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Gloucester City Council – Peer Review

Final Report – August 2007 1

Corporate Peer Review

Visit to Gloucester City Council

09-12 July 2007

Summary

Gloucester City Council (GCC) has made considerable strides since the CPA inspection in 2004. The Blueprint for Change Corporate Strategy, put in place as a response to that inspection, has led GCC to undertake an ‘improvement journey’ that has changed the council into an ambitious organisation that has embraced the ‘enabling council’ concept and the community leadership role in a very positive manner. There is cross party support for what the council wants to achieve. The top political and managerial leadership, with the new Chief Executive and Leader, is visible, respected by stakeholders and provides a strong platform for future change. Political co-operation and consensual working has been achieved, during a rapidly changing period and there is evidence of all groups working together for the benefit of Gloucester City.

In 2004, following extensive consultation with the community, Members set the three priorities of Streetcare, Regeneration and Efficiency and Effectiveness within the Blueprint for Change. These priorities have provided a focus for improvement within the organisation. A Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) is used to inform budgetary and service planning decisions. Partnership working is well established with the council adopting a range of approaches to service delivery.

There is a commitment to put the needs of customers first, external communication has improved and the council is financially well managed and reasonably cost effective. Selected services engage with Gloucester’s hard to reach groups and act upon consultation and fair efforts are made by the Council to enable access to services by disadvantaged groups.

There are good officer/member working relationships, staff are well motivated and ‘up for it’ and see the new Leader and Chief Executive as integral to continued improvement and to delivering the emerging priorities of achieving physical and social regeneration, improving performance and efficiency and promoting Gloucester.

There is a sound performance management system to measure performance against targets which is regularly reviewed through a performance improvement group. GCC has a developing culture of learning and it can be proud of a range of achievements against priorities which include:

impressive regeneration that is making, and can continue to make, a positive impact on the residents of Gloucester

the delivery of successful partnership working to shared objectives

improving performance in areas such as recycling and the speed of issuing benefits.

However, there are challenges that need to be addressed. The council needs to continuously compare its improvement progress, particularly in relation to improvement across the local government sector, to assess whether it has really moved forward in absolute terms.



GCC can build on the achievements of recent years and the benefits of having new Leadership to step up the pace of change and, with Senior Managers and Members in full support, it can drive forward improvement across the whole council.

Progression of a new ‘fit for purpose’, structure, with supporting competency based framework, human resource policies and organisational development strategy, is key to achieving this improvement and should be progressed as a matter of urgency.

The priorities for improvement need to have appropriate financial and human resource capacity and should be communicated more clearly and consistently to avoid confusion, mixed messages and potential ‘opt out’ by staff, Members and stakeholders.

GCC needs to focus on what is important to ensure that it can improve and still stay within its resource limits. GCC should continue to make further difficult choices to ensure that performance is pushed into the top quartiles. It also needs to ensure that achievement of improvement in priority areas is as good as, or better than the average local government improvement. GCC needs to ensure greater clarity on what the non-priorities are and further develop the plans to enable the realignment of resources from these areas.

There are opportunities to maximise the energy and motivation of staff by strengthening two way communications, through the establishment of a fully resourced internal and external communications strategy, establishing a clear vision and supporting brand to promote both the Council and the City of Gloucester.

There is scope to improve the effectiveness of member engagement, with all members needing to improve awareness of the value and importance of Overview & Scrutiny Committees and they in turn need to demonstrate greater impact in effectively holding the Executive to account. Appendix A provides additional information on the development of this role

GCC need to provide more evidence of the Council’s approach to diversity, social inclusion and community cohesion and should raise awareness amongst Members, staff and partners of the need for appropriate and relevant service provision, policy making and employment practices. GCC should also take advantage of the regional support available to review and revise the initial target of achieving level 1 of the Equality Standard for Local Government and work to progress to level 2 by March 2008.

Delivering on all the major projects is dependent on a more strategic approach to partnership working and it would be unrealistic not to predict some challenging times ahead. However, the review team are confident that Council can build on the previous achievement and pace of change and could further rise to the challenges by drawing on available capacity resources from partners and beginning to plan for the forthcoming Comprehensive Area Assessment. Looking at the progress to date, the review team are confident that the council can rise to the challenges ahead.



Key strengths

During the course of the peer review it became evident that the council demonstrates a range of key strengths: It benefits from a new, ambitious and strong leadership core, with the Chief Executive and

Leader being seen as a cohesive leadership unit by Members and staff alike, and valued

The council can demonstrate a record of achievement, having made progress over the past three years through two political administrations involving all parties. The new Chief Executive and Leader are seen by everyone met by the peer review team as being integral to continued improvement

There is evidence that staff are seen as customer focused, approachable, supportive, and enthusiastic to ‘do their bit’, although this spirit needs to be adopted and supported across the whole council

The council has strong partnership working with particular reference to the work with the Streetcare, ALMO and urban regeneration partnerships

The council is seen by partners as championing the City and contributing towards the achievement of LAA targets and the increased confidence of the private sector

The council’s work on regeneration, both physical and social, is seen to be achieving positive outcomes for Gloucester City

Overall key areas for consideration.The council does, however, have areas that it needs to consider for improvement:

Although the council has improved since the last CPA it may not have improved in relation to other councils. GCC, therefore, needs to continuously compare its performance against that of the overall local government sector

GCC needs to put its foot on the accelerator and build on the benefits of having a new leadership team at the helm of the Council, by ensuring that the Cabinet and all senior managers drive forward the change and improvement agenda

The council needs to complete, resource and implement a new structure (based on a competency framework), with supporting HR policies and organisational development strategy, as a matter of some urgency

Within the overarching ambitions of promotion, regeneration, performance and efficiency, the council should consider what are its real priorities, and what it ultimately wants to achieve? The council should then ensure it aligns the capacity and resources to deliver this agreed agenda

Having identified these resourced priorities, Portfolio Holders need to drive them forward and ensure that the Corporate Management Team and staff deliver accordingly

GCC should raise the profile, value and effectiveness of the council by strengthening its communications through:

Improving two way internal communication

Ensuring that all internal and external communications articulate a clear vision and future direction for Gloucester City and the council

Establishing a clearer brand which will support external communications



Developing, resourcing and implementing an internal and new external communications strategy with accompanying toolkit

The council needs to provide more evidence of its approach to diversity, social inclusion and community cohesion by:

Raising awareness amongst Members, staff and partners of the need for appropriate and relevant service provision, policy making and employment practices

Taking advantage of the support available to achieve level 1 and progress to level 2 of the Equality Standard for Local Government

Finally, the council should consider how the council can build on the pace of change which is evident over the past three years by:

Tapping into available sources of additional capacity

Developing a strategy for partnership working and continuing to support partnership working

Getting away from the tick box mentality

Beginning to plan for CAA.

The relationship between Leader and Chief Executive is crucial to the effective running of any council. Both positions have changed hands recently but already there is evidence of strong, cohesive leadership. Both will need to work to ensure that the relationship develops and matures as the organisation is putting considerable faith in its success.

