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With the Audit Commission set for abolition, the Local Government Group (LGG) has been consulting on creating a new voluntary regime of sector self-regulation and improvement from next April, The MJ in association with the LGG last week held a roundtable debate with leaders and senior managers to discuss the key issues. Michael Burton, who chaired the debate, reports on its conclusions. ‘The biggest challenge is, what if a council ignores the new regime.' ‘There's a difference between accountability and a willingness to be held to account.' ‘We need to commit to improvement. From time to time, it's beneficial to hold a mirror up to oneself.' ‘Peer review is particularly relevant because of its peer nature. Its value cannot be over-estimated. It needs to be used more. We'd like to see a situation where not having a peer review every three to four years would be seen as an anti-social act. In between, we need relationship managers who can sense when things are going wrong.' ‘Peer challenge is good when it comes to safeguarding issues. We had a peer review, then an Ofsted visit straight afterwards. Comparing the two, the former was much more helpful because it offered advice for the future.' ‘The London model on safeguarding is helpful.' ‘Peer review works if you approach it with an open mind. It doesn't work if you approach it with a closed mind.' ‘One of the problems about sharing data to compare is other councils are reluctant to release theirs.' ‘Any system of self-regulation will have to be agile – a speedboat rather than a tanker. ‘We're making huge service cuts – it's difficult to see how you can measure improvement against this backdrop.' ‘How do you define improvement?' ‘Only some areas will need inspection – finances, safeguarding, resilience. That's what the public are concerned about. I wouldn't pay much attention to the rest.' ‘If we have peer reviews, they need to focus on specific problems and come up with specific answers.' ‘What's the likelihood of a peer review able to smoke out a serious problem? Significant failings do not always mean there hasn't been a culture of challenge.' ‘Peer review has a role but it's not a panacea.' ‘We're at a similar stage as at the start of the CPA, when it's difficult to see where it's all going.' ‘There'll be a different set of competencies needed over the next 10 years, such as how we associate improvement with spending less. In the last decade, spending soared, and the inspection regime incentivised us to improve by offering money. That's gone.' ‘We don't want to take the old audit and inspection and just carry it on. We need to do it differently.' ‘The new regime needs a stronger political input with a bigger role for members.' ‘Political parties must have a role in influencing the performances of their administrations. Political mentors will be vital.' ‘The manifesto of the ruling group is a vital part of material for a peer review.' ‘The coalition says it wants less intervention. That means more onus on us as a sector.' ‘We need to think of another term for self-regulation. It's about monitoring performance.' ‘In CPA, what mattered was the score. It was gamesmanship. In peer review, what matters are the recommendations.' ‘We will need more field staff to support peer challenge.' ‘Our CPA assessment had been poor. To improve this rating, the biggest challenge has been to recognise reality. The council ignored two corporate governance inspections previously. How can we ensure this does not happen without external inspection?' ‘The route to improvement has been to focus on the community. We undertook face-to-face interviews with local people about the council and priorities. This led to engagement and recognition of what had to be improved.' ‘Should it be co-ordinated regionally?' ‘We mustn't just concentrate on councils. It should be across the public sector.' ‘Don't make a new industry out of this.' ‘What if political structures are broken? Will they play?' ‘The biggest challenge will not be about the councils at the two ends of the spectrum, but the ones in the middle. Will self-regulation be a catalyst for change?' ‘It has got to be clear that self-regulation is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. For me, that end is delivering an appropriate balance between economy, efficiency and effectiveness from the resources available to reflect local priorities within a national policy framework with an acceptable level of risk.'

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WHITEHALL

What next for sector-led improvement?

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