LGA improvement support: Annual report 2023/24

Year in review: Our support to the local government sector in 2023/24

This report provides a overview of highlights from our sector support programme, funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (formerly, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, DLUHC); as well as wider improvement programmes, covering children’s services, Partners in Care and Health (adult social care), cyber, digital and technology, One Public Estate (OPE), planning (PAS and Pathways to Planning), procurement, and sustainability, which are also funded by UK Government departments. It also includes highlights from our culture and sport support offer, which is funded by Sport England, and our communications support and improvement offer.

LGA has a proven track record of delivering high impact, low-cost programmes. The sector support programme alone saves the sector tens of millions of pounds annually, including through delivering significant economies of scale, providing support nationally and through using a peer-based approach.

100 per cent of chief executives and 97 per cent of council leaders say that LGA support has had a positive impact for their authority.

To find out more about the support we provide, please contact our principal adviser in your region.

Our highly valued peer challenge programme provided councils with effective insight, guidance, and challenge to enable continuous improvement and provide assurance to local leaders.

In 2023/24, we delivered a focussed programme of peer challenges and peer support, including Corporate Peer Challenges (CPCs), CPC peer team led progress reviews, Finance Peer Challenges (FPCs), and Governance Peer Challenges (GPCs).  

CPCs are at the heart of our sector support programme, offering a focused look across the five core elements that help support councils to harness opportunities and drive improvement: local priorities and outcomes, governance and culture, organisational and place leadership, financial planning and management and capacity for improvement. The peer challenge programme is delivered by expert peers and regional teams who support councils to deliver the best for their communities.  

This offer is supported by a vast network of peers who in 2023/24 provided 1,500 peer days of challenge and support at no cost to recipient councils, providing savings of c. £1.5 million to the sector.

We continued work to increase the diversity of our peer pool, to better reflect diversity of senior officers and councillors, and communities they serve. In 2023/24 52 per cent of officer peers identified as female (with 47 per cent identifying as male).

Council testimonials

"The preparation for a peer challenge in and of itself is invaluable as it provides an opportunity for the council to reflect deeply on its achievements, its challenges and its priorities."

"A very worthwhile exercise that holds up a mirror to the council's vision and current activities, which produces a roadmap for improvement. Everyone should have one."

"Our Corporate Peer Challenge was a thorough and rigorous process that delivered real benefits to the council."

"The LGA Corporate Peer Challenge provided a great challenge for us as a council facing a challenging time, as all councils are, for a new administration."

Next steps

Over the past year, we have continued to work alongside councils to strengthen the CPC process as a tool for improvement and assurance that has a strong focus on evidence-based approaches to deliver robust recommendations.

Looking ahead over the next year (2024/2025) we are building on these elements of practice with a programme of actions: 

• to improve the rigour, robustness and consistency of CPC 
• to promote CPC to ensure all English councils have a CPC every five years 
• to improve our preparedness for delivering CPCs to high-risk councils 
• to continue to improve the training and development of both LGA Member peers and officer peers, to ensure we have the best people 
• to improve the robustness, impact and consistency of reports.

LG Inform

Our free local area data benchmarking tool - LG Inform - continued to support councils to increase their service delivery capabilities and champion data-informed decision-making.  

In 2023/24, LG Inform, provided through our research and data programme, supported councils to access the tools and resources they needed to analyse research and data on council performance, demographics, and we launched new LG Inform themed data reports in response to live issues. 

LG Inform is our free award-winning data benchmarking platform, providing more than 12,500 metrics of council performance that can be analysed within its system.

Being able to access and analyse research and data on council performance, demographics, and live trends and issues, is critical to ensuring high quality services and informed decision-making in local government.

Our better use of data programme for 2023/24 supported councils to recognise the value of data and make good use of it for decision-making, to bring better outcomes for residents and businesses, and enable efficient working across services and with local and other partners. In 2023/24 our better use of data programme:

• improved the understanding and skills of councillors and officers in relation to data
• helped councils understand what good looks like and how to leverage the value of data
• provided guidance and resources to support the proactive development of a data-informed culture
• promoted the benefits of data transparency and accountability
• worked with other organisations where we identified data work that may impact on the sector, to ensure this work meets councils’ needs.