There was evidence that frontline staff are seen as customer focused, approachable, supportive and enthusiastic to help to improve the organisation. This spirit needs to be adopted and supported across the whole council.

While there are some concerns that the council does not promote the city enough it is acknowledged that it is very effective in fighting its corner for resources within the county and region.

The Urban Regeneration Company (URC) is seen as a considerable plus for physical regeneration having regained the confidence of the private sector. The council’s neighbourhood approach to social regeneration is also very positive. The council has made significant progress on many fronts since the last CPA and there is an understandable wish for that progress to be recognised. However, there is a lack of appreciation that almost all other councils have been improving and indeed many at a much faster rate.

The Audit Commission’s evidence is that excellent councils tend to improve more quickly than lower rated councils. A sports analogy makes the point - the times required to break the world record or win an Olympic gold medal 10 years ago might not get an athlete into the final nowadays. The standard keeps going up and everyone has to do better just to maintain their relative position, never mind improve on it. The council cannot afford to ease up, indeed now is the time to build on the benefits of having a new leadership team at the helm and to put the foot down hard on the accelerator.



The Chief Executive has taken the time to find out how the organisation ticks and the strengths of individuals within it but he must now rapidly complete, resource and implement the structure based on the competency framework along with supporting HR policies and an organisational development strategy.

The council needs to consider what are its real priorities and to put them into a hierarchy and ensure this is aligned to the capacity and resources to deliver them effectively.

Members should consider facilitated away days to progress that agenda as should the new corporate management board and joint senior management and senior members sessions are also likely to prove beneficial.

Portfolio Holders should take full ownership and accountability for the priorities within their portfolios. There needs to be a robust relationship between Portfolio Holders and their senior managers. Over time, relationships can become too cosy, simply not challenging enough. Portfolio Holders need to be sure that their agenda is on track through regular monitoring and must be able to take full accountability for it at Overview and Scrutiny Committee. It is generally inappropriate for managers to be answering directly to Scrutiny although at times their presence as back up might be appropriate.

It is said that there can never be enough communication. Much of the council’s external communication is very good although further work should be considered to establish clearer branding. Internal communication is less effective and needs attention and in particular there need to be channels to ensure that staff can feed in their concerns to middle and senior management and have some confidence they will be acted upon.

Bearing in mind the population of the City it would have been useful to have had more evidence of the council’s approach to diversity, social inclusion and community cohesion. The review team’s thoughts on how GCC can improve their approach to equalities and diversity are set out in appendix B.

In order to increase the pace of change the council should consider tapping into sources of additional capacity. These might be national or regional funds such as LIFT South West. They might be learning lessons from beacon authorities or other examples of good practice or they could be seeking secondments from other organisations. For example the County Council has considerable expertise in HR and might be in a position to make some of it available to the City Council.

There are many effective partnerships but the council should consider what it is that it wants from them and whether they are all still fit for purpose. In the case of the neighbourhood partnerships it is unclear where on the spectrum from general consultation to joint provision the council wishes to be or even whether it wants one approach for all these partnerships or a variable approach depending on their needs and wishes.

The council needs to be careful that it does not get too carried away with the idea of ticking boxes implying that an activity is resolved. It is probably true that the Gloucester Homes ALMO now needs relatively little attention but the outsourcing of Streetcare is certainly not the end of the council’s responsibility, with robust monitoring mechanisms needing to be developed. If a Leisure Trust is created that will not eliminate the council’s financial risk, it would only do so if



in the event of the Trust running into trouble the council was prepared to stand back and let it sink.

Putting frameworks in place is a necessary precursor but they have to be embedded. For instance the council has a very good framework for ‘systems thinking’ and a few departments have used it to considerable effect but it has not been used elsewhere.

In the near future CPA will give way to CAA which might play better to the strengths of the City once some of the council’s infrastructure is in place and embedded. Getting there is not easy and it does not deliver short term benefits to local residents, yet without it the council will be locked into short-termism, always on the back foot.

With the physical regeneration of the City, the council well understands the time lags involved and the need to get the foundations, in every sense, right. It is prepared to take the longer view and the council needs to be willing to do that in terms of its operating procedures and processes too. Of course that does not prevent there being short term wins for the public.

Rolling forward the enabling agenda will be resource intensive particularly in areas such as HR. In the longer term it should generate savings through staff reductions and more efficient ways of working but in the short term there is the strain of dealing with complex procurement, the transfer of undertakings etc. The council will need to consider implementation timescales carefully. It will also need to consider how it is going to resource its priorities. No doubt some difficult political decisions will be needed perhaps involving reductions in non-priority service areas.

However, there is an onus on senior management to recognise political realities. The review team was far from convinced that GCC is an organisation that had flushed out all efficiency savings. There was evidence of considerable scope for smarter ways of working and above all for a radical re-think of how work in many departments is done and that could be achieved building on the ‘Systems Thinking’ approach already implemented in a few departments. It is unrealistic to expect politicians to cut back on direct service provision unless they are convinced that there really is no other alternative.

The review team believes that this is an authority with enormous potential that can be realised if our recommendations are taken to heart and implemented.



Recommendations

The following recommendations seek to build upon the council’s existing strengths, and aim to equip GCC with the necessary capacity to deliver the required change agenda effectively, and respond to future challenges. The recommendations are set out under the five main headings of the Audit Commission’s Key Lines of Enquiry.

Ambition for the community

1. Provide more evidence of the work that the council is delivering on its equalities, social inclusion and community cohesion agenda.

2. Provide evidence that customer feedback is used to drive service improvement throughout the council and communicate this more effectively with residents and partners, to provide a better understanding of the impact, when adjustments are made in the priority areas.

3. Improve the monitoring, review and action to support the council’s commitment to deliver its enabling role.

4. Partnership engagement, through the neighbourhood partnerships, now needs to be reviewed before rolling out to all residents of the council.

5. The council needs to issue a stronger message about the direction in which it is travelling.

Prioritisation

1. Ensure that priorities are aligned with the emerging ambitions of promotion, regeneration, performance and efficiency. They should also fit with LSP priorities and be clearly understood by staff, Members and partners. These priorities should be supported by the appropriate capacity and resources.

2. The Council needs to continue to make tough decisions and decide exactly what its non-priorities are. These decisions should be compatible with the need to downsize and streamline the organisation.

3. Clarity is required with regards to where projects fit within the agreed priorities. A clearer message to staff about the overall purpose of each large scale project and further confirmation that the organisation’s focus is primarily on service improvement but with an eye to efficiency could help to improve confidence amongst staff and partners.

4. GCC should review its efficiency policies to ensure that small short term decisions do not override the need for a focus on the bigger picture.

5. The council needs to ensure that key national priorities are not ignored or overlooked, for example the safeguarding children priority needs to be embedded.

