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Lincolnshire County Council leader, Martin Hill, has been named Leader of the Year by the LGIU. He tells Heather Jameson how he did it . Martin Hill's assertion that his authority has ‘come a long way' is a huge understatement. LGIU Leader of the Year Winner: Cllr Martin Hill, Lincolnshire Commended: Cllr Mike Jones, Cheshire West and Chester The shortlisted: Cllr Warren Bradley, Liverpool Cllr Martin Hill, Lincolnshire Cllr Mike Jones, Cheshire West and Chester Cllr Steve Reed, Lambeth Cllr Jane Scott, Wiltshire Lincolnshire CC has gone from basket case council to a near-miss on attaining ‘excellent' in the final round of CPA – all under his stewardship. That transformation is the reason he earned his title as Leader of the Year in the Local Government Information Unit's (LGIU) Councillor of the Year Awards. And it was no mean feat, given the line-up on the shortlist. To top it all, the council has just been given a further accolade for its children's services. Ofsted judged the authority to be ‘outstanding' for it's safeguarding for both overall effectiveness and capacity to improve. ‘We are the only authority which has "excellent" in some of the areas of safeguarding children,' Cllr Hill says, proudly. For all his success, he is modest. He says of the transformation: ‘It's quite easy to do.' But to move on from what his chief executive, Tony McArdle, calls the ‘Punch and Judy Show' that was Lincolnshire five years ago is a huge achievement. Lincolnshire's reputation took a dive when former leader, Jim Speechley, was jailed for 18 months for misconduct in public life, after trying to influence a planning committee for ‘personal gain'. The-then chief executive, David Bowles, was whistleblower to the affair. But the difficulties of the council ran far deeper. Cllr Hill: leadership style is 'inclusive, but no-nonsense' Mr McArdle says: ‘Things which happened, happened despite the corporate centre of the authority, rather than because of it. Nobody regarded its authority with trust or affection. Now they do.' He adds, Cllr Hill is ‘hugely respected', both inside the organisation and with local partners. And, as a result, it is far easier to get things done. The trick, according to Cllr Hill was to ‘show some vision and leadership', and not allow the council to become factionalised. But the word which crops up most in his conversation is ‘opportunity' – he sees the positives in problems, and looks for a way out. He describes his leadership style as ‘inclusive, but no-nonsense', explaining that everyone ‘needs to genuinely feel their view has been heard', even though they may not win the argument. ‘The advantage when one is at rock bottom is that there is an opportunity. One needs to move on – and say, "Let's draw a line now".' He describes the culture of the council five years ago as ‘party political warfare, with a dreadful atmosphere', but the council had to pull together in a bid to get itself out of the mire. Luckily, he says, no-one wants to be seen as a basket case authority, so everyone got on board to improve. ‘There's a phase of denial. Then there's, "Oh, this is bad." Then it's, "How are we going to get out of it".' He compares the situation the council was in with the recent catastrophic World Cup efforts of the England team. ‘The England team were full of stars who failed. The German team, who weren't as good individually, but worked together as a team, were more successful.' The council put in place a new political team, and hired Mr McArdle, who also put in a new management structure. ‘I really enjoy getting people to work together – fixing things,' says Cllr Hill. So much so, he is now fixing other things. He has been ‘sucked into' the East Midlands REIP as chair, and is also chair of East Midlands Council. ‘It's good fun to try to sort things out,' he says. ‘I'm a bit of a mug. If someone asks me to do something, I'll do it. One of the best things about being successful is not being too picky about what you do.' And with a new government and the financial ‘opportunities' ahead, he has plenty of scope to continue trying to ‘sort things out'. He is happy the Government has scrapped the ‘wasteful bureaucracy' of the inspection regime. But, for a council which had been on the wrong side of an Audit Commission inspection, he is surprisingly supportive of the Comprehensive Area Assessment regime. ‘Lots of authorities were complacent. It [CPA] did improve [local government] but it got totally out of hand at the end. Armies of civil servants whose sole purpose was to measure performance.' With the cost, he says, it was not sustainable in the long term. Instead of the current inspection system, he favours a shift towards peer review. And when asked about [community secretary] Eric Pickles' plans to get rid of council chief executives and have leaders or mayors running their authorities themselves, he is defiantly against the Government. ‘No, definitely no.' He says: ‘It takes the politicians further away from the people. I am not an HR expert or an expert in management. I want someone to run the shop.' As for the financial ‘crisis', he is still optimistic. ‘We think there's a lot of money to be saved.' But while he understands the funding decisions made by the Government, he says: ‘One would question why health hasn't got to make the same savings. I would urge the ministers who are new to listen to us.' He returns again to the ‘opportunities' ahead. ‘There is an chance for local government to grab the agenda,' he says.

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WHITEHALL

Hill scales the heights

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