Council testimonials

Performance management panels

"As our council is so early in its performance management journey it is really helpful to see what we can achieve and now we can try and create a plan to get performance reporting and management seen more. One key element is in systems and the use of Power BI dashboards as this is something I have heard lots about but never sure whether to go for it or not so has been helpful to see what can be achieved."

Councillor data training  

"The training was highly valuable for providing tangible frameworks and skills for using data to enhance my oversight and decision-making capacities as a councillor. I especially appreciated the balance of both strategic guidance and practical applications to address the real challenges councils face."

In 2023/24, our far-reaching regional support programme engaged with all councils in England, helping to ensure that councils had the support they needed to harness opportunities and address challenges.

Our regional support programme - led by regional teams, and supported by the LGA’s political group offices and vast network of member and officer peers - provided councils with a wide-ranging support, including councillor and officer peer support, mentoring and development sessions (including top team development), and bespoke/tailored support and advice. In 2023/24, regional teams engaged with all councils, with more than 300 councils accessing support.

Our post-elections support programme has remained a central part of this offer, helping to smooth political transitions and ensure that members and officers had access to support and resources to deliver effectively in their roles. With 230 councils holding elections in 2023, this programme provided targeted support to the 111 councils that experienced a change of control or leadership.

Council testimonials

Post elections support

"We moved to become a no overall control council at the election in May this year. The regional LGA team were on hand with advice for how to make this work effectively and came in to give an induction presentation to all councillors on this. Both were excellent and very well received."

Top team development

"There was the right balance between input from the LGA team on good practice, the facilitation of dialogue and then some time for our team to spend on its own reflecting on the earlier sessions and creating a plan for moving forward."

Mentoring

"As a new cabinet member, I found my mentor was extremely supportive in helping me identify areas that I felt less confident in. The support in identifying different LGA training to build up my knowledge was invaluable too."

Our governance and assurance programme delivered a range of offers, guidance and tools to support good governance and provide greater assurance within local authorities. Including ‘Good governance for combined authorities’, ‘Ten questions for audit committees’ and ‘Top tips for chief executives’.

Assurance took greater focus within the offer this year, with the LGA undertaking a new project to map the 'Improvement and assurance framework' for local government. This work was informed by extensive engagement with members of the local government sector, representatives of professional associations, and others, including the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Further support was provided by the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS), including targeted support to local authorities, networks, and training and development sessions. The offer also included support provided through the civility in public life programme, which provided councillors with support to deliver the responsibilities their role, including sessions on harassment and intimidation.

Attracting talent

The LGA has continued to offer a range of programmes to attract and foster talent within the sector, including to support councils to address capacity challenges. 

The LGA’s attracting new talent offer comprises a range of programmes that delivered impact for the sector in 2023/24, including established programmes such as ‘Be a councillor’ and the National Graduate Development Programme (NGDP), as well as new programmes including the NGDP for Finance, Pathways to Planning and the new national recruitment campaign, piloted in the North East of England.

'Be a councillor'

'Be a councillor' is our national campaign to raise awareness of the councillor role, help people to find out more about becoming a councillor and ensure better representation in local government - with the increased diversity of skills, experience and knowledge brought by the new talent attracted to the role.

This is achieved through information sharing on the 'Be a councillor' website and social media, creating tools and resources for councils to use in their own local campaigns, and running events.

The campaign also partners with expert organisations to better understand and address the barriers that under-represented groups face to becoming a councillor.

This year’s campaign has focused on improving representation from underrepresented groups and working with a range of partners to deliver a wide range of engagement events, including a targeted campaign to attract more disabled candidates to the role.

Council testimonials

"The support has already been a key driver in me becoming a candidate."

"(The 'Be a councillor' session I attended) gave a very useful insight into your experiences of being councillors. It takes a lot of courage to be able to stand and be the voice for others…Thank you all for all your advice."

"It’s great to see similar people who have taken the plunge. This has really given me the confidence to stand."

