The fully subsidised Corporate Peer Challenge is offered to each local authority at least once every five years.
The financial peer review dovetails closely with the Corporate Peer Challenge and looks at how local authorities are setting the strategy, making the decisions required and implementing the changes that will give them the best chance of balancing the books in the medium and long term. The review involves financially experienced peers and focuses on five areas including leadership, strategy, decision-making, outcomes and innovation.
The peer-based finance offer relies on making use of expertise in the sector, both officer and councillor peers. It includes:
- a financial health check
- a budget challenge
- tools to allow local authorities to assess their own financial position and consider opportunities and threats to their financial strategy.
The Social Housing Peer Challenge (SHPC) is designed to support improvements in the landlord services provided by stock-holding local authorities.
It is not a mock inspection, and no grading or score is given. It has been developed within the context of the regulatory environment applicable to local authority registered providers and in the spirit of the LGA’s sector led improvement approach.
SHPC consists of a three-day onsite process delivered by a small team of fellow LGA member and officer peers.
Further information on the Social Housing Peer Challenge webpage.
The children’s services peer challenge supports local authorities within the context of the Ofsted inspection framework, and is offered alongside care and safeguarding diagnostics.
Offered as a three-day review or a one-day ‘healthcheck’, both options include a review of your communications function, strategy and capacity as well as recommendations to help you tackle key issues.
During the one-day healthcheck, the peer review team will spend time meeting staff and councillors. There is no formal feedback session, but a written report will be provided.
The three-day communications peer review provides a more in-depth assessment of your communications activity. There is time to meet more people including external partners and representatives from local media, if required. A feedback session takes place on the final day of the review and a written report follows.
A planning peer challenge offers you an in-depth look at your service and provides a critical friend's view of your weaknesses and opportunities. It can be focused on specific elements of the service or across the whole service, used as a baseline for new Heads of service and for places thinking about the long-term health of their services or facing up to a new challenge.
A public health peer challenge involves a small team of peers spending three days in a local place to identify strengths and areas for improvement. Peer challenge involves a team of trained peers from across local government and health spending three to four days with key officers, elected members and other system leaders across local government, health and other partners examining opportunities and challenges that the local place/system is facing. Peers champion change and recognise excellence and the achievements of the places they approach. They understand the pressures and challenges of leading in complex environments and are there to offer challenge by acting as critical friends.
