Corporate Peer Challenge: Doncaster Council

Doncaster Council is on a journey of continuous improvement with many good features, and if continued it will become an exemplar council. It has overcome some challenging times in its recent past and is now emerging as a strong organisation that is on a positive and upward trajectory.

The council comes across as an energetic and focused organisation that has thought through what it wants to achieve and how it will go about it. It has a clear strategic focus, strong political and managerial leadership, and good governance and decision-making arrangements. It is financially stable and has committed partners who are aligned to make a real difference to Doncaster as a ‘place of places’. It is an enterprising organisation that seeks opportunities and delivers well for place, with a developing focus on people. It is now seizing opportunities to improve the quality of life of its residents and businesses.

There is huge commitment, dedication and affinity to the place among members, staff and partners to delivering for Doncaster. This shared commitment, dedication and affinity to Doncaster drives the organisation’s ambitions and is demonstrated by the tangible examples of the work being done on the ground whilst dealing with several emergency situations in the recent past. The last few years called for, and was met with, strong leadership, organisational ability, resourcefulness and resilience by the council.

These challenging times have stretched organisational capacity and now may be the time to pause on developing more strategies and instead reflect on the progress made so far and plan the journey ahead so that organisational overload and fatigue can be addressed. This will mean taking the time out to think through in detail its existing plans and priorities and work out clearly how they are to be delivered. It will also mean addressing some of the organisational capacity issues such as recruitment and retention in some of the core service areas as well as embedding new ways of working across the organisation.

The council has a compelling strategic and policy framework that is based on academic and evidence-based thinking which gives it professional credence and high stakeholder buy-in. It clearly sets out the direction the council wants to go in and has prioritised its ambitions going forward. Nevertheless, to ensure that everybody understands their place and role in delivering the ambitions, the peer team would recommend the council now simplify and communicate key messages in a more tailored and targeted manner to help strengthen the relationship between strategy and delivery and between strategy and benefits to local communities across the Borough.

The council has a good recent record of financial management and reporting, and it is currently a financially stable organisation. Nevertheless, the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on local communities and the delivery of council services will be a major issue for the council to think about and respond to. This is because the impact could lead to a reduction in income and an increased demand for services as people struggle to pay bills and are compelled to seek help and support from public services.

As the council leans into the cost-of-living pressures there will be an opportunity and scope to recalibrate its risk appetite and think about how it can invest in more innovative/entrepreneurial activity that gives it the best chance of future sustainability. This may mean the council starting to consider investing its own resources in some of its flagship projects to provide seed funding to get them off the ground and to inject greater confidence and commitment among its delivery partners to help attract further private and public sector investments.

To ensure that the council and its partners can get closer to communities to understand their strengths and different needs, the council has developed a Localities Strategy which is being backed with Locality Plans and Ward budgets to financially support specific local issues and priorities. This dedicated and flexible resource is hugely valued by frontline members to encourage resident-led activities and is starting to have positive impacts on localities; and with the developing localities working there may be an opportunity to further devolve budgets and decision making to localities. This will help to further engage and empower ward members, locality partners and local communities in delivering the ambitions for Doncaster at local levels.

The council has made huge improvements and has an interesting story to tell. It should now begin the process of celebrating its successes and sharing learning and good practice with the wider local government sector.

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

Pause and reflect on the council’s strategies to address organisational overload and fatigue, and address capacity issues.

This will mean taking the time out to think through in detail its existing plans and priorities and work out clearly how they are to be delivered. It will also mean addressing some of the organisational capacity issues such as recruitment and retention in some of the core service areas as well as embedding new ways of working across the organisation.

Recommendation 2

Condense the key priorities for the council for the next three years and set annual delivery targets.

This will help to better communicate the priorities to all parts of the organisation and clarify how and by whom the priorities will be delivered. It will also help to engage communities in the planned programme of work, address organisational capacity issues in a targeted way, and allow investments to be made in the right areas.

Recommendation 3

Simplify and communicate key messages in a more tailored manner, particularly internally.

This will provide clearer direction to key stakeholders on their roles and responsibilities in delivery, and at the same time strengthen the relationship between strategy and benefits to local communities by promoting a consistent yet simplified message which clearly spells out the benefits of actions being taken for people across the Borough.

 Recommendation 4

Continue to plan for the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on local communities and the delivery of council services.

The cost-of-living crises will impact on the council’s resources and financial capacity as income through council Tax collections and other collections could decrease, whilst at the same time demand for services and council support to residents may increase as people start feeling the impact of the rising cost-of-living on their household budgets and lives.

Recommendation 5

Reassess the council’s corporate risk appetite.