Impact: The Local Government Graduate Programme

Impact: The Local Government Graduate Programme (previously known as the 'National Graduate Development Programme', or 'NGDP') is our flagship national graduate programme for local government. Impact offers a unique opportunity to place high quality graduates in councils across the country, helping them to meet strategic goals and build a pipeline of future talent. 

Every year, the Impact attracts thousands of applications from graduates across the country, and we run a rigorous, multi-stage recruitment process to select the highest calibre graduates to work in councils. Once on the two-year programme, graduates complete placements across a variety of council services and undertake a prestigious learning and development programme, equipping them with the skills and experience to fast-track their careers in local government.

In 2023/24, the Impact recruited its 25th cohort of graduates who were placed across 106 councils across England and Wales. We successfully grew the programme by signing up new councils in areas with lower representation on the programme, recruited a diverse cohort of graduates and implemented recommendations of an independent review to improve accessibility on the programme.

Council testimonials

"We know from experience that successful graduate development programmes can help develop future talent. 

"One of the greatest benefits of Impact [the NGDP] is the opportunity for graduates to network with their peers across the country, sharing ideas and learning from each other’s experiences. This learning can then assist the trainees on some of the biggest challenges facing us today."

NGDP finance

The 'NGDP finance' scheme is a self-funded pilot initiative spearheaded by the Local Government Association (LGA) and various London councils. Recognising the persistent challenges councils face in recruiting and retaining skilled personnel in financial roles. It is designed to attract and train graduates as finance trainees within London boroughs over four years, gaining exposure to all vital aspects of local government finance while they concurrently pursue a CIPFA Level 7 apprenticeship in public finance.

It emulates the successful framework of the broader NGDP scheme to cultivate a reliable pool of future public finance leaders who reflect the diversity of the communities they serve, are committed to public service, and are well-prepared to tackle the complexities of public sector finance.

National recruitment campaign for local government

The LGA, in partnership with Solace and the sector, have been developing a new flagship campaign to market local government as a career of choice. This campaign aims to encourage individuals to find out how they can have a role working in one of the hundreds of services used by and relied upon by communities every day, ranging from adult and children’s services to planning, environmental health, libraries, and leisure centres.

This campaign is in response to clear need within the sector to address current capacity challenges facing all councils. The campaign has been piloted in one region, the North East of England, in early 2024. It is the first national brand and recruitment campaign for local government and has been shaped through direct engagement with the sector.

Case study: Local government recruitment campaign

The pilot campaign was delivered in the North East of England between January and March 2024. Many councils in the North East leveraged the campaign pilot communication assets in proactive and imaginative ways, including: use of their own digital screens and poster sites, sharing communications assets with partner organisations and including campaign pilot ads in resident newsletters.

As part of the evaluation of the campaign, one council participant said:

"I thought it was definitely needed... a collaborative approach across the region where all authorities could get together was right and almost align a bit of vision for what they needed. It was good to know that we were all having similar challenges... it was all around perception and bringing to life some of the roles."

Pathways to Planning

'Pathways to planning', funded by MHCLG and modelled on the NGDP, was launched in September 2023, aiming to tackle the shortage of local government planners by expanding and diversifying the pipeline of graduate talent entering local council planning teams.

The programme began with an initial cohort, appointed by March 2024, with a second round of applications launching in January 2024, ready for a September 2024 start.

Over 2,000 graduates have applied across the two cohorts, and over 100 councils have expressed interest in taking part. Graduates from all degree backgrounds have been assessed against a competitive framework, and then placed with councils to work for a minimum of three years.

When in post, graduates are also equipped to advance in their careers by receiving fully-funded postgraduate study and extra learning opportunities provided by the Local Government Association and Planning Advisory Service.

Political leadership

Our political leadership offer continued to provide learning and development opportunities to councillors from across the country in 2023/24.

Our councillor development offer supported local politicians at all stages of their political career, from their selection, to becoming a leader. This included development opportunities such as Leadership Academy, Leadership Essentials, Next Generation one-day masterclasses, bespoke sessions in councils and online training resources, such as our e-learning platform and digital workbooks.

