Issue - meetings
Tower Hamlets Improvement Plan
Meeting: 09/12/2019 - Tower Hamlets Transformation and Improvement Board (Item 4)
4 Tower Hamlets Improvement Plan 2018-2022 PDF 275 KB
To follow
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Board received a report that provided Q3 progress updates on the Tower Hamlets Improvement Plan’s 11 recommendations; developed in response to the findings of the LGA Corporate Peer Challenge (June 2018) and captures the improvement activity currently undertaken in the Council. The main points of the discussions are summarised as follows. |
The Board noted that:
- In June 2018, the Council had participated in a LGA Corporate Peer Challenge. The purpose of this review was to achieve an independent perspective of the Council’s achievement against its Best Value Improvement Plan and to learn from best practice;
- The Peer Challenge represented a significant milestone in the Council’s strengths, weaknesses and provided a catalyst to deliver the ongoing improvements required to improve services for residents;
- The Corporate Peer Challenge identified a number of areas where the Council can make further improvements.
- Whilst the report outlines the significant transformation and improvement activity being undertaken by the Council to become a modern and efficient Council. It was noted that there are large areas within the Council that are in need of modernisation with some services operating under a traditional and paternalistic model of delivery;
- The Council therefore needs to expedite the pace of change as it remains too risk averse as a result of past decision making;
- The Council should focus on taking a more proportionate risk approach and empower officers to be less cautious and bureaucratic in order to drive through a real change in culture;
- This means becoming more financially disciplined, commercial, adaptable and innovative at all levels that resources are managed;
- The key questions are (i) to know where the Council is in this journey of improvement; (ii) that there is still scope for future improvement; (iii) a recognition that there is a more challenging environment financially to address the pressures; (iv) the need to look at the extent that the Council can use its resources to facilitate local communities and businesses in working through problems in an effective way;
- It is important to consider (i) how effective is the leadership within the Council at driving performance; (ii) the development of a cost conscious culture within the Council so that every decision is built on informed financial assessment; (iii) how well officers are demonstrating financial awareness and ensuring a coherent approach to financial management the Council’s corporate centre;
- Whilst there have been reforms the Councils management arrangements in terms of systems and personnel, there is more work to do on the development of financial discipline E.g. whilst work has been undertaken on outcome based budgeting there is still more work to be undertaken on this; and
- The Council needs to address the services in need of improvement and integration e.g. resource management.
Accordingly the Transformation and Improvement Board RESOLVED:
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1. To note the progress with regards to the Tower Hamlets Improvement Plan. |
Meeting: 09/09/2019 - Tower Hamlets Transformation and Improvement Board (Item 4)
4 Tower Hamlets Improvement Plan PDF 255 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The report provided a progress update on the Tower Hamlets Improvement Plan which had been developed in response to the findings of the LGA Corporate Peer Challenge (June 2018) and captured the significant transformation and improvement activity currently undertaken in the Council. The main points of the discussions by the Board are outlined below:
The Committee noted that:
The Partnership Executive Group (PEG) which formed a partner led Brexit Action Group has proposed to deliver the following themed actions from Brexit Commission Recommendations (i) Tower Hamlets – You’re Home – A campaign to promote Tower Hamlet’s and EU residents to feel safe and welcome whilst providing reassurance to businesses that the borough remains open and prime location for businesses; (ii) Tower Hamlet’s Got Talent – A series of focussed sustainable actions for employers, education and skills based organisations to provide an develop the workforce for local and international businesses in borough; and (iii) Tower Hamlets and European Culture Festival – Celebration of EU cultural events commencing Autumn 2019 - Autumn 2020 recognising the Borough’s position in Europe;
· London Councils is collating views from across London and LGA is signposting councils to relevant guidance and there is a Chief Executives Brexit Planning Group and the Resilience Forum so that boroughs can be prepared;
· The Council’s Local Community Fund (LCF) programme includes over 50 projects and expects it to deliver a range of activities against the five priority areas and outcomes of LCF. Monitoring and reporting arrangements for the LCF will also include providing updates to Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Grants Determination Committee;
· In Children’s Social Care, (i) the vacancy gap has been further reduced from 26% to 19.55%. (ii) Service Level Agreements are being set for the Resourcing Team and social care managers to improve recruitment timescales; (iii) work continues with the development of the national social work apprenticeship scheme to be launched late 2019/20;
· Following the full inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILAC) took place in June 2019. The result of this inspection had graded Tower Hamlets Children’s Services as GOOD. In continuing to maintain the improvements LBTH has established and Children and Education Scrutiny Sub-Cmmittee to look at issues that can impact upon Children’s Services;
· In supporting the development of Councillors role at the scrutiny through a range of initiatives,(i) the Council’s General Purpose Committee agreed with the findings to Strengthening Local Democracy which included actions to develop Overview and Scrutiny; (ii) Members and Co optees from the main scrutiny committee and its sub-committees attended a joint workshop to discuss the work programme for 2019/20; (iii) an online presence was developed to capture residents’ views on topics for OSC to consider; (iv) a scrutiny toolkit has been developed to support Members to perform their roles; (v) scrutiny leads continue with meeting with their equivalent Cabinet leads and senior officers to discuss areas of the portfolio. This will help improve the effectiveness of scrutiny and ensure that it is better aligned with the council’s key strategic priorities;