be continued to maintain financial stability, there is an opportunity through the transformation programme to recognise the key achievements to date and agree what will be the core values that the organisation will carry through into the future.

The peer team heard positive examples of passionate leadership within Children’s Services for instance, that could be built on across the organisation. With the arrival of the new chief executive and a change of administration, staff felt this has created the space for open conversation on ‘how to challenge each other constructively’.

There is a need to make the space for wider EDI conversations and ensure all members and officers feel seen and heard. The peer team observed that the diversity of staff increased closer to the front line. Whilst Wandsworth has an equalities champion, this itself will not be enough and questions to consider are how the organisation reflects the experience of its staff internally, and how could it improve its response externally when talking to the community?

Wandsworth has a reputation for sound financial management and has the lowest, average council tax in the country. It has significant reserves compared to some other London Boroughs which is recognised by partners and the wider community. The council uses reserves to assist with the delivery of the budget savings required. However, it is important to have a long-term strategy that everyone can buy into around the use of reserves, how they are used to deploy around transformation and to support financial stability. The peer team would also encourage the council to reflect on how regular in-year monitoring is reported to the Executive and Overview and Scrutiny.

Again, there is a need to prioritise training on finance for key members, particularly around the skills and knowledge required in years one, two, three and four of the electoral cycle. There is also a need to make better use of audit for assurance and policy development, and for the relationship with external audit to be improved and some areas for joint member development. We were told that Audit agendas are seen as “light and rolled forward agendas”.

The golden thread between the corporate plan, manifesto and the transformation programme and values work needs to shape the budget and the MTFS (Medium Term Financial Strategy) to address rising demands and pressures.

There is also the need to increase capacity to make choices about investment around the administration’s priorities, such as the planning service (which has one of the lowest per-capita spends in London) and economic development.

There are emerging procurement strategies and assets property strategies which offer opportunity to be codeveloped with members and partners to unlock the full benefits e.g., what sits in the SSA and both councils and what is unique to Wandsworth and its ambitions? Scoping out the financial detail of the transformation programme should also be accelerated to inform how any budget gaps can be addressed.

The council clearly has a tight set of financial controls which provides rigour to all proposals and policy documents before submission to committees. The organisation is encouraged to consider opportunity for more conversations further upstream with lead members so they can influence spend on proposals and policy development. While Wandsworth has a reputation for an efficiency mindset, it is important to ensure that this does not stifle the generation of new ideas or quality services. The Peer Team was told that procurement weighting is often more balanced towards price. If this is so, while the council procurement purchases may be achieving value for money, are they providing the right quality of outcome?

The Shared Staff Arrangement is well regarded by the majority of people that the Peer Team spoke to. Members described it as ‘a bit of a marriage which needs to be protected to keep it working’. Neighbouring boroughs also complimented both councils on how they have made the arrangement work so effectively over time.

The peer team spent time talking to different groups of staff from a wide range of services, including directors, assistant directors, middle managers, and front-line staff. It was clear from everyone that the peer team spoke to that staff are professional, experienced, loyal and enjoy working in a high performing culture.

The new chief executive has been well received by staff, partners and members and is seen as ‘visible and interested’, creating a sense of optimism. Staff felt positive about the changes brought in since the new chief executive’s arrival, such as more regular meetings of the Chief Officer Group which has made senior staff feel part of a cohesive leadership team. This has also prompted directors to recognise the importance of spending more strategic planning time together.

There is clear commitment from the senior leadership team to commit to change through the transformation programme. With the arrival of a new chief executive, staff felt this has created the space for open conversation on ‘how to challenge each other constructively’. 

While staff recognise that visible changes and engagement has been taking place since the arrival of the new chief executive, staff emphasised the need to ‘keep at it, continue to ask for feedback, go on walkabouts, so it becomes our way of working and is built into the DNA’.  

Communications appear to be mostly top-down. The peer team heard that directors want staff to feel listened to and engaged with. While staff survey and service planning focus groups are being held, there are opportunities for even more engagement with assistant directors and heads of service and the wider staff group. A number of staff the peer team spoke to said they valued the new blogs that the chief executive and directors are committed to writing.

Staff welcomed the recent staff survey. There is now a need to devote capacity for timely conversations and action in response to the feedback at service level as well as at different staff levels across departments. It is important that staff see demonstrable change arising from the survey and that this is proactively communicated to install confidence that their views have been heard. Delivering a staff survey is a huge undertaking for an in-house team and the peer team would suggest that the council considers commissioning future surveys of this size outside of the organisation, to reinforce anonymity, build trust with the workforce and speed up analysis of the data.

In terms of staff recognition, the peer team were told this is not consistent outside of the annual staff awards. Staff recognition should be regular and permeate through to day-to-day activity – staff commented that 'a simple thank you goes a long way'.

Another common theme that emerged was the experience of staff working across two council systems. Senior staff told the peer team that they find the challenge and opportunities working for two councils rewarding as part of their career development. However, it was not clear to the peer team if this opportunity is being maximised across all levels of the organisation. Senior staff recognised that working for two councils meant that they were better paid compared to most local government officers in the same role. Staff have become adept at naturally shifting their attention between the two councils ‘day by day, and often hour by hour’. Staff are committed to their roles and are conscientious, often working very long hours.