We developed and delivered the new Boosting Middle Leaders programme, commissioned from the Leadership Centre, bringing councillors and officers together in a shared learning environment; and a delivered a new support package for disabled councillors and candidates - providing a bespoke leadership programme, in partnership with Disability Rights UK, a one-to-one coaching offer and new Disability Champions Network.

Focus on Leadership weekenders featured as part of this offer, providing support to under-represented groups, including Black, Asian and minority ethnic councillors, LGBTQ+ councillors and young councillors.

Council testimonials

Leadership Academy

"This course has helped me to develop my leadership skills and will continue to help me in years to come."

"Fantastic leadership course… it was hard work, but so worth it."
 

Leadership Essentials

"I came away feeling much more confident and have a better understanding and view of what my role involves."

Boosting Middle Leaders

"Boosting Middle Leaders has provided me with a unique opportunity to share my experiences and perspectives with a variety of members and officers from a wide selection of local authorities. This series of exercises and workshops have expanded my mindset, depth of knowledge and better equipped me to problem solve and to be a better leader."

Next Generation

"This was genuinely the best training course I have ever done. The facilitators were fantastic. So knowledgeable and well prepared, they gripped my attention throughout and provoked deep thoughts by challenging assumptions and settled worldviews. The growth within the group from beginning to end was highly notable and heart-warming."

Officer development

Delivered by Solace, we have continued to support a wide range of officer development programmes for executive leaders, chief executives, and rising stars within the sector. We supported the sector through programmes including:

• Springboard, designed for future leaders who have been recognised as rising stars of local government and covered topics such as systems leadership, place-shaping, local government finance, innovation and the role of democratic accountability.
• AMPlify, providing a significant development opportunity for groups of staff who are currently under-represented within senior leadership levels. It is designed for staff from ethnically diverse backgrounds who have the ambition and potential to become future leaders within local government.
• Total Leadership, targeting senior officers on the cusp of becoming local government chief executives, and supporting them to develop skills and awareness to take the next step as chief executives.
• Ignite programme, providing a safe space for experienced chief executives to build skills, tackle leadership challenges and build constructive networks with peers.

A key achievement for the programme for 2023/24 was the development and launch of the new Chief Executive Development framework, the first of its kind for local government chief executives, which can be found in the 'Local government chief executives’ development hub'. The framework is now informing the development of the first bespoke Chief Executive Leadership Development programme for local government.

We also continued to run LG Challenge our annual leadership development programme and competition for 10 local government officers, providing contestants with a unique opportunity to build skills and tackle challenges.

Case study: Local Government Challenge

The LG Challenge is an annual leadership development programme and competition for 10 local government officers, which—each year—provides contestants with a unique opportunity to build skills and tackle challenges.

Over a six-month period, 10 local government officers tackled five real-life challenges in councils across the country. The challenges gave contestants a unique opportunity to develop and hone their leadership and political management skills, business acumen and communication techniques whilst offering invaluable media experience. 

Councils hosting challenge also had the invaluable opportunity to raise the profile of their council, whilst benefiting from the perspective of contestants responding to ‘real life’ challenges set.

With the opportunity to be awarded the prestigious £10,000 Bruce-Lockhart scholarship, the winner will have a unique opportunity to translate their very own ideas into a reality, make a long-lasting impact in their area, as well as give their CV a substantial edge.

Programme challenges completed by the cohort from 2023 included:

The final and award ceremony took place at the LGA’s Annual Conference where the winning officer was Lewis Sheldrake, Leader Commissioner at Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council. The winning proposal was titled 'AI Labs', and aims to leverage the power of artificial intelligence for local government, by driving service efficiency, improving the quality of services for residents, and fostering innovation amongst the workforce. 

Effective financial leadership and sustainable financial management, underpinned by timely and comprehensive audit and scrutiny, are integral to councils' success and overall resilience.