Capacity



1. The council should continue to implement the work to reduce staff sickness and improve delays in recruiting to priority areas.

2. GCC can build on the Member Development Review by investigating options for improving the skills of all Members.

3. The council should look to bridge the gap between Corporate Management Team (CMT) and staff as well as across service areas by introducing new two way internal communications systems that enable all staff to work across silos and contribute to strategic planning.

4. GCC should investigate and identify options to develop capability within middle management to drive forward operational performance and support GCC on its improvement journey.

5. The council needs to implement measures to further develop the role of the council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee function to ensure all members can contribute fully to the capacity of the council, in their Executive, Scrutiny or policy development roles. Appendix A provides information on the development of this role.

Performance management

1. GCC should ensure that service plans are aligned with corporate priorities and resources.

2. The council can improve performance amongst Members by introducing a strong performance management structure for Cabinet initially, with further roll out to all councillors.

3. GCC should look to maximise the development of the service planning framework to embed a performance management culture throughout the organisation and use it as an integral tool of how members and officers work.

4. There are opportunities to make better use of the data from residents’ feedback and investigate the introduction of effective staff communications to help drive up performance.

5. GCC should seek out further opportunities to recognise achievement, celebrate success and capture and disseminate best practice throughout and across the organisation.

Achievement & Improvement

1. The council needs to ensure that community consultation is coordinated in order to avoid possible duplication of consultation and consultation fatigue amongst the residents of Gloucester.

2. Finally, the council needs to improve its forward planning, speed of progress and delivery to timescales, to enable it to meet the high ambitions of Gloucester’s community and to further improve confidence in partners, staff and residents.

Background



1. The peer challenge for GCC was carried out by reviewing the council’s own ‘Light Touch Self-Assessment’ produced in July 2007 and challenging this against the Audit Commission’s ‘Key Lines Of Enquiry’ (KLOE) for district councils.

2. The role of peer challenge needs to be stated in the context of the CPA framework. It is not an inspection and will not form an opinion as to whether the council has more strengths or weaknesses in any particular area. Peer challenge offers a supportive approach, undertaken by ‘critical friends’, with the clear intention of helping a council to identify its current strengths and recognise key areas that require development in order to drive future improvement.

3. The peer challenge for GCC was facilitated by the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) and consisted of:

Alastair Robertson, Managing Director, Watford Borough Council

Councillor Ann Hartley, Deputy Leader, Shropshire County Council

Laura Murphy, Peer Member

Venita Kanwar, Principal Consultant Improvement & Development Agency

Gary Hughes, Review Manager, Improvement and Development Agency

The team was on site at the council between 9 and 12 July 2007.

4. The programme for the week was organised in advance and included a variety of activities designed to enable members of the peer review team to meet and talk to a spectrum of internal and external stakeholders. Examples of activities the team undertook were:

discussions with the political leadership and senior management of the council

discussions with a range of members, including Cabinet Members and a focus group with the chairs of Overview & Scrutiny committee (unfortunately the focus group with other non-executive members was cancelled due to low turnout)

focus groups with cross sections of staff, including frontline staff and middle managers, external partners and residents

observations of the corporate management team meeting, Cabinet, Overview & Scrutiny and the Group Leaders’ meeting

discussions with key partners, including the chief executive and the leader from the County Council, trade union representatives and District Audit

pre-reading of materials produced by the council, prior to the on-site working.



5. The team was appreciative of the welcome and hospitality provided by the council and would like to thank everybody that they met during the process for their time and contributions. The way in which the needs of the team were taken care of and the support received from Julie Clarke, PA to Assistant Director (Policy & Communications) and Richard Bywater, Catering Manager, deserve a special mention.

6. The feedback given to the council on the last day of the peer review reported on the key messages. This report gives a more detailed written account of the findings of the review and is structured around the five key lines of enquiry.



Context

7. The City of Gloucester is an urban district that covers an area of 15.64 square miles and with a population of 111,300, it is the most densely populated district in Gloucestershire. Gloucester provides a centre for a number of county-based activities, agencies and organisations. Acknowledged to be one of the top ten historic cities in the country, Gloucester has a rich heritage, including its renowned Norman cathedral and Victorian docks.

8. The vision for Gloucester is for it to be ‘a fair, just and thriving community in which no one is seriously disadvantaged’. Building on the City’s unique strengths including a diverse, multi-cultural population, good health and education facilities and a stable economy, Gloucester City Council’s aim is to improve the quality of life and prosperity for everyone in the district. ‘Our Gloucester – Our Future’, the city’s community strategy has provided a clear framework for tackling specific problems relating to crime, poverty, health, learning, leisure, regeneration and community participation.

9. The City has benefited from a wide range of high quality developments in the last few years, in which the council has had either a direct or partnership role. These include state of the art leisure and sporting facilities at the GL1 leisure centre and the Oxstalls Indoor Tennis Centre; a new campus for the University of Gloucestershire; improvements to King’s Square; a high quality employment development at Waterwells and a range of quality residential schemes in the central area, including the conversion of listed warehouses in the historic docks, all of which is repopulating and revitalizing the central area and delivering its potential as a high quality living and working environment.

10. Gloucester is 139 out of 354 in the deprivation index for local authority areas in England. Two of its wards (Barton & Tredworth, Westgate) are among the 10% most deprived in the country. The city also has four other wards which are among the 25% most deprived in the country. In comparison to other areas of the county, Gloucester has some wards with very high unemployment rates. These include Westgate (14.4% males, 9.0% females), Matson (9.7% males, 5.7% females) and Barton & Tredworth (10.8% males, 9.1% females). Gloucester has the largest number of people claiming unemployment benefits for more than twelve months in the county and the total number of claimants at 13.9% is higher than the South West at 12.1%.

11. The City of Gloucester has around 49,000 homes, with over three quarters of these being owner-occupied. 8.4% are rented privately, 4.1% is rented social housing from housing associations and registered social landlords, and the remaining 9.2% is council social housing. The standard of housing is generally good, although there are pockets of poor housing such as the area around the park where a number of private sector properties with multiple occupants require significant investment. The council’s own stock of 4,574 properties needs £39m spending on it over the next seven years to bring it up to the decent homes standard and the council has established Gloucester City Homes, an arms-length management organisation (ALMO), to take this forward with funding obtained from Government.

12. The district has a relatively young population. Nearly 22% of residents are aged under 16 and just under 15% are of retirement age, compared with 20.16% under 16 and 15.89% of



retirement age for England. Statistics also show that 22.5% of homes are pensioner households, 30.2% are one-person households and 6.9% are lone parent households. In keeping with national trends however, the city’s population is aging and future predictions estimate a 5% increase in the number of over 75s by 2030.

13. Gloucester is also a multi-cultural city, and a centre for asylum seekers. The black and minority ethnic population (BME) stands at 7.5% which is almost the same as Bristol - the highest in the south west. Most recently, the Polish community has grown in size. New communities have been able to integrate without losing their identities and relations between communities are constructive and stable. The recent residents’ survey show that local people consider Gloucester to be a place where people get on together, although the number of racist incidents is relatively high and has increased over the last year.

