Croydon LBC's corporate management team and commissioners have privately expressed concerns about the council's transformation pace, focus and outcomes, a leaked document has revealed.
Commissioners were appointed to oversee Croydon's financial recovery last year but an internal council presentation from July, seen by The MJ, said there was still a ‘need to refocus and reset' with ‘some initiatives not progressing well and causing tension within the organisation'.
The presentation revealed the council was closing down its ‘not successful' shared services project.
A ‘rapid review' of the transformation programme in May found ‘activity has become too diffuse, with significant effort invested across many projects but limited demonstrable impact on services, financial sustainability or organisational performance'.
The presentation read: ‘The context is one of significant financial pressure, high service demand and workforce instability, particularly in frontline and statutory services. Against this backdrop, the review emphasises the need to refocus transformation on its core purpose: delivering measurable outcomes, removing organisational friction and accelerating execution.'
A council spokesperson said: ‘Progress and positive results have been achieved in a number of areas and are already being felt by our residents.
‘We set high aspirations at the outset and have since adapted our approach as the programme has developed.'
Since 2020, Croydon has been hit by two public interest reports and three section 114 notices, the first of which was prompted by a potential in-year budget shortfall of around £66m.
