Why is anyone surprised?
This report by Solace (a network organisation for local government and public service professionals) only confirms what many already knew. The culture and performance of the council is failing our residents. The actual introduction to the report is a little less direct “The main finding of the reports is that the Council is at serious risk of failing in its statutory duty to deliver Best Value” but short of people actually being jailed, this is condemnation in the strongest terms.
This is not a party political point. All parties should have been aware of the failings over that last 20 years. The report says “There have plainly been issues with the Council’s governance, operations and culture, which have been ongoing for some time.”
Joss Bigmore, the leader of R4GV commented in the Guildford Dragon that nobody should be surprised by this. Attempts to change it were continually frustrated. As the report states, the situation was “… exacerbated by a culture that encouraged silo working and discouraged challenge.”
The following summary is taken from the action plan:
- Establishing clear strategic direction and values for the Council, providing a basis for performance management and continuous improvement.
- Ensuring we provide the best value for money by embedding effective finance practices with sufficient capacity, and alignment between the organisation’s priorities and its use of resources, including procurement and contract management.
- Embedding a public service culture, outward-facing, innovative, building partnerships, listening to and working with our communities and businesses to deliver effective services that are value for money.
- Implementing effective governance across the organisation, so decisions are made at the right level, with accountabilities and responsibilities clear. Decision-making will be open and transparent, supported by evidence, and a committee system that provides constructive challenge.
- Ensuring effective service delivery, focused on achieving the right outcomes for residents and businesses, and supported by an effective performance reporting, risk-management, monitoring and audit regime.
- To ensure that housing services are effective, value for money, and recognise the vital importance of providing a safe and secure home.
Anyone who has worked in industry may be surprised at how basic the failings are. Decisions made at the wrong level, a lack of performance management, failure to define and measure KPIs or even failing to define a strategic direction would be unheard of in a successful business.
For us, the most telling point is number 3 – the council has been focussed on running the council and not on the residents that it is supposed to serve. We, the residents, are the customers of the council but that has not been how the council has operated.
Will this report make a difference? Everyone is making the right noises – “It is unacceptable”, “We will implement the findings in full”, etc. Time will tell whether this will amount to any real change. As Joss pointed out in his article, the problem has been that too many councillors and officers have been in denial that there is even a problem.