14. The high number of teenage pregnancies, cases of coronary heart disease and diet and obesity issues have all been identified as key health-related issues for Gloucester. The mortality ratio for Gloucester (107) is slightly above the county average (94), but in keeping with national trends – England (100).



Ambition for the community

Strengths

Strong senior officer and political leadership, from the Chief Executive and Leader, with good consensual political working leading to the priorities from the Blueprint for Change and the emerging priorities for 2008 onwards, being shared by officers and councillors

Good understanding of the ambitions of the community as a result of a number of consultations with residents, users and non-users. These have clearly informed the aims within the Corporate Plan

Sound partnership working arrangements with good engagement with most sectors which has been instrumental in the Council’s achievements. The Council keeps the priority partnership structures under review to respond to changing circumstances

Selected services engage with Gloucester’s hard to reach groups well and act upon consultation. Fair efforts are made by the Council to enable access to services by disadvantaged groups such as those with a disability, where English is not their first language and disaffected teenagers

Areas for consideration

The peer review team has not seen enough evidence of the council’s equalities and community cohesion agenda

Only a few services use the results of community information to improve council services and efficiency to match the declared aims

The Council has declared its wish to be an enabling Council but there is limited evidence of how this ambition is translated into monitoring, review and action which would support its enabling role

Partnership engagement, through the neighbourhood partnerships, now needs to be reviewed before rolling out to all residents of the Council

The Council needs to issue a stronger message about the direction in which it is travelling.

15. There is a clear shared agreement across all the political groups of the priorities within the Blueprint for Change which builds upon the achievements and aspirations of continuing administrations. Co-operative, mature working between Council members has led to them working together for the benefit of Gloucester City and there is agreement that the emerging priorities for the next few years are the promotion and regeneration of the City and the pursuit of performance and efficiency in the Council. There are good working relationships between members and officers with a high level of trust in the officers’ integrity. There are regular meetings between portfolio holders and officers, the Chief Executive and group leaders which contributes to a greater understanding and co-operation.



16. Evidence from focus groups suggests that staff, however, are not confident about the council’s ultimate aims and what it wishes to achieve. Change has been continuous, and whilst there are examples of good consultation this is not consistent. Communication is not always effective, for example staff were told that selling assets would clear the council’s debt, then told they must make further savings. Outsourcing and partnership working is seen by staff as mainly about saving money rather than improving services and there have been a number of initiatives that have not had appropriate resources identified to support them. As a result, the water cooler gossip holds too high a profile.

17. The council consults widely and frequently over a range of issues. During the Gloucester Festival, staff from across the council conducted surveys which targeted users and non-users of their services, to identify their needs. This has continued with pavement surveys on a regular basis. Individual sections produce questionnaires/surveys which are also issued to residents and users of the service and some of them such as Culture, Learning & Leisure and Environmental Health actively use the returns to improve their services. There have been examples of comprehensive community consultation regarding the GL1Leisure Centre project and the Streetcare project and this approach needs to be adopted on a cross council basis.

18. The council has a wide ranging number of partnerships from the Urban Regeneration Company (URC) to local neighbourhood partnerships. Staff and partners report that these work well and have enabled effective cross-cutting working. The URC has been successful in regeneration in close liaison with the council. It has seats for management and members, as well as a wide range of community bodies and representatives. GL1 also demonstrates a strong partnership, this time with the community and this approach has resulted in establishing a learning centre for young women who are at risk of dropping out of formal education.

19. Partnership working is welcomed across the community and partner organisations and councillors are mainly supportive of the Streetcare partnership and the ALMO is considered to be a great success but there is yet to be comprehensive coverage of its neighbourhood partnership agenda. It is, however, to the council’s credit that it has focused Neighbourhood Partnerships, for example, on the most deprived wards but it cannot be claimed that it embraces all of the community as Neighbourhood Partnerships currently only cover 50% of the City.

20. Those neighbourhood partnerships which were originally set up are now well established and provide the necessary mechanism for informing the council’s ambitions. Those set up more recently, however, have still to determine their roles and how they can influence the council agenda. There are a variety of partnerships even within a single ward, which is placing large demands on the Members to attend, contribute and report back to council. The evidence is mixed as to whether the views from Neighbourhood Partnerships are being brought back to the council effectively and playing a full part in determining the council’s aims. There is an assumption that the remaining areas should have similar neighbourhood partnerships. There is, however, insufficient evidence that there is an overall strategy which determines the shape, form, nature and purpose of such partnerships and their appropriateness. The council should, therefore, review its aims and proposed outcomes for the neighbourhood partnerships, before commencing wider roll out.



21. Council officers engage with partners and local businesses well. The Community Development Team is good at engaging with the voluntary, community and faith sectors and cross agency working is good, with rangers, the police, health and education representatives working together to resolve community issues speedily. The community involvement in service planning is also recognised as good and the forthcoming leisure trust provides more opportunities to build on this with the previous GL1 leisure centre bid and the £6m Westgate project already examples of good practice.

22. Staff at GL1 undertook extensive consultation during its inception and continue to do so. The service values its consultation and altered the consultation times when communities pointed out that they clashed with prayers. The Management Board discussed and agreed with male Muslim users, appropriate clothing for swimming which fitted health & safety regulations but also met customers’ needs. GL1 is a good example of working with different communities and user groups and is the most recognised name for under-16s in the country (Sport England survey) and the centre’s equality forums have made a difference by learning from others on community cohesion and bringing that learning back into the community.

23. Whilst there is evidence gathered of the community’s needs, aspirations and service satisfaction, only a limited number of services use the results to improve council services and efficiency to match the declared aims. Many staff are aware that data is collected but are either unaware of the results for their service, or how their service is using this data, or if they are aware, they do not know how other services are performing. As a result, there is a lack of appreciation and support to drive forward the aims throughout the organisation.

24. The council is well regarded by sectors of the community and it promotes, and prides itself on, its equalities credentials. It is therefore surprising that its stated aim is to achieve Level 1 of the Equality Standard for Local Government (ESLG) by March 2008. There is regional support to achieve Level 2 by that deadline and the Council should consider aiming for it. Appendix B provides more information on how to improve this function.

25. Although the council is aiming to progress its equalities work there is, however, little evidence of how the effectiveness of its equalities agenda is monitored and how it informs future activity. This lack of progress will hamper efforts to ensure that equalities is embedded throughout the organisation and within its monitoring of partner organisations.

26. The council sees its enabling role being delivered through existing contracting out of services and potentially pursing this with other services in the future. There is, however, little evidence for example, that equality impacts have been embedded into the contracting out culture. The council should build upon its stated commitment to the equalities agenda to undertake impact assessments on all activities to ensure that the services are well monitored and continuously improved upon so that the aspiration to be an enabling Council is fulfilled.



