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As The MJ's recent front page story ‘City mayors to pioneer executive leader model' (7 October) reported – the ‘cat really is among the pigeons'. I am, of course, referring to proposals which might lead to the combination of the roles of council leader and chief executive. I have written in this column on many occasions that district councils need to become increasingly open-minded and flexible when it comes to management structures. I was, therefore, disappointed by the immediate reaction from SOLACE regarding the secretary of state's proposals. Bill Taylor is chief executive of West Lancashire BC Having said that, some of the comments from very senior public figures appear designed to deliberately 'wind up' CEOs. In an attempt to shed more light than heat, I have been encouraging the LGA to look at the pros and cons of this combined leader/CEO model, and to do so without reinventing the wheel. A similar model exists in North Rhineland-Westphalia in Germany, and the experience there might prove very useful in terms of our own potential development. I have observed this closely, through working with the burgermeister of our twin town which, for the last 10 years, has been operating this combined role referred to as ‘Einheitsspitze'. (This created a single leader/CEO/mayor, and superseded the original British system in 2000. Discussions I have had with German colleagues show there are some significant benefits to be had from this system, but there are also some serious pitfalls too. One of the lessons to be learned is an obvious one, and that is that so much depends on the calibre of the postholder. The need to have a combination of skills which merges political acumen with managerial expertise is paramount. To find people of this calibre will not be easy, but it's not impossible, as the German example shows. One conclusion I draw from this debate is that, before we take entrenched positions, we would be well advised to study the evidence from elsewhere. I hope the LGA, working with CLG, can make progress to this end. The financial crisis facing district councils means we have to be ‘light on our feet', and able to respond in innovative ways. Clearly, compared with metropolitan and unitary authorities, our management and governance costs are relatively higher, and the concept of Einheitsspitze along with the shared chief executive model are examples of where innovation can go a long way to not only reduce our costs, but demonstrate to the Government and the public at large that we are serious about adopting a model of continuous improvement.

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WHITEHALL

District View

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