Councils in Scotland “urgently require” a “step change” in transforming how they deliver services, the Accounts Commission has concluded in a new report.
“Given growing demand and ongoing financial pressures, councils must now move with an ambition and pace we’ve not yet seen if they’re going to successfully address the financial sustainability, workforce and service challenges they’re facing,” said Jennifer Henderson, Accounts Commission member, summarising the findings of a new report, titled ‘Transformation in councils’.
She added: “To protect vital services, to pivot to prevention and increase the pace of collaboration, councils must commit to and sustain their own transformation programmes, whilst collaborating with sector-led work.”
Henderson said successful delivery of reform and transformation programmes would be “essential” to achieving financial sustainability while collaboration, both internally and externally to local government, would also “be a key part of the solution”.
The Accounts Commission’s report noted that the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (Solace) and the Improvement Service had established a sector-led transformation programme, but while this is a “positive change” work is “at an early stage”. The report added: “There are significant risks around workforce capacity and skills to realise ambitions, given the need to continue delivering vital services every day.”
All elected members “must exercise their responsibilities to give clarity on the longer-term vision and ambitions of the councils they represent”, the Accounts Commission said. A coordinated sector-wide public engagement and communication campaign would “help gain backing from communities” while “councils must prioritise both capacity and capability in their workforces to match the ambition and pace needed to transform” to deliver on the “change now urgently needed”.
The Accounts Commission report calls on all relevant public bodies, including the Scottish Government, alongside community planning partners, third sector and communities, to “recognise the urgent need to collaborate to help deliver the change needed”.
A determination from both Scottish and local government to “deliver on the commitments made in the Verity House Agreement is also critical”, the report found, as this will “support the development and delivery of local government transformation, helping secure future local services and finances”.
The report, which is part of a series produced by the Accounts Commission with the aim of providing an independent overview of the local government sector in Scotland, can be read here.
Culture key, technology helpful
Transformation was among the topics discussed at Room151’s recent Local Authority Treasures Investment Forum (LATIF) and Finance Directors’ (FDs’) Summit in London on 19 September.
Covering all councils in the UK, a dedicated panel shared experiences of transformation programmes and what it takes for successful delivery.
Chaired by Joseph Holmes, executive director, resources & CFO at West Berkshire Council, the panel also featured Becky McIntyre, director, resources and transformation/section 151 officer at Calderdale Council, Ashley Hughes, director of resources at Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council, and Janice Gotts, executive director, resources and s73 officer at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.
McIntyre noted that “everyone’s got a different starting point and an expectation of what transformation is and what it can achieve”.
A definition could encompass many statements. “Is it a series of change programmes? Is it a new state of being? Is it evolution or revolution, or is it organisational development in terms of just making things better and doing things differently? It’s probably all of those above at all different times, depending on whether we’re talking service redesign on the ground or whether we’re talking system transformation with our partners and with us as key stakeholders.”
However, McIntyre said culture was ultimately the key to organisational change, with buy-in across the organisation essential, given that transformation is a “collective effective and shared endeavour”.
Hughes said that his organisation has reflected on “the difference between efficiency, which is more for the same, and productivity, or more for more”. Tameside is going through the process of benchmarking, learning from the wider sector and looking at what its residents actually want.
Describing her experiences, Gotts described the value of external partners and communication, and the need for good governance.
She cautioned that technology, while useful, cannot solve everything. “Don’t start by thinking technology can solve it. Find out what the problem is. You want to solve first and work back,” she said.
For a full report on the keynote sessions of the LATIF and FDs’ Summit, click here.
A report on the dedicated LATIF stream can be found here, while a report on the FD’s Summit can be read here.
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