Agenda item

Report of the Chief Executive

The Cabinet considered a report of the Chief Executive setting out the outcome of the Local Government Association (LGA) Corporate Peer Challenge 2024.

The report had been considered by Scrutiny Co-ordination at their meeting on 6 March 2025 and would also be considered at Council at their meeting on 25 March 2025.

The Local Government Association (LGA) was the national voice of local government, working with Councils to support, promote, and improve local government. The LGA’s Corporate Peer Challenge offer was effective and well regarded by the sector and provides robust, strategic and credible challenge and support to Councils.

It was expected that all Councils receive a Corporate Peer Challenge at least every five years covering core areas and any specific areas requested by the Council. Coventry City Council’s second Corporate Peer Challenge took place from 15^th to 18^th January 2024.

The visit focused on five core themes (local priorities and outcomes, organisational and place leadership, governance and culture, financial planning and management, and capacity for improvement). These areas are critical to Councils’ performance and improvement.

The Peer Team were asked to provide feedback on the organisation's corporate capacity and plans for service transformation, recognising the opportunity to receive some external challenge and feedback on future delivery plans.

At the time of the Corporate Peer Challenge in January, the Peer Team recognised that Coventry was an ambitious place that was on the up, with examples of innovation and a willingness to embrace change, whilst not forgetting its heritage. The Peer Team also noted that the Council was well-run, with strong officer and political leadership.

Following the Peer Challenge, the Council reflected on the Peer Team’s findings in order to determine its response to the recommendations that were made.

All Corporate Peer Challenges now include a progress review which takes place approximately 10 months after the original Peer Challenge visit. This review provides space for a Council’s senior leadership to report to the Peer Team on the progress made against the key recommendations, discuss early impact or learning and receive feedback on the implementation of the action plan. 

The LGA Corporate Peer Challenge progress report is provided as an appendix to this report (Appendix A). This report provides a detailed response on findings, including a number of observations and suggestions within the main section of the report.

Overall, the Peer Team were impressed at the level of progress made by Coventry City Council since the Corporate Peer Challenge. Work has been undertaken to respond to the recommendations including actions which were already underway prior to the original Peer Challenge and the Peer Team acknowledged the structured approach for making improvements and changes to achieve the Peer Team’s recommendations.

In summary, during the progress review, the Peer Team:

·  heard more examples of improvement and success, which was gratifying;

·  saw that the Council was showing a confidence to make adjustments to its improvement journey where this was necessary, for example in reconsidering its approach to transformation;

·  also heard again of the strong and visible leadership provided by the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive;

·  noted that the Council continues to be financially well managed but is facing similar demand and inflation pressures as other Councils and there is a strong recognition that the Council’s use of reserve to balance the accounts is not sustainable and that it must continue to work to ensure meaningful service and organisational transformation.

More detailed feedback was provided under six key themes which includes acknowledgment of the progress made and some suggestions for continued improvement.

These areas were described in the ‘Progress Review - Feedback’ section of the LGA’s progress review report (see Appendix A to the report) and a summary of these findings can be found from section 1.14 in the report.

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

1)  Support the work to deliver the actions which respond to the recommendations made by the Peer Team.

2)  Consider any comments made by Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee in relation to the outcome of the Peer Challenge.

3)  Recommend that Council note the content of the Peer Team’s progress review report and support the work to deliver the actions which respond to the recommendations made by the Peer Team.