Prioritisation

Strengths

The Council’s priorities are set and driven by members

The Blueprint for Change to 2008 sets out the three priorities and a review has started for 2008 onwards

The Council’s priorities are based on extensive community consultation and linked to national priorities

The peer review team received some evidence of moving resources to meet the Council’s priorities


The three priorities hide a lot more in practice; there is political pressure to change priorities for example by adding culture, not originally part of the regeneration priority

The peer review team received evidence that the council is still trying to do too much; given resourcing and capacity it can lose focus

The peer review team did not receive evidence to demonstrate how priorities fit with LSP objectives

Priorities are not well understood by staff and partners

Calling the ALMO, leisure trust, shared services examples of efficiencies rather than service improvements undermines the confidence of staff

There is evidence that Members have taken some tough decisions and will have to continue to do so; these decisions need to be compatible with the need to downsize and be aligned with priorities.

There is a danger of focusing on relatively small short term savings at the expense of the bigger picture, for example the policy of recruitment drag on vacant posts distorts agreed service levels, undermines service planning and demoralises front line staff

Some national priorities can’t be ignored – such as Children’s safeguarding

27. The existence of a minority administration has not prevented members from setting and driving the council’s priorities as set out in the Blueprint for Change for 2008. This document was based on extensive community consultation and is also in keeping with the national agenda and the council intends to adopt the same approach to the review, which has recently started, for the period 2008 onwards. There was evidence of the good use of staff secondments as a means of moving resources to meet the priorities.



28. The three strategic priorities; Streetcare, Regeneration and Efficiency & Effectiveness represented a reduction from 11 priorities to allow the council to focus more on what mattered to local people.

29. There is considerable value in the simplicity of focusing on three strategic areas only and, by definition, those areas not identified as priorities must be considered as not requiring the same attention or resources.

30. The three strategic priorities contain several underpinning projects of key importance. Culture, for instance, was not included in regeneration originally but has recently been added. Under the Efficiency & Effectiveness strategic priority, major projects such as the Leisure Trust and Shared Services are also being pursued. These are major projects in their own right and could benefit from being recognised, and communicated, as key priorities for GCC.

31. The peer review team is not suggesting there should be a reduction in ambitions. All of these additional priority project areas can be readily justified as desirable but there needs to be the resource allocation and organisational capacity to enable them to be delivered, which may mean phasing them in over time.

32. GCC, therefore, needs to ensure each priority, whether strategic or project related, receives appropriate resourcing and capacity, otherwise the Council could lose focus.

33. Staff and partners made it clear that they are confused about how many priorities the council has and their relative importance. The Council, therefore, needs to define and be clear about the number of real priorities that it has and take steps to deliver on them.

34. Following CPA it was essential for Housing to be tackled and the decision was taken to do that through the creation of an ALMO and there is reference to it in the Blueprint for Change. Considerable resource has gone into this area with impressive results but the council should ask itself “where did this fit within the three council priorities?”

35. Treating the ALMO, leisure trust and shared services projects as examples of efficiencies rather than service improvements has given an unfortunate impression. The review team was convinced that Members saw these initiatives as primarily aimed at producing better services with a secondary aim of being more cost effective but it was clear that was not understood throughout the organisation where such initiatives are seen purely as part of a cost cutting agenda from a council primarily concerned about the bottom line.

36. The danger of focusing on relatively short term savings at the expense of the bigger picture is that priorities can be distorted. A case in point is the council’s policy of recruitment drag on vacant posts. The peer team felt that it is legitimate when a post becomes vacant to question whether it is needed and if so whether there ought to be some changes but the current policy goes beyond that so that even where the case for replacement is clear, a delay occurs as a means of saving revenue expenditure. If the council’s service and resource planning has been done effectively, the number of staff required to achieve performance in each area will have been built in and so if staff leave and are not replaced quickly work will fall behind target. This could be seen as failure being built in and in a way that means Members could lose control of priorities.



37. The peer review team did not receive evidence to demonstrate how the council’s priorities ‘fit’ with the priorities of the Gloucester partnership. Comments were made that while the local strategic partnership is effective in many ways, it is rather disconnected from the city council. The Audit Commission will look for evidence of the golden thread running from the local strategic partnership down to every member of council staff. The council will have to continue to take tough decisions to align resources with priorities and to downsize support services to reflect the loss of direct employment through the enabling strategy.

38. There are some national priorities that simply cannot be ignored by the council. The review team was told that children’s safeguarding was not seen as a priority by the council representatives. Understandably it does not feature in the list of council priorities as primary responsibility lies elsewhere but there is a statutory responsibility laid on the council and, in any event, should a tragedy occur within the City the political fallout would rightly be significant. The council should ensure that adequate mechanisms are in place to deal with any such national high risk priorities.



Capacity

Strengths

Evidence of excellent procurement to achieve the Streetcare partnership, using an established approach to project management and applying learning throughout the process

Members are working very well together. The Leader and Chief Executive work well together showing strong leadership

The Council shows evidence of a good working relationship with the Trade Unions and they are involved in staff induction

Acknowledgement of the need to enhance shared working within the whole County


Staff vacancy issues are seriously affecting staff morale

The Member Development Review is nearing completion and is highlighting a need for Member skills to be improved; this could be achieved through a number of different approaches including awaydays, personal development plans and external visits

CMT is seen as divorced from the rest of management and staff

Silo working prevails throughout the organisation

Develop middle management capability to drive operational performance

Continue to make the difficult decisions to further drive savings and service efficiencies throughout the organisation

39. GCC recognises when it needs to shift resources to address priority areas and when undertaking the procurement of the Streetcare contract it diverted a specific officer to provide additional resource and to focus on the project management process. This approach is also evident in the work towards delivering a Leisure Trust, with the Assistant Director of Culture, Learning and Leisure seconded to project manage the programme. Whilst the Assistant Director is on secondment, services within the Culture, Learning and Leisure portfolio have been allocated to other Senior Managers to ensure consistency of managerial leadership

40. There is also evidence of a developing culture of learning within GCC with examples of bringing in external support when required to bridge a lack of skills and to provide new skills. The Streetcare procurement programme, for example, brought in external experts, 4P’s, to provide capability development with influencing and negotiation skills. The Streetcare project also applied a recognised project management process and used PRINCE2 to deliver the procurement contract. The learning from the Streetcare process has been cascaded down the authority as an example of good practice and the team continue to learn from others areas, for example the team are reviewing the effectiveness of the ALMO Board, in preparation for establishing a Streetcare Board.



41. The Streecare partnership should, however, prioritise the learning and evaluation element of the procurement programme to further develop the knowledge and expertise amongst staff.

42. The peer review team were impressed by the dedication of some staff and they are seen as customer focused, approachable, supportive, and enthusiastic to ‘do their bit’, although this spirit was not evident throughout the council and needs to be nurtured, adopted and supported on a wider basis.

