The Local Government Association’s sector-led improvement (SLI)
offer has helped councils save more than £100 million over the
past year, it is revealed today.
All councils have received support from the LGA’s improvement
work in the last 12 months, including the delivery of 140 peer
challenges, training of more than 800 councillors and recruitment
of more than 200 graduates.
The LGA’s Housing Advisers Programme is just one example of
support which has had a positive impact on councils. The
programme provided help – an independent expert was deployed for
up to 20 days providing bespoke, local and flexible support - to
more than 100 councils to build the homes their areas needed,
reduced homelessness, planned for ageing populations and more.
In addition, the LGA’s improvement offer has helped councils:
- Deliver more than £42 million of efficiency savings through
our programme of Productivity Experts, which offers direct
bespoke advice and support to councils to help them deliver
efficiency savings or income generation;
- Generate almost £10 million of additional income for councils
through the deployment of our commercial experts;
- Almost £2 million savings generated through our Digital
Channel Shift programme, which redesigns specific services so
they are available on different devices making it easier for
residents and businesses to self-serve;
- Our support for Local Partnerships helped councils generate
savings in excess of £40 million in areas such as PFI, waste and
energy through collaborative partnerships that target
effectiveness and efficiencies.
The LGA’s annual SLI report also demonstrates the value placed by
councils on peer challenge and support, with more than 95 per
cent of leaders and chief executives saying the support has had a
positive impact on their authority.
SLI is the approach to improvement put in place by local
authorities and the LGA alongside the abolition of the previous
national performance framework. It involves strong political and
managerial leadership, challenge from peers, the ability to
benchmark performance against others through the use of
comparable data and the sharing and spreading of good practice.
The cost of inspection, regulation and monitoring of local
government was estimated by the National Audit Office at £2
billion a year when the Audit Commission existed. This contrasts
with the £19.2 million for the LGA’s sector-led improvement
offer.
With councils facing ongoing funding pressures and a funding gap
of more than £5 billion next year, the LGA is today calling on
the Government to secure long-term funding in the forthcoming
Spending Round to help councils on their improvement journey.
This will enable councils to reflect on the success of sector-led
improvement and to look to maximise its benefits over the next
decade.
Cllr Peter Fleming, Chairman of the LGA’s Improvement and
Innovation Board, said:
“Sector-led improvement continues to be an amazing local
government success story that we should be proud of.
“There is huge opportunity for this successful approach to
improvement to be enhanced over the next decade.
“Councils have embraced sector-led improvement and have shown
willingness to work with the LGA and MHCLG to become more
effective and efficient.
“We look forward to working closely with MHCLG to embed
sector-led strengths, bringing fresh ideas and innovation, and to
secure its funding for the future.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
- A memorandum of understanding has been agreed between the LGA
and MHCLG to deliver sector-led improvement in 2019/20. A copy of
the MoU can be found here
-
Digital Channel
Shift - the LGA funded 21 projects supporting 23
councils to use digital tools and solutions for their work on
channel shift. These include redesigning specific services so
they are available on different devices making it easier for
citizens and businesses to self-serve and online booking
services available 24/7
- The LGA’s Shared Services
map shows how collaborate services delivery and
implementation through shared service arrangements has saved
the taxpayer over £1.34 billion in cumulative efficiency
savings from 626 partnerships.
- 19 council chief executives and Leaders were interviewed
following a corporate peer challenge or improvement support
- Rising to the
challenge: lessons of sector-led improvement in
government. , the Chief Executive
of Staffordshire County Council, summed up the value of the
LGA’s peer challenge compared to inspection when he said: “The
important bit is actually the way it’s done, the critical
friend that encourages openness …”