This will enable the council to consider investing its own resources in some of its flagship projects; provide seed funding to get them off the ground; inject greater confidence and commitment among its delivery partners; and help attract further private and public sector investments because of the increased confidence in the schemes being supported.

Recommendation 6

Celebrate the council’s achievements and consider sharing learning and good practice with the wider local government sector.

The peer team thinks the council has come a long way and is now in a good place with its transformation and improvement agenda. It would therefore encourage the council to promote its achievements across the local government sector so that others can learn and benefit from these achievements. There is much to celebrate, and the council should take every opportunity to do so.

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:

• Professor Steven Broomhead, MBE (Chief Executive - Warrington Borough Council)
• Councillor Shabir Pandor - (Leader - Kirklees Council)
• Stephen Young - (Chief Executive - Halton Borough Council)
• Christina Thompson - (Director of Finance and Property - London Borough of Lambeth)
• Helen Reeves - (Programme Manager - LGA)
• Satvinder Rana - (Programme Manager - LGA)

Scope and focus

The peer team considered the following five themes which form the core components of all Corporate Peer Challenges. These areas are critical to councils’ performance and improvement.

1. Local priorities and outcomes - Are the council’s priorities clear and informed by the local context? Is the council delivering effectively on its priorities? 
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?
5. 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 specifically asked the peer team to provide feedback on the following:

• What more needs to be done to build leadership, management and workforce capacity to deliver Doncaster Delivering Together (DDT)?
• What more needs to be done to communicate and embed the DDT priorities – in the council, across Team Doncaster and in communities?
• What more can be done to strengthen the council’s approach to securing additional investment, developing delivery plans and implementing them?
• What further critical success factors, risks and opportunities need to be considered in rolling out localities working?
• How the council’s risk management culture and arrangements need to evolve to deliver the DDT priorities?

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 onsite at Doncaster Council, during which they:

• Gathered information and views from around 35 meetings, in addition to further research and reading.
• Spoke to around 120 people including a range of council staff together with members and external stakeholders.

This report provides a summary of the peer team’s findings. In presenting feedback, they have done so as fellow local government officers and members.

Local priorities and outcomes

The council is now firmly focused on creating a more prosperous, skilled, creative, healthy and resilient Borough. It has developed strong, honest and trustworthy relationships with its partners through ‘Team Doncaster’ - and with its local communities - and has developed a new Borough strategy called ‘Doncaster Delivering Together’ which sets out both long terms ambitions as well as what needs to be done ‘here and now’.

Its mission ‘Thriving People, Places and Planet’ is driven by six well-being goals covering a fair and inclusive economy with a greener and cleaner environment, a skilled and creative local workforce taking up opportunities in a prosperous and connected Borough that provides a safe home to healthy and resilient citizens who are members of compassionate communities.

The Borough strategy is backed up with Doncaster Council’s Corporate Plan for 2022-23 which details the council’s response to becoming a regenerative council and borough, delivering multiple wellbeing goals whilst tackling the climate change emergency and reducing inequalities during 2022-23. This plan is designed to help deliver the new Borough strategy.

These documents provide a compelling vision and clear priorities to deliver the council’s ambitions for Doncaster. The policy and strategic framework to deliver these ambitions for the Borough is strong and impressive and is designed to transform the place, its people, its prospects and its potential. The desire to pursue an inclusive and regenerative wellbeing economy that strikes a balance between people and place as well as between development and protection of the environment is clear and commendable.

There is high level of understanding and buy-in to the council’s ambitions and priorities within the organisation and among strategic partners. Many of the essential structures to help deliver the Borough strategy are in place and maturing into collaborative and high performing delivery mechanisms. For example, there is stability in the political and managerial leadership of the council with shared ownership of the strategy. This is backed up with strong relationships with partners and key stakeholders who are aligned with the vision for the Borough. There are also good links into regional and sub-regional structures such as the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) to help bring in investment and financial resources.

Whilst the strategic planning is informed by good external and evidence-based thinking, it is important to decipher some of the key messages into simplified language and communicate in a more tailored and targeted manner to ensure that everybody understands their place and role in delivering the vision and priorities.

This can be done by breaking down the strategy into actual delivery plans with clear priorities so people can see exactly what economic growth plans are being pursued, where regeneration and development will take place, and what outcomes people are likely to see in terms of inclusive growth.

Progress is being made on this through the service delivery plans, and once they get cascaded down to team plans and into employee work plans the ‘golden thread’ will be strengthened.