In 2023/24, the LGA's finance programme supported councils to build skills and identify issues to promote good financial management and respond to financial challenges and opportunities as they arise. Our programme featured 3 main elements:

• Targeted financial support, provided by experienced Finance Improvement and Sustainability Advisers (FISAs)
• Training and development opportunities, to embed financial skills and knowledge
• Guidance and resources, including ‘must know’ guides (‘The statement of accounts’, ‘Working with auditors’, and ‘The annual budget process’), and ‘Guidance for combined authorities‘ on sound financial management arrangements.

Council testimonials

Targeted financial support

"The support has been very useful. Being a small authority there is no internal support for the CFO and having an external impartial finance professional has been invaluable."

Mentoring

"Mentoring support has had a significant positive impact in helping to develop a member of staff to become the Council's S151 officer, which is naturally a key statutory role within the local authority."

Financial governance training

"An excellent overview of local authority financial governance from an obviously hugely experienced instructor with just the right amount of lessons and interactive sessions."

Future of local government finance event

"All the speakers were great - very engaging and made 'finance' feel interesting."

"A very enjoyable and knowledge-filled event. The speakers and workshop greatly increased my understanding of Local Government finance."

Our workforce offer has supported councils to address challenges surrounding the capacity and capability of their workforce, through programmes covering apprenticeships support, skills shortages and more. Our collective bargaining support has resulted in pay agreements reached covering over 1.5 million employees without national industrial action.

Challenges surrounding the capacity and capability of the local government workforce are felt across the sector. To help address this need, our 2023/24 workforce offer featured a range of skills shortages and apprenticeships support, to help councils recruit school leavers and career changers and make use of the apprenticeship levy.

We provided councils with targeted workforce and transformation support to respond to complex challenges, including provision HR and Employment Law advice; and critically, continued to manage national collective bargaining on behalf of the sector in relation to pay, terms and conditions and procedures.

Workforce research and data was also a focal point of the offer - with support informed by this evidence and understanding, and insights shared with the sector to equip councils with knowledge to respond to live issues.

Council testimonials

"The team are always so helpful in signposting and providing evidence-based advice."

"A fantastic service, which in turn helps us (policy and reward team) provide a better service to NCC."

"Really excellent advice and support (regarding) NJC job evaluation."

Our transformation programme provided councils with direct support and learning and development opportunities, helping to boost capacity and capability within local government.

In 2023/24, the new transformation offer from the LGA supported local authorities to achieve their transformation goals, deliver efficiencies, and drive continuous improvement across a range of service areas. Our support has included:

• An updated Transformation and Innovation Exchange (TIEx), providing councils with the means to gauge performance across characteristics of a high functioning authority, as well as further transformation focused tools and resources.
• A learning and skills programme, providing opportunities including roundtables, action learning sets and wider events to support councils to achieve their transformation priorities.
• A new Transformation Capability framework for officers, informed by direct engagement with the sector, identifying key skills across what works well for different councils.
• Transformation Experts programme, provided councils with access to support from skilled and experienced officers with relevant transformation expertise.
• Local Partnerships transformation support, including the provision of tools and resources and support to develop business cases.

Council testimonials

"(The) link with Corporate Director (transformation expert) has been really helpful, […] Relationship ongoing and hopefully will continue to add value for us. We have been able to provide some reciprocal support on other issues, which hopefully has also been helpful."

"I have already run a workshop session with my team to carry out a self-assessment using the tool (TIEx) and it identified clear areas for action. I really like the action plan function with references to resources. I like that this can be bespoke to the user. So, they pick the areas of their responsibility."

"We're just about trying to keep our heads above water at the moment. However, I'm pleased to say that we have been using TIEX because we are in the process of developing a target operating model and transformation programme for the council at the moment and have used it to help us do some foundational analysis with our business change staff and that has been very helpful."

Case Study: Transformation

Prioritisation matrix and transformation plan for Cumberland Council

Cumberland Council is in the process of developing its Transformation Programme Management Office (PMO), following local government reorganisation. Local Partnerships supported the council to:

• Develop a prioritisation matrix: to help the council consider the relative priority of the transformation projects in the portfolio and support effective resource assignment.  
• Develop a transformation programme plan: to clearly set out the work to be undertaken and critical path and dependencies. 