43. There is, however, a policy not to immediately recruit to vacant posts and this recruitment drag is severely effecting staff morale. This policy should be reviewed and the adoption of a wider approach to business process reengineering such as ‘Systems Thinking’ should be rolled out further as this would achieve the desired efficiency outcomes without the negative effect on staff.

44. There is recognition that the existing work force plan is not fit for purpose and lacks flexibility and competencies. The council are, therefore, working to develop a new organisation development plan and a competency based framework for staff.

45. The review team also found that staff have a tendency to be inward looking, and do not work effectively across services. There is, however, recognition that staff do need to improve cross service working and require new skill sets to fully deliver the council’s enabling agenda. This work needs to be progressed as a matter of urgency.

46. Concern was expressed that CMT decides strategies without prior discussions with the staff who will be expected to implement them. CMT need to be more aware of practical consideration and should work to involve staff in decision making. Together with other concerns about internal communication, commented on elsewhere in this report.

47. There is evidence of a good working relationship between the Trade Unions and GCC. Single status and equal pay were agreed in February/March, and the Trade Unions were involved in the process from the start. Staff are actively encouraged, if they show a desire to be more involved, and the Trade Union are permitted to send ‘all staff’ emails on the council’s network. The council has been through many changes recently without any evidence of staff or union unrest. The Trade Unions meet monthly with the Chief Executive and they are also included in the induction-training programme, being allocated a 15-minute slot, and comments are taken into account on all draft reports. These are all good examples of taking the importance of the Trade Unions seriously, and promoting a very mature relationship

48. Although no one political party has overall control of the Council, the current arrangements work well and have led to a more consensual working ethos. The quote, ‘For the Good of Gloucester not politics’ was used on several occasions. The Leader and Chief Executive demonstrate evidence of a very positive working relationship, although this still in its very early days. The consensual working is also demonstrated by the low instances of Call Ins by the Overview and Scrutiny committees.

49. The Leader communicates via e-mail with the administration Members weekly to update them on current issues, to keep them informed and included. The Group Leaders and



Deputies meet regularly to discuss topical issues and any other business. The Leader has driven forward change and appointed the Cabinet Members and reorganised their portfolios when he took on the Leadership role. This has helped to deliver good political working.

50. There is, however, a need for Member’s roles to be further developed. The recent Member Development Review can provide a strong platform to launch and develop a robust training and development programme, and uptake should be strongly encouraged.

51. The team welcomed the news that the Leader is attending the IDeA’s Leadership Academy and should also consider the development of a focused programme of development for Cabinet and could consider utilising the following to provide additional learning opportunities:

The adoption of personal development plans for all members

Developing and keeping a register of courses attended by all members

The development of a programme of awaydays for Members and joint awaydays with officers

External visits to other authorities to learn from best practice

52. It was also evident that equal opportunity issues need to be highlighted and embraced by Members and they could benefit from further training and involvement in equality impact assessments.

53. There was evidence that there is some work being progressed on the shared services agenda and sharing Legal Services is at the top of the priorities. There is a joint implementation board, and the possibility of joining the Contact Centre with others is also being explored to achieve further economies and efficiencies. The Administration is showing a willingness to move towards shared services.

54. Shared service efficiencies, however, take time to deliver, so there is a need to make local improvements sooner to balance the budget. It is felt that the council is only ‘tinkering’ with efficiency savings, and needs to be much more forceful and robust in its approach. It was felt that overhauling existing systems and processes would generate improved efficiency and effectiveness, but there seems to be a lack of drive and capacity to deliver this agenda. The council should, therefore, prioritise this work, allocate resources and undertake a nuts and bolts business process review to ensure that savings are achieved without impacting adversely upon service delivery.

55. Members have many demands on their time and deliver their community leadership role through a variety of channels and approaches. However the review team heard mixed evidence of member engagement in processes like neighbourhood partnerships. This represents missed opportunities for Members to raise their profile in the community, and to be visible and accessible to the electorate. Consideration should be given to reviewing the resourcing, focus and role of members as advocates of the council in order to further improve the capacity of the council.



Performance management

Strengths

Performance management systems and processes are in place throughout the council

The peer review team received examples of targeted work in priority areas that has delivered improved services for residents

There is a developing culture of learning within the organisation

The council is investing in building blocks to improve performance

The Performance Improvement Group is recognised and valued by staff

The ‘Systems Thinking’ approach can be applied to improve performance and release efficiencies

There is improved monthly reporting of performance to CMT

Recognition by senior staff that there is an urgent need to develop the skill sets, for both officers and Members, to enable them to performance manage the new partnerships successfully

Recognised external accreditation eg Chartered Institute for Public Relations gold award for SW Region pride campaign, Investor in People for the whole Council and Charter Mark for Culture, Learning & Leisure


Ensure service plans are aligned with corporate priorities and resources

Improve performance amongst Members by introducing a strong performance management structure for Cabinet initially, with further roll out to all councillors

Opportunity to further strengthen and improve the effectiveness of Overview and Scrutiny and Members, by increasing awareness of the value and importance of Scrutiny and how it can influence and improve the council’s operations through managing performance

Embed a performance management culture throughout the organisation and use it as an integral tool of how members and officers work

Better utilise the data from residents’ feedback and investigate the introduction of effective staff communications to help drive up performance

Seeking out further opportunities to recognise achievement, celebrate success and capture and disseminate best practice throughout and across the organisation

56. The council has a technically sound performance management system, Performance PLUS, with the key building blocks in place and members and staff are committed to the benefits



of monitoring performance. The system is supported by an excellent service planning framework that enables Members and Staff to see ‘at a glance’ the annual planning cycle.

57. This framework, however, is not fully utilised and staff and Members should look to improve the council’s approach to performance management by driving forward the performance management agenda, adhering to the planning cycle and developing the accountability role of Members, particularly Overview & Scrutiny, and the Corporate Management Team.

58. The peer review team received examples of where targeting resources towards priority areas has delivered results. These are most prevalent with regards to the Streetcare partnership and in particular recycling. The ALMO is also delivering very positive results and has achieved 2 stars in the recent Audit Commission inspection. The Benefits service is also delivering high quality work and has improved performance across a number of indicators (although it could still improve on the accuracy). Performance management is not consistent across the organisation however and the council could benefit from furthering accountability and embedding a culture of performance improvement within the Corporate Management Team and amongst Members.

59. The council is open and embraces learning and has a history of using external reviews as a tool for improvement and engages external support where capacity and skills are lacking.

60. The council has invested in the building blocks for performance improvement and the new focus on the performance improvement group was welcomed by staff and the increased reporting frequency to CMT was also seen as a positive move forward. The work on the ‘Systems Thinking’ approach to service improvement was recognised as a positive move and could further enable the council to deliver improved service and increased efficiencies.

61. The recent annual performance review identifies that in 2006/07 73% of performance indicators have maintained (22%) or improved (51%) on the previous years performance. This is positive performance, but the council needs to ensure that progress continues at a faster pace and is comparable to other councils.