There is wide recognition that Doncaster is a ‘place of places’ consisting of localities with different needs which the council is increasingly focusing on. This is being reflected in the council’s new Localities Strategy that aims to steer a more focused approach to working with and delivering services in the different localities. Locality Plans and Ward budgets to support specific local issues and priorities financially are now in place. This dedicated and flexible resource is hugely valued by frontline members to encourage resident-led activities and is starting to have positive impacts on localities. As this approach matures, there could be further opportunities to devolve more powers to localities.

The council has made a strong start to delivering on its ambitions. It has already delivered some impressive initiatives such as the Complex Lives Programme, Get Doncaster Moving, a New University Technical College, 1,900 new homes, a new Library and Museum, the new railway station forecourt and entrance to the Urban Core, and many others. It has also improved education attainments levels and employment rates among the local population. The council is prioritising activity across the Borough particularly in Stainforth, Edlington and Mexborough and going forward it will need to continue to maximise opportunities to regenerate communities across the Borough to complement the work that is taking place in the town centre.

Whilst this may not be wholly true, the perception should be corrected. This can be done by highlighting future plans, actual delivery and outcomes achieved in localities, as well as communicating the ripple effect investment in the town centre is likely to have on other areas. Going forward, the council will need to ensure that service delivery performance and its messaging clearly demonstrates the link from the vision to the impact being made in local areas and communities.

Organisational and place leadership

Doncaster Council has very strong political and managerial leadership provided by the elected Mayor and her Cabinet and by the Chief Executive and his senior management team, respectively. The balance between political and external leadership and the managerial and organisational leadership provided by the elected Mayor and Chief Executive are major strengths. They are both very well regarded and valued internally and externally. People speak highly of them and of their vision and commitment to transforming Doncaster and Doncaster Council.

There is very visible commitment to shared, collaborative and distributive leadership in Doncaster and this is being demonstrated through stakeholder engagement in developing and delivering the council’s priorities. There are very strong, honest and trustworthy partner relationships in place which are driven by shared values and pragmatism. Partners all spoke highly of the council and felt informed, engaged and supported. There is ownership and buy-in among all strategic partners to the ambitions and strategy as outlined in ‘Doncaster Delivering Together’ and this is a major strength. The ‘Team Doncaster’ concept is particularly valued by partners as it has enabled the co-design and co-shaping of the Borough strategy.

There is now an opportunity to re-evaluate and re-set the relationship with Parish and Town councils and bring them on-board through a co-designed and co-produced framework for future engagement to align with the new Localities Strategy. This will help to strengthen the relationship with Town and Parish councils, facilitate better engagement and promote shared ownership of ambitions for Doncaster so that they become key strategic partners for delivery in localities.

Doncaster Council has an excellent record of attracting external funding and demonstrating civic entrepreneurship. For example, it has secured two ‘Town Deals’ – one for the town centre and one for Stainforth in the East of the Borough. It has also secured resources for priority projects through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS), a successful round 1 Levelling Up Fund bid (LUF) as well as receiving most of its Community Renewal Fund (CRF) ask.

In addition, the council, together with its partners, made a successful bid for ‘City Status’ for Doncaster and this was awarded as part of this year’s Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. This award could provide an opportunity for economic growth, development and creating an even more positive profile for the Borough that will help to attract inward investment and maintain more balanced local demographics by retaining young people in the area through quality jobs.

There are strong foundations in place for moving forward with the Integrated Care System (ICS) and the Integrated Care Provider (ICP) change agenda and bring commissioners and providers together to oversee and manage improvements in services and health outcomes for local people. These foundations have been built on good relations with NHS, Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Health Providers. Public Health is well embedded and aligned to the community regeneration planning and delivery framework and is starting to make a positive difference to the challenges of health inequalities post pandemic.

The council has also taken care to ensure its workforce has been supported as evidenced through its success in winning the ‘Best Health and Wellbeing Initiative’ award at the Excellence in People Management Awards 2022.

The council still has challenges to overcome in its Children’s Services. The OFSTED inspection of Children’s Services in February 2022 determined that overall effectiveness requires improvement to be good. This comprised of judgements on the experiences and progress of children who need help and protection that requires improvement to be good; the experiences and progress of children in care and care leavers that requires improvement to be good; and the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families that was Inadequate. It also stated that “senior leaders in Doncaster Council and Doncaster Children’s Services Trust have together overseen a decline in the quality and impact of services for children, young people and their families since the last inspection in 2017”.

In advance of the inspection the council intervened to address this decline, which was acknowledged in the Ofsted Inspection report. During this period the council and Children’s Services Trust acknowledged the need to transfer services back into the council so that it can bring positive changes by having a clear line of sight to practice quality, performance, and children’s progress and experiences. The implications of this decision and its associated risks are understood but will require continued detailed attention until positive outcomes for Children are being achieved and get embedded into the organisation in a sustainable way.