The LGA’s new sustainability offer, launched in October 2023/24, supported councils through the provision of tools and opportunities to build their capability and capacity in sustainability and the environment. The LGA has provided data-driven and consistent approaches for the sector to prioritise the actions that will drive their sustainability, efficiency, and improvement goals.

Our support included:

• Building capability - learning, skills, and guidance to help councils deliver on their climate and adaptation targets, through masterclasses, roundtables and virtual events that highlighted key sustainability themes and upskilled participants.
• Tools - the Greenhouse Gas Accounting Tool and Waste Emissions Calculator helped councils to baseline their data and assist with internal emissions reporting.
• Networks - an online sustainability hub, a monthly sustainability bulletin and an officer communities of practice network shared support offers, news and notable practice with the sector.

Case studies: Sustainability

Cornwall Council and University of Exeter local climate adaptation tool

The Local Climate Adaptation Tool (LCAT) is a national evidence-based resource to support local decision-makers, including public sector institutions to take climate adaptation action. LCAT is a project delivered by the University of Exeter and Cornwall Council, funded (at time of writing) by Horizon Europe BlueAdapt project. This project was started, and originally funded by the LGA. The tool was co-designed with over 50 local authority areas and provides data and evidence to help local areas understand the current and future climate, likely risks and impacts and adaptations needed. As well as highlighting impacts across sectors, it uses health as a lens to highlight the health impacts on communities.

Sustainability roundtable: Community engagement blog

A sustainability roundtable on community engagement was held to explore strategies employed by councils in relation to sustainability - emphasising effective communication, education, and awareness-raising with residents and community groups.

Staffordshire showcased their Carbon Bubble campaign - a giant orange inflatable #CarbonBubble, which sparked positive conversations on the streets of Staffordshire. Its aim was to encourage people to talk about climate change and understand how they can reduce their carbon footprint. 

Read more on the Carbon Bubble initiative. 

Our procurement and commissioning programme has supported councils to use the new Procurement Act, which reformed the existing Procurement Rules, received Royal Assent in October 2023 and the Procurement Regulations were laid in Parliament in March 2024.

In 2023/24, the procurement and commissioning programme has focused on supporting the sector to prepare for changes in procurement rules.

Culture and sport improvement co-creates and delivers lottery-funded programmes for cultural services (with Arts Council England) and for sports and physical activity (with Sport England) for the benefit of local authorities and their residents.

The culture and sport improvement offer for 2023/24 provided a range of programmes and tools to help councils tackle challenges and take advantages for the culture, tourism and sport. This involved:

• leadership support for lead officers with responsibility for sport and physical activity
• leadership support for councillors and lead officers with the responsibility for cultural services, including a pilot leadership programme for new and emerging library lead officers and a pilot online session targeted to economic growth portfolio holders
• wider physical activity support via a pilot programme of place-based leadership support
• wider cultural services support to councils via culture and library peer challenges. 

Our Planning Advisory Service (PAS) supports councils to build skills and capacity to deliver cost-effective planning services to meet the needs of their places and communities. An established national programme funded through grants from MHCLG, Defra and Natural England.

In 2023/24, the programme supported local authorities to help understand and respond to changes in the planning system (including in light of new government guidance and Environment Act), as well as continuing to support councils to build skills and capacity to deliver cost-effective planning services to meet the needs of their places and communities.

We also worked with the 'Pathways to planning' team to launch our new graduate programme to attract new talent and capacity to address planning needs in local authorities.

Our award-winning One Public Estate (OPE) programme - delivered in partnership with the Office of Government Property within the Cabinet Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities—supports locally led partnerships of public sector bodies to kickstart regeneration and transform public service delivery.

Established in 2013, our One Public Estate (OPE) programme continues to support 69 cross-public sector OPE partnerships to develop and deliver collaborative property projects that improve the efficiency of the public estate and release land for housing and regeneration.

As part of the offer for 2023/24, we progressed our five Place Pilots, which bring together all public asset owners in each place to pilot joint portfolio planning, plan future estate demand, drive efficiency and value, and trial new approaches. We will evaluate the success of the Place Pilot approach in 2024/25.

