Minutes:
The Chairman welcomed Mark Edgell, Principal Adviser - LG Development, to the meeting who provided advice and background information on self-regulation and improvement in Local Government and what this meant in practice.
Following the decision of Central Government to reduce the burden of inspections Councils were now responsible for their own organisational performance with a move towards a new approach to self-regulation and improvement that would help Councils strengthen their accountability and revolutionise the way they evaluated and improved services.
The role of the LG Group had been subject to consultation and development and three guiding principles had been agreed:-
· That Councils would be responsible for their own performance.
· That Councils would be accountable to the local communities for that performance.
· That Councils would have collective responsibility for performance of the Local Government sector.
In terms of the Self Regulation Select Commission it was important that good performance data was available setting out how good Rotherham was performing against its targets with an agreed process of performance management and monitoring.
Councils were, therefore, encouraged to consider how they might take advantage of the LG Group’s seven point offer of providing approaches to help Councils with their objectives.
The LG Group would provide a package of support that would allow Councils to compare data and benchmark performance in the form a new web-based service that would allow Councils to capture their own knowledge.
In addition, the LG Group were offering, free of charge, a peer challenge over the three year period starting in April, 2011 and also up to five days of free member peer support for all Councils undergoing a change of control.
The LG Group would also continue to provide leadership support through development support for political and managerial leaders and also provide support to networks of officers and Members at national and sub-national levels, working with other sub-national groupings of Councils and the relevant professional associations, to share good practice and to provide timely support.
Now the structure of inspection, assessment and improvement had changed, the challenge for Councils was to change culture and to move away from Central Government applying rules.
A discussion and answer session ensued and the following issues were raised and subsequently clarified:-
· Effective models of management and the process of self regulation.
· The potential for taking forward self regulation and the holding of the Executive to account.
· Building capacity to effectively challenge and support with a shared vision to move forward.
· Engagement of communities rather than with members of the public on personal matters.
· Quality of the data and its availability within the Knowledge Hub.
· Double devolution and the process of challenging services.
· Recognition of the value that Local Authorities provide.
· Potential for communities to make a difference.
· Tools to self regulate provided by the LG Group.
· Further exploration of the Knowledge Hub by the Members’ Training and Development Panel.
· Performance data management and measurement of standards locally, sub-regionally and regionally.
· Peer reviews and how these fit into the self assessment process especially around Children’s Services.
· The need for strong leadership with strong challenging skills.
· Self assessment timetable and the areas to be self assessed.
· Peer review self assessment tools and their establishment.
· Self challenge at various levels.
Resolved:- (1) That Mark Edgell be thanked for his informative presentation.
(2) That the information be noted.
(3) That the Members’ Training and Development Panel explore the LG Group’s Knowledge Hub.