Governance and culture

Doncaster Council is a well-run council with strong, robust and transparent governance and decision-making arrangements in place. Overview and Scrutiny works well and is supported within the council. It is complemented by scrutiny panels that can deep-dive into organisational challenges on specific policy themes. The Audit Committee also works well, is effective and provides the appropriate challenge and assurance; and there are clear strategic risk management arrangements in place.

In view of all these positives, the peer team thinks the time might be right to reassess, with members, the organisation’s risk appetite and be bolder in a managed way. This is particularly the case in pushing forward with some of its regeneration ambitions by investing the council’s resources in its flagship projects to provide seed funding and to help attract further private and public sector investments by demonstrating greater confidence and commitment in these schemes.

There is an abundance of energy, enthusiasm in the organisation, and this is supported by a strong and positive ‘can-do and will deliver’ organisational culture. The peer team found the council to be welcoming, passionate and engaging and people are working together to get things done and solve problems for their local communities. Staff seemed committed, motivated, resilient, empowered, and adaptive with a strong sense of pride in the organisation. People have a strong affinity to the ‘place of places’ and are working together to get things done and solve problems for their local communities - they want to do the best they can for the Borough and its residents.

The council is refreshing its core values and once agreed it would be good to see these communicated throughout the organisation and senior leaders demonstrating these through their behaviours and actions.

Member and officer relationships are strong, supportive and productive with a clear focus on collective outcomes. members use advice from officers to make quality decisions. There is good Member and staff training and development in place and this is supported by a Member Development Programme and a Leadership and Management Development Framework.

There is an opportunity to further engage frontline members in delivering the council’s ambitions and strengthen cross-party working at local levels through the localities working approach. Similarly, there is an opportunity to further embed the councillor casework system, so all members are utilising it productively and not bypassing the system.

The council has an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Framework in place, and this sets out its EDI objectives, arrangements and commitment for embedding equality, diversity and inclusion into everything it does. The EDI Framework links directly to the strategic ambitions set out in the Borough Strategy and the Corporate Plan and focuses on key social objectives for 2022-26 which have been based on an analysis of risks, resident feedback and current performance challenges with the aim of improving specific outcomes for different demographic groups. These objectives include better connecting the boroughs most deprived communities to jobs, skills and economic opportunity, tackling domestic abuse, and improving the life chances of children in care.

Several EDI activities have been delivered and further activities are planned. The council should build on these foundations, and it does recognise there is more to do to ensure that all groups benefit from not just investments in services but also the economy and access to education, training and good quality jobs – including those within the council. The recent additional £750,000 investment in apprenticeships will support these aims. These activities are complemented by other routine EDI activities which includes staff training and an events calendar that celebrates a diverse range of events throughout the year.

Going forward, the peer team would recommend that the council further develops a culture of continuous reflection and realistic organisational critique in all areas so that it remains on a continuous journey of improvement.

Financial planning and management

Doncaster Council has had a good record of financial management over the last few years with a positive outturn position being achieved for the last four financial years, including for 2021/22. It is financially stable and has largely delivered its efficiency savings. There is a proactive and anticipatory approach to financial planning that is backed up with good governance arrangements. It has a comprehensive budget monitoring approach alongside performance management against objectives, giving a sound basis for financial decision making. members are presented with a comprehensive set of reports setting out the Revenue Budget, Capital Budget and Medium-Term Financial Strategy.

Managing budgets for social care continues to be a challenge as a consequence of demand. Increased academisation of schools, the Fair Funding Review, Business Rates reset, and rapid inflation will present future financial challenges and risks to the council. However, these are acknowledged and are being planned for.

The council has an established Medium-Term Financial Strategy up to 2024/25 and is successfully delivering savings targets to deliver a balanced budget. It appears to be sighted on the future service pressures and funding uncertainty and is planning accordingly. Inflation assumptions for pay and prices are clear and quantified and set out in comparison with inflation indices. Grant payments to third sector bodies are also separately projected over the next three years. There is a clear explanation of the approach to fees and charges, along with details of proposals for above inflation rises in charges and for newly proposed fees and charges. A comprehensive list of reserves is provided which distinguishes between restricted reserves, specifically allocated reserves and the general fund reserve designed to cover overall risks.