At the end of the financial year, we had enabled councils and central government to realise more than £735 million of financial benefits (a combination of capital receipts and revenue savings) and free up public land with capacity for more than 37,000 homes since the inception of the OPE programme.

Case study: One Public Estate

Prisoners Building Homes, West of England Combined Authority

In 2021, £250,000 of OPE funding was awarded to the Prisoners Building Homes (PBH) initiative, to develop a framework enabling public sector organisations to easily access high quality, low carbon modular homes constructed by prisoners and ex-offenders. PBH allows partners to unlock land and deliver much-needed affordable new homes at pace locally, while providing meaningful and productive work and nationally accredited training to upskill serving prisoners, enabling them to turn their lives around and reduce the cycle of reoffending. 

In 2023, PBH won a prestigious Government Property Award for Collaboration. The programme is currently delivering 82 homes across 14 sites, plus hundreds of homes that housing providers on the framework are delivering, all made by prisoners.

Whitechapel development programme, Tower Hamlets

NHS Property Services and The Department of Health and Social Care are planning a 900,000 ft life sciences cluster in Whitechapel, transforming buildings and empty sites around The Royal London Hospital that have been underused since 2013.

The life sciences cluster sits alongside the newly transformed Tower Hamlets Town Hall, as part of a major regeneration of the area led by the council, working in partnership with Barts Health and public sector partners to deliver new civic spaces and transformed public realm.

One Public Estate funding has enabled local partners to create an accurate overview of the assets in public ownership locally, and to identify the potential economic and employment benefits that could be created by developing current and new assets.  The life sciences cluster will enable new, innovative research to be undertaken in the borough, providing potentially thousands of new job opportunities and space for industry to be co-located with an internationally renowned hospital and university.

Health and life science initiatives carried out by partners before the cluster becomes operational are already making a difference in addressing health and economic disparities among the Tower Hamlets population, a primary goal of the programme. For instance, the funding from OPE has enabled the creation of new skills-building initiatives in Tower Hamlets, providing healthcare-focused training across East London. The inaugural Futures Hub launched in Newham in 2021, and an elderly care hub (Waltham Forest) and clinical science hub (Islington) are expected to open in 2024/25. 

Our Cyber, Digital and Technology programme works to improve the secure use of digital technology by councils and communities - including through convening of networks, publication of resources and guidance, and provision of policy representation and incident response support, to support the secure digitalisation of local government.

Digital tools have and will continue to play an important role in driving forward efficient service delivery against increasing demand on services and shrinking budgets. This creates a need to support local government and its services to be as secure as possible, and to ensure that residents and communities can use local government digital services with confidence and trust their information is safe.

In 2023/24 we provided direct support to councils to reach 12 strategic outcomes, including: connectivity, inclusion, economic productivity and growth, data, democracy and participation, ethics and sustainability, value, leadership, organisational capability, partnership, services, and security and resilience.

Council testimonials

Digitalisation training for service leaders and managers in children’s services

"One of the best sessions that I have attended in (many years). It has highlighted so many different opportunities to improve systems and service that I was unaware of. I cannot find the right words to express the inspiration that I have gained over the last 2 days."

"Very well organised and content was on point. Some great presentations and excellent opportunity to share ideas and ask questions. Moderator was very engaging and knowledgeable."

The Cyber 360s

"There is now greater understanding and buy-in from members. They are seeking more briefings than previously and have really felt the benefit of this type of exercise alongside technical assessment."

"The Cyber 360 has had a massive impact on funding towards cyber security. Since the Cyber 360, we have been able to secure funding for staffing resources, a cyber training platform and training for tier four senior managers bi-annually."

The Local Government Association (LGA) and Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) are Partners in Care and Health (PCH) working with well-respected organisations to provide support to local authorities. To improve the way they deliver adult social care and public health services and helps Government understand the challenges faced by the sector.

The programme provides a trusted network for developing and sharing best practice, developing tools and techniques, providing support and building connections. 

It is funded by Department of Health and Social via three main contracts, Core Infrastructure (LGA and ADASS) and PCH Systems Resilience, and is offered to councils without charge.