62. An increased focus on performance measurement is leading to areas of service improvement. The council can demonstrate achievement through the measurement of performance. For example the speed of Housing & Council Tax Benefit claims has increased substantially (BV078a) as has the % of household waste recycled (BV082ai), however, performance is not improving across the whole council with performance inconsistent across a range of indicators.

63. There are opportunities to further strengthen and improve the effectiveness of Overview and Scrutiny and Members by increasing awareness of the value and importance of the scrutiny role and how it can influence and improve the Council’s operations through managing performance. Appendix A provides more information on the development of this role.

64. Group leaders could set an example by performance managing their groups. It might make sense to pilot the techniques at Cabinet initially.



65. The peer review was unable to find evidence of change in response to customer feedback or complaints. The team were informed of the existence of improved data and the council is encouraged to maximise all opportunities to capture customer feedback, systematically monitor it and ensure that lessons are learnt, changes in service design and delivery are implemented and learning is shared throughout the organisation.

66. An increasing emphasis on partnership working underpins the success of the council’s delivery and forms a key aspect of the new CPA framework for districts from 2006. With the launch of the LAA it will be necessary for the key partners to be able to demonstrate that its projects and programmes are robustly performance managed. The council, therefore, needs to further embed performance management with its partners, particularly the Streetcare partnership and ensure that it is focussing on the key priorities and not the day to day detail.

67. There is awareness that both the enabling approach to services and partnership working require the development of new skills and competencies. The world has moved from command and control management to contract performance management and to the need for softer abilities such as influencing and negotiating.

68. Through the staff focus group the peer review team identified that staff morale was low in areas and we suggest that the council gives consideration to seeking out further opportunities to:

Recognise and reward the achievement of its staff

Celebrate success through the provision of staff awards, lunches and other celebrations

Showcase good practice through the existing staff magazine, intranet and other routes

Share and capture learning both within the council and externally

Utilise customer feedback and complaints and report back on actions arising from this

Identify appropriate staff feedback opportunities such as ‘Ask the Chief Executive’, staff forums and back to floor visits



Achievement and Improvement

Strengths

Delivering improved services and facilities for Gloucester, resulting in improved ways of working and satisfied customers

Regeneration is making an impact and there is evidence that the City is changing

Good partnership arrangements are in place and the council demonstrates that it is working to shared priorities

Evidence that community engagement is well developed and resulting in better engagement with customers

Media relations between the council and the press are well developed enabling the council to manage the messages it portrays to residents and visitors effectively


Internal and external communications could be strengthened

The peer review team received evidence that community consultation is wide spread but uncoordinated, resulting in possible duplication of consultation across the City, and in consultation fatigue

There is a willingness to embrace the Overview and Scrutiny process although the review team did not receive any evidence that it is effectively holding the Executive to account on a consistent basis.

Improve forward planning, speed of progress and delivery to timescales, to meet the high ambitions of Gloucester’s community and to improve confidence in partners, staff and residents

69. The council can demonstrate a record of many achievements, not least a proven track record of delivering good services and facilities to satisfied customers. Some of the examples reported to the review team include the recycling service, refuse collection, street scene and cleanliness in the City centre, GL1 Leisure Centre and the partnership working with the ALMO, represents an achievement for the council as it ensures that scarce resources are deployed to achieve maximum impact.

70. Since the recycling and refuse collection service has been delivered in partnership with Accord, it has resulted in a much improved service, and one which continues to improve. Recycling in particular has been commended. Street cleaning services are making a difference and individuals are really noticing this. One resident was quoted as saying “last week was the first time in 42 years that I’d seen someone cleaning my street!” The Streetcare Partnership is seen as a bold step, and one in which partner relationships are well developed.



71. GL1 and the liveability scheme are also seen to be making a difference. Services are well delivered and people are proud of them.

72. The ALMO partnership with Gloucester City Homes is a big success and has turned around from a zero to a two star organisation, which is a great achievement, and which will enable the council to begin to meet the decent homes standard. An effective, joined-up forum consisting of the Chief Executive, lead Member, senior strategic housing officers, and senior ALMO officers meet monthly to discuss issues to further improve performance for the City.

73. The regeneration of the City has also been identified as something to be proud of. Regeneration is an area that connects well with external partners, local communities and internal partners. Of particular note is the drive generated by the Urban Regeneration Company, which has resulted in significant outcomes for the City. There is a good understanding of the current challenges for regeneration, and it is acknowledged that regeneration in Gloucester has come a long way in the last five years.

74. There is a clear vision for regeneration, the docks area has been sympathetically developed and transformed, and the City continues to undergo transformation with the development of the “Magnificent Seven” a set of major redevelopment sites that will drive forward the regeneration of Gloucester and create the changes required to transform the City. As a result of the focused work on regeneration, there is increased private sector investment, with resulting investor confidence.

75. People speak highly of the work that GCC are delivering with their partners. There are excellent partnerships with Accord, URC and the ALMO where at a strategic level relationships are well formed, mature, open and honest. However, some partnerships such as the local strategic partnership have found that the council to be disconnected from the partnership, implying a lack of ownership.

76. Community engagement is well regarded by staff. Of note is the setting up of the five neighbourhood partnerships, which involve multi-agency partners and are community led. A number of council services and functions seek to engage these groups, which include outsourced services like the ALMO, and the Streetcare partnership. Some consideration of the effectiveness of current engagement processes should be undertaken, however, to assess whether they meet the future objectives of the council as previously outlined under “Ambition for the community”.

77. External communication is strong and good relationships have been forged with the editor of “The Citizen” newspaper, resulting in open channels of communication. This has resulted in the council being consulted on emerging stories before they are published and, where appropriate, able to comment on or influence before publication. Statistics from media reviews show a minor percentage of “bad” news against two or three topics.

78. However, internal communication needs improving and staff have expressed a concern about how the change agenda is communicated to them. It has been suggested that existing methods of disseminating information are too lengthy or detailed and could benefit from being more precise and focused.



79. Staff have requested that they are more involved in the decision making of the council, and would like channels of communication opened to allow their views to be fed in to the Corporate Management Team.

80. Consistent styles of communication should also be established within the organisation which will strengthen the council’s branding. The collection of communications data, particularly around requests for communication in alternative formats, will enable the council to forecast expenditure on communications, agree a council wide approach to communications, and facilitate progress against equality standards, a point also made within the “Capacity” section

81. As mentioned previously in this report, staff have commended the engagement of communities by the council, but are concerned that there are too many consultations commissioned across the organisation. This is resulting in a disjointed approach to consultation, which may duplicate effort. There is also a concern that the wealth of information that is collected is not shared with the organisation, and intelligence remains within service areas. There is concern that the amount of uncoordinated consultation will result in consultation fatigue.

82. Whilst recognising that GCC has achieved significant progress since CPA in 2004, there is a growing understanding that in the improving world of local government, ‘to stand still is to go backwards’. Accordingly, consideration should be given to ensuring that the pace of change of improvement matches or exceeds other local authorities.

