Nice to know that the council working is additionally evaluated by the Local Government Association Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC), providing opportunities for improving its organisational and working arrangements.
The CPC evaluating team in 2023 and the review team in 2024 included CEO and leader of other councils as well as the LGA representative, and followed the process and framework that are broadly based on the Ofsted model of inspections.
Like Ofsted, the CPC reports have been made public, enabling the residents to see the quality of their council’s leadership and management.
However, the CPC assessment in 2023 and the follow-up review in 2024, do not give a sense of being carried out on behalf of the residents nor have an explicit focus on assessing the quality of the services to the residents. Such a shortcoming could have been avoided should the CPC have evaluated the effectiveness of the council’s work in terms of the outcomes like the quality of services to the residents (more than the satisfaction surveys) or the street-level health and safety environment. What is also missing is linking the context within which the council operates, its input indicators, like the resident needs and vulnerability, to the adequacy and quality of the council services in meeting these challenges.
The CPC gives ample description of how the council organises its work, but not enough evaluation of the effectiveness of the organisational arrangement in delivering the services and improving the quality of life.
Also, the evaluation seems to have far more focus on the management and hardly any on the quality of leadership despite that Harrow council administration abolished the chief executive post, arguing that these are the elected members who are the executives. Did the CPC observe a cabinet meeting?
But then, it looks that the Local Government Association Corporate Peer Challenge initiative is more to prepare the councils for Ofsted inspections, given that a high percentage of councils effectively fail Ofsted inspections, raising concerns about the value for public money.
Following the Harrow council’s LGA Corporate Peer Challenge evaluation last year, a Progress Review, an integral part of the challenge process, took place in January 2024.
The findings of the review, before the Harrow council cabinet meeting on 17 September 2024, are generally positive about the implementation of the recommendations of the 2023 CPC Harrow evaluation, but there are something less positive.
The council services have brought forward mitigating actions where savings have not been achieved, in some instances reserves are being used to meet the deficit, this is not sustainable in the medium term, finds the review.
Given the necessity of a high-functioning HR service, the council should closely monitor resource requirements to ensure it is equipped to deliver the scale of the activity required to deliver the council’s priorities, says the review.
In evaluating the progress of the regeneration projects like Poets Corner and Byron Quarter, the CPC notes that Harrow council have looked to improve its project governance for these major projects, with an oversight board established with elected members and external advisers sitting on this. London Borough of Harrow should monitor the board’s effectiveness and ensure members are provided with the necessary information and training to undertake their role. [Perhaps the members would be more enthusiastic now, after the generous increase in their allowances].
The review reports that London Borough of Harrow have reintroduced a council-wide appraisal and target setting process but makes no evaluating judgement how the appraisal information is used in a structured way to improve individual or collective performance.
The review informs: in April 2023, London Borough of Harrow received a regulatory notice from the Regulator of Social Housing for failing to meet statutory health and safety requirements for electrical and water safety. It was found the council had not completed electrical safety reports for 3,500 homes and had not completed water risk assessments for every site. An improvement plan has been developed, and it is important the council demonstrates progress on improving standards for tenants.
The review team noted: it was announced in January that LBH will receive a CQC local authority inspection in the spring of 2024. Preparations are underway, with a series of bespoke Adult Social Care staff workshops to consider interdependencies and joint working across the partnership and will be delivered to NHS and safeguarding partners.
Despite such preparations, in August 2024, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) released its report on the London Borough of Harrow’s Adult social care, rating it as ‘requires improvement’, i.e. not good.
The CPC evaluating team in 2023 and the review team in 2024 included CEO and leader of other councils as well as the LGA representative, and followed the process and framework that are broadly based on the Ofsted model of inspections.
Like Ofsted, the CPC reports have been made public, enabling the residents to see the quality of their council’s leadership and management.
However, the CPC assessment in 2023 and the follow-up review in 2024, do not give a sense of being carried out on behalf of the residents nor have an explicit focus on assessing the quality of the services to the residents. Such a shortcoming could have been avoided should the CPC have evaluated the effectiveness of the council’s work in terms of the outcomes like the quality of services to the residents (more than the satisfaction surveys) or the street-level health and safety environment. What is also missing is linking the context within which the council operates, its input indicators, like the resident needs and vulnerability, to the adequacy and quality of the council services in meeting these challenges.
The CPC gives ample description of how the council organises its work, but not enough evaluation of the effectiveness of the organisational arrangement in delivering the services and improving the quality of life.
Also, the evaluation seems to have far more focus on the management and hardly any on the quality of leadership despite that Harrow council administration abolished the chief executive post, arguing that these are the elected members who are the executives. Did the CPC observe a cabinet meeting?
But then, it looks that the Local Government Association Corporate Peer Challenge initiative is more to prepare the councils for Ofsted inspections, given that a high percentage of councils effectively fail Ofsted inspections, raising concerns about the value for public money.
Following the Harrow council’s LGA Corporate Peer Challenge evaluation last year, a Progress Review, an integral part of the challenge process, took place in January 2024.
The findings of the review, before the Harrow council cabinet meeting on 17 September 2024, are generally positive about the implementation of the recommendations of the 2023 CPC Harrow evaluation, but there are something less positive.
The council services have brought forward mitigating actions where savings have not been achieved, in some instances reserves are being used to meet the deficit, this is not sustainable in the medium term, finds the review.
Given the necessity of a high-functioning HR service, the council should closely monitor resource requirements to ensure it is equipped to deliver the scale of the activity required to deliver the council’s priorities, says the review.
In evaluating the progress of the regeneration projects like Poets Corner and Byron Quarter, the CPC notes that Harrow council have looked to improve its project governance for these major projects, with an oversight board established with elected members and external advisers sitting on this. London Borough of Harrow should monitor the board’s effectiveness and ensure members are provided with the necessary information and training to undertake their role. [Perhaps the members would be more enthusiastic now, after the generous increase in their allowances].
The review reports that London Borough of Harrow have reintroduced a council-wide appraisal and target setting process but makes no evaluating judgement how the appraisal information is used in a structured way to improve individual or collective performance.
The review informs: in April 2023, London Borough of Harrow received a regulatory notice from the Regulator of Social Housing for failing to meet statutory health and safety requirements for electrical and water safety. It was found the council had not completed electrical safety reports for 3,500 homes and had not completed water risk assessments for every site. An improvement plan has been developed, and it is important the council demonstrates progress on improving standards for tenants.
The review team noted: it was announced in January that LBH will receive a CQC local authority inspection in the spring of 2024. Preparations are underway, with a series of bespoke Adult Social Care staff workshops to consider interdependencies and joint working across the partnership and will be delivered to NHS and safeguarding partners.
Despite such preparations, in August 2024, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) released its report on the London Borough of Harrow’s Adult social care, rating it as ‘requires improvement’, i.e. not good.
Harrow Monitoring Group 