Council testimonials

Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund

"Without the sessions set up by the LGA…we would be completely lost… the sessions are completely indispensable."

Case study: Partners in Care and Health

Workforce planning proactive support for Camden Council

With PCH expert support, Camden recognised the value of a workforce strategy and the importance of investing across the whole workforce. To build capacity and expertise they recruited a strategic workforce lead and engaged with the support offered.

PCH produced a data pack using the workforce modelling and capacity planning tool and provided Camden with a workforce profile for the current workforce and the projected workforce needed in 5 years. Two workshops were held with a range of senior managers for different LA provided services, together with representatives from HR and a number of care providers.

Camden developed a workforce strategy which includes the commissioned workforce, enabling a more collaborative approach to developing the workforce over the next five years. There is buy-in and commitment across the council and with providers to work together to implement this and take a collaborative approach to social care recruitment.

"This (was) incredibly helpful. I totally agree with all of your reflections, and actually a couple of them we have gone round in circles with already. Thank you so much - the most helpful feedback I have received in a long time. I really appreciate your time reading this document and providing such detailed feedback."

Our children’s services improvement programme supports councils to help children, young people and families to achieve the best possible outcomes. The children’s services improvement programme for 2023/24 comprised two key strands, in response to council’s needs.

The first strand focused on children’s social care and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), providing:

• a universal offer - including leadership training and networking opportunities for political and corporate leaders at a national, regional and local level
• targeted support - including improvement support and diagnostic activity tailored to local area needs and framed around specific themes and issues
• intensive support - including tailored role-based support aimed at individual councils, supporting individuals and groups to understand and perform their role effectively to drive improvement in children’s services through the provision of mentoring, support, tools and bespoke training.

The second strand focused on the early years and speech, language and communication development and includes the delivery of peer challenge, strategy development activity and sharing learning and practice through webinars, events and resources.

Council testimonials

"The openness and transparency of my mentor and the willingness to share good practice […] this all had a massive impact on my confidence and understanding."

"There has been impact. The peer review helped to cement decisions, we agreed what’s good and then what needs to change. We have made changes and made some positive decisions as a result."

Our communications support service provided a wide range of guidance and practical help to councils seeking to engage effectively with their residents, employees and partner organisations. 

Three communications priorities emerged in 2023/24 and we have been helping to support councils with:

• New inspection regimes affecting critical services; how best to communicate with internal and external audiences, promote good work and plan for report findings
• Budgets and the importance of communicating difficult decisions about spending on services with residents, staff and partner organisations
• Changing political dynamics and the challenges for councils in a general election year.
• We have also continued to offer a full programme of communications support to councils, including communications peer reviews, communications health checks, advice, networks, best practice events and resources and training.

Council testimonials

"I really, really appreciate the support that you have given me. It’s such a boost to know that I’ve got a ‘backup’ team."

Communications Leaders Network

"Really enjoyed the event and hearing from other comms leaders in the same role as me, facing the same challenges and pressures. Made me feel much less alone!"

Public Affairs workshops 

"The discussions throughout the session gave me the confidence to push forward with our Public Affairs planning ahead of the next general election. The content was extremely informative, and the speakers were all very good."

SEND Framework 

"It was great to hear honest accounts and lessons learnt from other authorities."

"All speakers were very clear and their first-hand experience was shared which was invaluable."

• Sector support offer for local authorities 2024/25
• Our support
• Corporate Peer Challenge
• LG Inform
• Better use of data
• Regional support
• Governance and assurance support
• Be a Councillor
• National Graduate Development Programme
• NGDP Finance
• National recruitment campaign for local government
• Pathways to Planning
• Highlighting political leadership - councillor development
• Highlighting managerial leadership - officer development
• Finance support
• Workforce and HR support
• Transformation support
• Sustainability hub
• Procurement and commissioning programme
• Culture and sport improvement offer
• Planning Advisory Service (PAS)
• One Public Estate (OPE) programme
• Cyber, Digital and Technology programme
• Partners in Care and Health (PCH)
• Children’s Services Improvement programme
• Comms Hub - communications support