83. In summary, the peer review team wished to highlight the need for GCC to pursue the continued change agenda, step up this pace of change, focus on ambitions, review the human and financial resources required to deliver this agenda to ensure that Gloucester City is ‘a fair, just and thriving community in which no one is seriously disadvantaged’.

Written with and on behalf of the peer review team by:

Gary HughesReview Manager IDeAJuly 2007



Appendix A – Member and Overview & Scrutiny Development

1. The peer review team felt that Members were yet to fully adopt their role as modern Councillors. There is, however, a willingness to embrace this agenda and in particular the Overview and Scrutiny process although at this stage it is not effectively holding the Executive to account on a consistent basis. There are also opportunities for Cabinet to further develop their role.

2. Members could benefit from further appreciation of the value and importance of Overview and Scrutiny and how it can influence and improve the council’s operations through managing performance.

3. The peer review team was also informed that the uptake of appropriate training is poor and it is recommended that all Members, particularly Cabinet, are strongly encouraged to attend all relevant training opportunities.

4. The council should develop an appropriate assessment and training package that covers all identified areas for development. Further support in identifying and providing opportunities to improve members’ performance can be accessed through a variety of organisations within the Local Government family All efforts should be taken to ensure easy access to such training to ensure maximum attendance.

5. There is an acknowledgement that the Overview and Scrutiny function is not as effective as it could be: portfolio holders are not challenged and would welcome more effective scrutiny of their performance and portfolios.

6. This has been supported by the Leader and current moves to investigate improvements should include, amongst others; the use of external visits clear scoping of scrutiny topics improving public participation by expanding the opportunities for them to directly

influence Scrutiny’s work programme ensuring that community needs and opinions are being met.

7. The council should consider the use of co-optees and experts at points throughout the Scrutiny process, as this can enrich the outcomes and provide more opportunity to deliver the council’s priorities. Sufficient officer support should be provided to enable Overview and Scrutiny to fulfil its role.

8. The Overview and Scrutiny function also has a role in policy formation by initiating and/or shaping current policies. Awareness of this aspect of their role is weak throughout the council and should be further developed.

9. An effective Scrutiny ensures that the administration is held to account and as a result, will raise their effectiveness as well as the council’s. Both chairs and scrutiny members have an important role to play in ensuring this takes place.

10. The skills required for running and participating in an effective Overview and Scrutiny role are varied and when utilised fully will ensure that the role becomes as important as Cabinet and valued throughout the organisation.



11. Innovative use of Overview and Scrutiny could be explored such as inter-authority or inter-agency scrutiny and the Committees could improve their performance and effectiveness by benchmarking against other authorities where Overview and Scrutiny is working well.

12. The council has a new Cabinet team with a mix of experience, variety of skills and time available. Training should also be provided to assist the Cabinet to develop as a team, their leadership, taking tough decisions, taking responsibility for their portfolios, understanding the business in sufficient depth to challenge council performance and their individual portfolio performance.

13. To improve performance and achieve the step change required, Cabinet should take ownership of their respective service plans and ensure that priorities are agreed, resourced sufficiently and they are not diverted. Cabinet should also be clear and identify non-priorities and where there should be investments, transfer of resources and divestment.

14. Additional support is available from the South West Centre of Excellence which hosts the LIFT site. GCC could tap into additional LIFT resources for mentoring support through the National Councillor mentoring scheme and may be able to access support for the south West Member Charter scheme. Additionally there is a South West network for the development of Overview & Scrutiny and information on this is available from the IDeA’s Regional Associate, Stephen Fletcher.

15. There are opportunities to further develop the role of Members within Gloucester and the review team feel that with the new political and managerial leadership driving forward this change, significant progress can be made.



Appendix B –Equalities & Diversity Development

1. The peer review team were impressed by the high level of community engagement demonstrated by officers and partners of GCC. It was evident that the views of community representatives were actively sought through well established neighbourhood partnerships, and that consultation with communities was felt to be an important factor in shaping and informing service provision, although would benefit from being better coordinated. However, with regard to equality and diversity, the review team felt the target to achieve level 1 of the Equality Standard for Local Government by March 2008, to be unchallenging. This target should now be reviewed particularly in the light of regional support to attain level 2 by March 2008 for the whole region.

2. The following recommendations are given in the absence of any discussion with officers and staff around the council’s approach to embedding equality. As we did not receive information as to what mechanisms exist to deliver equality, or what process the council has undertaken to set its targets against the Equality Standard, the following approach is suggested as a starting point. It is hoped that some of these recommendations will be of use.

3. The council should think about assessing in a robust and evidence based manner, the targets it sets against the Equality Standard. A starting point could be the consideration of an evaluation of the resources required for achievement of levels 1, 2 (and beyond), and a risk assessment should be built into this process. This evaluation should involve senior officers, Members and staff, and should be driven by the equalities steering group.

4. An identified champion, preferably at chief officer level who is able to drive and embed the Standard (in essence an equality performance management framework) into the council’s policy making, employment practices and service delivery, will give focus to this agenda. An identified Member with responsibility for equality, would also ensure that targets are scrutinised, and equality issues are discussed and debated.

5. The progression towards level 2 will involve impact and needs assessments of services. It is good practice to involve external stakeholders in this process. If one does not already exist, it is recommended that the council utilise existing or sets up new external forums that can be involved in equality impact assessments.

6. As the council has aspirations to become an enabling council, it is important that equality principles are built into the procurement process, so that from procurement, through to the monitoring of contracts, it is evident that outsourced services consider equality and meet the duties around equality where appropriate. Equality in procurement features heavily in the Standard, and by level 3, authorities should be demonstrating target setting and monitoring of targets within contracts.

7. There is a great deal of best practice to draw upon in this area. The authors of the Equality Standard, Stuart Speeden and Julian Clarke are based at the Centre for Policy Studies at Edgehill College, and are particularly useful contacts. Both are assessors of the Equality Standard, awarding the Equality Mark to those authorities successful at levels 3 and 5, and as experienced assessors, have built up a great deal of practical knowledge about how this framework is embedded in different authorities.



8. DIALOG, the equality specialists based in the IDeA are also a good source of information and best practice, working closely with local authorities, and having expertise in the Standard framework.

9. Good practice exists and should be sought, for example the Core Cities group of authorities, formed an equalities and performance management group, which not only shared practice, and benchmarked with each other, but also brought together key individuals within their authorities to discuss effective working. This group has invited and involved the Audit Commission, DIALOG and Standard authors to meetings, and has offered to act as a pilot group for equality activity. There could be an opportunity for a similar group to be formed in Gloucester, using the Audit Commission family of authorities.

10. There is much to be gained from meeting with other similar authorities, an opportunity exists within the region to jointly move forward towards level 2, and this should be taken advantage of, not least to provide support to officers and to improve the utilisation of minimum resources, but also to move forward on this agenda for the benefit of services, staff and customers.

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