Staff talked about how duplication to ‘fulfil statutory duties’ in both councils was hindering their capacity for innovation. Staff have learnt to navigate the two democratic and planning systems but described it as extremely challenging and that refining this would aid resilience. One member of staff described the system as working, ‘but it is clumsy and mechanical’. The peer team heard examples where staff are often attending several evening council meetings a week across both councils. This is not sustainable long term. In another example, the peer team were told that committee meetings for both councils had been held on the same night, meaning that officers were not physically able to attend both.  

Staff across the board also felt there were cumbersome processes (HR, finance and procurement cited) which were driving their work, rather than enabling delivery and that this was impacting on productivity and limiting the value-added time for managers in particular.

A member of staff told the peer team: ‘I don't have enough time to see what others are doing - we are not absorbing best practice in various sectors’ and ‘we can see that there are inefficiencies in our processes and systems, but we don't have enough people to do that thinking.’ There is an appetite and energy across the whole organisation to streamline and improve processes to create capacity. Directors recognised that if some controls were eased off this would empower their direct reports to work more freely.

Staff told the peer team that most of the existing processes within the SSA were already established when the arrangement was initially set up resulting in middle managers and front-line staff repeatedly referencing ‘the Wandsworth Way’. There is an opportunity to reset the narrative and develop an ‘SSA’ way as part of the Transformation Programme values work.

The peer team also heard from staff about the ‘grip’ the SSA has through its processes across both councils, which has helped secure their current financial positions but may be inhibiting flexibility and the scope for greater innovation and creativity. Officers told the peer team that when bringing forward proposals for consideration, particularly at Directors’ Board, the challenge they received was too robust at times.  

It is clear that the SSA has delivered significant savings for both councils and significant benefits for residents in both boroughs. However, the repeated challenge that the peer team heard around capacity suggests there is also merit in considering reinvesting in the officer core to make sure the arrangement is fit for the future and the right skills and capacity are in the right places to realise the ambition and aspirations of both councils. This is particularly important in light of the emerging transformation programme, which has already started and needs to be delivered at pace, as well as the clear steer members have given around their expectations and aspirations. 

The peer team was made very aware of the importance to both councils of retaining their separate identities and sovereignties. This has translated into staff feeling they cannot mention that they are doing work for the other council, and this has created an additional pressure - ‘When talking to members, I'm not allowed to mention the other council’. The peer team understands this anxiety has eased slightly and that officers can now refer to both councils in reports that they bring forward to committee.

Both councils need to be alive to how this can impact on the organisation having open conversations on how to prioritise and manage pressure points. For example, it was reported that officers not talking about the other council permeated as far as applying for awards: ‘Why can’t we do more to nominate for national awards, for one council, team or person and celebrate it? We are too worried about one seeming better than the other rather than celebrating difference.’ This is holding both councils back in celebrating their achievements and good practice in the sector and sharing their successes.  

A positive example of where both councils are aligned is the climate change agenda, which all staff could get behind. The peer team would encourage both councils to continually look to see where priorities align and seek opportunities to work jointly in this way, where outcomes benefit both organisations and make good use of the SSA resource.

The peer team also heard a number of times how staff were confused around identity and who they work for. Staff who joined the organisation more recently understood they were employed by the SSA while working for both councils. However, the majority of officers the peer team spoke to who worked at either council before the formation of the SSA described themselves as working for one council or the other.

In this confusion, a narrative that talks about working for the residents is overshadowed. The transformation programme and the ‘Great Employer’ workstream should be prioritised as it is an opportunity to address a single narrative around identity, bring about a one-workforce culture and set of values, particularly as part of the organisation’s approach to recruitment and retention.

As part of the transformation programme there is also an opportunity to increase Organisational Development (OD) visibility and capacity and for the two councils to learn from one another. There is a widely held view that time is needed to work out what OD means for the SSA, and there are opportunities to draw on the experience and expertise in Adult and Children’s Services. One Head of Service commented: ‘We have some gems in the next layer who can lead if empowered.’ Another member of staff said: ‘We need different types of leaders for the future - compassionate leadership, system leaders. OD is missing from the heart of the organisation.’ For the senior leadership, there is an opportunity to provide coaching and executive leadership support as well as a team working programme to build a new culture, trust, team ethos and values. Investment in training and support for middle managers would empower them to lead and manage change across services and partnerships.

The new Workspace Pilots which have been brought into some parts of the organisation as part of the transformation programme have been well received by those staff who benefit from them and have been positive in signalling new ways of working. However, their success has created an inconsistent approach to agile working across the SSA with staff keen for the improvements to be rolled out across the rest of the organisation.

The peer team recognised that there are green shoots around the EDI (Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) agenda, with initiatives to improve management diversity and introduce reciprocal mentoring. The peer team heard that work had been done on the gender pay gap, that they were engaging with the 10000 Black Interns Programme and looking at representation from an EDI perspective in the top quartile of the organisation. However, there is more work to do in ensuring the workforce reflects the diversity of the residents they serve particularly in the management tiers of the organisation. 

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

Both the peer team and LGA are keen to build on the relationships formed through the peer challenge. The CPC (Corporate Peer Challenge) process includes a six-month check-in session. This provides space for the council’s senior leadership to update peers on its progress against the action plan and discuss next steps.

In the meantime, Kate Herbert, Principal Adviser for London, is the main contact between your authority and the Local Government Association. Kate is available to discuss any further support the council requires. [email protected]