City council publishes peer review action plan

Lancaster City Council has published an action plan of how it will implement the recommendations of an independent panel that undertook an in-depth review of its services.

Earlier this year the council was the focus of a Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) by the Local Government Association (LGA).

A peer challenge is when representatives from councils nationwide spend time with another council to evaluate their performance, assess their ambition for residents, and determine if adequate resources are in place to fulfil those objectives.

In the city council’s case, the peer challenge team gathered information and views from more than 50 meetings, in addition to further research, and spoke to more than 130 people, including a range of council staff, councillors and external stakeholders.

At the end of the visit the team provided a report, which highlights many of the council’s strengths, including:

• The council has a clear vision through its new Council Plan
• There is strong leadership and staff are empowered to try out new things – ‘let’s do it’ attitude
• It is a welcoming, supportive place to work – professional, friendly with a strong emphasis on staff wellbeing and development
• There is a clear ambition that increased prosperity must be for the benefit of the whole community and enable a low carbon future
• People are proud to work for and represent Lancaster City Council – officers and members work well together
• There is a good understanding among officers, councillors and partners of the need to make savings and generate income

The report also made a series of recommendations for how the council can strengthen resilience and further develop core strategies and plans.

Work has been taking place over the summer to produce an action plan for how the recommendations will be addressed and this has now been published.

Councillor Caroline Jackson, deputy leader of Lancaster City Council, said: “The peer challenge has provided an invaluable opportunity to highlight what we do well and where there are opportunities to strengthen our approach.

“It also highlights the strong working relationships that we have developed between the three political parties on Cabinet, which means that we’re all pulling together in the same direction with a shared agenda.

“This cross-party approach means we are well placed to continue to capitalise on opportunities, deliver increased prosperity, and achieve our aspiration of enabling a low carbon future.

“Now the action plan has been published work will be taking place to ensure the recommendations are implemented so we are delivering all we can for our communities.”

The peer team will return in January 2025 to receive an update on progress.

• View the full report from the peer team.

• View the CPC action plan.

 

Last updated: 18 September 2024