The LGA’s peer challenge offer is effective and well regarded by the sector. The LGAs most recent survey found that every council that had received a corporate peer challenge found the process for preparing for and participating in the peer challenge has had a positive impact on their council.
By bringing together political and managerial leadership, through the use of member and officer peers, peer challenge provides robust, strategic and credible challenge and support to councils. Peer challenge also enhances the capacity of the sector and helps to avoid insularity within councils.
Over the past year the LGA has undertaken significant work to improve Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC). It continues to be a highly valued improvement and assurance tool, delivered by the local government sector for the local government sector and is a cornerstone of our sector support programme.
This has been clearly demonstrated by the most recent results from the 2022/23 evaluation of councils and peers which identified that:
- 100 per cent of Chief Executives and Leaders thought a corporate or finance peer challenge had a positive impact on their council.
- 100 per cent of Chief Executives and Leaders said they were satisfied with their CPC or finance peer challenge.
- 100 per cent of peers were satisfied with being part of a peer team.
Strengthening Corporate Peer Challenge
The drive to adapt and strengthen CPC is more important than ever. From April 2024, we will be delivering our newly strengthened CPC programme.
In partnership with the local government sector, we have:
- Improved the overall rigour and robustness of our approach to CPC and onsite progress reviews.
- Developed a schedule to enable all English councils to have a CPC at least once every five years.
- Increased focus on governance, finance, performance and assurance.
- Invested in and improved the training and development of Member and officer peers.
- Improved robustness, consistency and impact of CPC and progress review reports.
How has Corporate Peer Challenge changed?
As part of improving our CPC we have reviewed and amended the five core areas of assessment for every corporate peer challenge with an increased focus on:
- performance and productivity across the areas of local priorities and outcomes
- organisational and place leadership
- governance and culture
- financial planning and management, and
- capacity for improvement.
The CPC process now has a much stronger focus on finance, data and evidence, utilising the LGA’s LG Inform local area benchmarking tool to assess council performance and the provision of an independent finance briefing.
The approach fully reflects the work on the LGA’s improvement and assurance framework for local government and considers the current challenges to the sector and the draft statutory guidance for best value authorities, ‘Best value standards and intervention’.
Each CPC now has an improved approach to risk management and the delivery of corporate peer challenges to high priority councils, including working with the Office for Local Government to support the local government sector to be as efficient and effective as possible and to ultimately deliver the best possible outcomes for citizens.
With every CPC there is now a requirement to have a Progress Review and to have published the report with12-months of the corporate peer challenge taking place which are delivered onsite in councils and will include a full review of the council’s action plan.
We have also introduced a detailed timetable for all councils that will highlight a timeframe window to assist councils in planning for a CPC every five years. The LGA’s Chair and Group Leaders will write to councils in good time as a reminder, and information is now included in the LGA’s annual membership pack.
To ensure the sector has highly effective and impactful peers, we have continued to invest in our member and officer peers through the provision of an enhanced programme of face-to-face training.
Peer teams will continue to be independent and will always include member peers that are from parties that reflect the administration and opposition of the council.
Improved information through our recently developed peer profiles will ensure councils have the most up to date details on LGA peers and with the LGA having a strong focus on equality and diversity the final composition of the peer team will be agreed by the LGA.
A small cohort of both LGA officer and member peers is being established to enable the rapid response to high priority CPCs to council’s that are deemed as ‘high risk’ or ‘challenged’.
There are also enhanced requirements around the publication of reports and action plans, with clear publication timescales (three months for the CPC report and five months for the council’s action plan) in place and each report:
- having a greater focus on finance and data, with a strong assessment of council performance and productivity and how it compares with others;
- being even more authoritative and direct in content with a stronger focus on performance and finance;
- being evidenced based and with councils strictly limited to only amending any factual errors or inaccuracies;
- being published by the LGA irrespective of whether the council publish.
This strengthened offer remains paramount in ensuring all evidence, knowledge and good practice is captured for the sector, to enable better understanding and sharing of good practice.
And as usual it will run alongside the LGA’s wide-ranging sector improvement and assurance support that ensures councils are in the best shape possible and able to adapt to rapidly changing conditions.