A risk assessment of the council’s level of reserves is carried out each financial year, when setting the budget and updating the financial plan. It is updated regularly during the financial year as part of the formal financial management reporting process. The risk assessment is based on the following key factors: -

• a review of known provisions and contingent liabilities
• the likelihood of overspend for either revenue or capital
• the likelihood of any additional income that would be credited to reserves;
• the robustness of the council’s revenue budget proposals
• the adequacy of funding for the Capital Programme
• any potential significant expenditure items for which explicit funding has not yet been identified.

To deliver the Borough strategy, the council has been shifting its focus from being a financially led council to becoming a “financially considerate policy-led council”. It is currently putting money into its street-scene work, net zero carbon ambitions, capitalising its investments to attract further investments, and adopting a rationalised mixed approach to programme development.

The council is making every pound count and is making a very challenging financial position work for itself. It has a good record of attracting external funding and investing on its priorities. Going forward, the council should consider how best it can use this external funding to leverage additional private sector investments. This may mean taking a degree of risk to seed fund future council investment proposals by weighing up social value returns as well as financial returns – the culture and practice of the council should allow this to happen.

Capacity for improvement and delivery

There is an incredible sense of purpose and public service among members and officers at all levels in Doncaster Council. This is helping to harness and deploy capacity to deliver against a very ambitious agenda. The council made a good start to delivering its ambitions, however it has been disrupted by floods, wildfire, COVID, and now by the energy and cost-of-living crises

These emergency situations, together with the strategic agenda and the renewed emphasis on the concept of the ‘Regenerative Borough/Council’ is beginning to give rise to organisational fatigue and overload that is resulting in a strain on capacity. If left unaddressed this strain on capacity will sap up a lot of organisational energy and slow down progress.

The peer team would therefore encourage the council to develop clear mitigation measures to ease the strain and would recommend the following actions:

• The council should pause and reflect on the development of strategies and consolidate what it already has in place
• To achieve the outcomes, it should make sure there are clear implementation plans and annual delivery targets in place that are understood by staff and partners across all service areas
• It should recognise the widespread issues in recruitment and retention, especially around key skills, and address these through renewed workforce planning
• It should identify services and projects that can be concluded and stop doing things that are no longer necessary
• Bring clarity through management and staff guidance on how agile and flexible working and the collaborative usage of buildings will work in practice for the whole workforce.

In addition to this and in view of national pay negotiations, recruitment and retention, and other HR issues, it will require the council to reset its relationship, consultation and communication arrangements with the Trade Unions.

Additional area of focus

What more needs to be done to build leadership, management and workforce capacity to deliver Doncaster Delivering Together (DDT)?

Invest in training, development and effective team working at senior officer levels; develop workforce resilience including consideration of organisational fatigue and recruitment challenges; and stop doing things that are no longer part of the strategic agenda or its priorities.

What more needs to be done to communicate and embed the DDT priorities – in the council, across Team Doncaster and in communities?

Simplifying the language used in communicating and the targeting of key messages; recognising digital exclusion for some members of communities; addressing the perception that regeneration is town centre focused by highlighting future plans, actual delivery and outcomes achieved in localities; clearly communicating the expected benefits to localities and their communities of the council’s actions; demonstrating achievements and impacts being made in localities and among communities; and amplify the routes through which residents can communicate back and receive feedback on their suggestions and areas of concern. Review the relationships with Parish councils as they clearly have a role to play in the council’s locality aspirations.

What more can be done to strengthen the council’s approach to securing additional investment, developing delivery plans and implementing them?

Taking a degree of risk to seed fund future council investment proposals by weighing up social value returns as well as financial returns; ensuring the culture and practice of the council allows this to happen in a managed way; injecting greater confidence among external investors by demonstrating clear political commitment to projects; and developing clear and focused delivery plans in all service areas.

What further critical success factors, risks and opportunities need to be considered in rolling out localities working?

Simple evidence that shows what positive difference localities working is making to local communities. Communities and ward councillors will need to see tangible impact.

How the council’s risk management culture and arrangements need to evolve to deliver the DDT priorities?

Take the opportunity to reassess corporate risk appetite and ensure robust governance, decision-making and risk assessment arrangements remain in place to enable members to make the right decisions based on evidence and timely information.

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

Both the peer team and LGA are keen to build on the relationships formed through the peer challenge. The CPC process includes a six-month check-in meeting. This will be a short, facilitated session which creates space for the council’s senior leadership to update peers on its progress against the action plan and discuss next steps. 

In the meantime, Mark Edgell, Principal Adviser for East Midlands, Yorkshire & Humber and North-East, is the main contact between Doncaster Council and the Local Government Association. Mark is available to discuss any further support the council requires. His contact details are: Email: [email protected] Tel: 07747 636 910.