Good to see recent improvements in the work of the Harrow council, like the street environment around the Harrow Town Centre, proactive planning regime, fewer complaints about the waste collection, and the council website, though not perfect, feels better.
However, improvement across the board and the borough remains challenging, particularly as the consistency of the council work depends on the political direction and the financial decisions which are thought to be mindful of the political gains in some instances.
From a comparative position, Harrow council has a balanced budget for 2025/26 where its Quarter 3 financial reporting period indicates to have a slight underspend by the end of the 2024/25 year.
Across London now, seven councils are in receipt of Exceptional Financial Support from the Government because their expenditure is unsustainably above their income.
“Therefore, although Harrow’s position is still challenging it is manageable, and we have been able to invest in priority areas for the 2025/26 year which residents should directly see the benefit from” said Alex Dewsnap, Managing Director of the Harrow council.
Responding to how the council assures consistency in its work, Mr Dewsnap said to ensure consistency of good services, the council underwent a Peer Review in 2023 led by an independent team via the Local Government Association.
The review, he informs, highlighted a number of good practices in the council, including a refreshed strategic performance reporting process, which has oversight of achievements and challenges every quarter, as well as focusing on specific issues such as the customer experience & complaints, finance, performance indicators, corporate priorities, workforce data, and risks.
“In addition to this, the council has regular performance reporting via a Corporate Improvement Programme, assurance statements, routine internal audits, customer satisfaction surveys, and oversight of key programmes through the Scrutiny process” Mr Dewsnap added.
“More recently, we have developed and implemented a Workforce Strategy and a Management Competency framework to support us in delivering high quality public services effectively, with a greater focus on productivity” Mr Dewsnap said.
Looking forward, Mr Dewsnap said “as a data driven organisation, the council is exploring the adoption of new technology and how such innovations of Artificial Intelligence can support our improvement journey”.
Regarding the effectiveness of the Workforce Strategy and a Management Competency framework, and the broad implications of the financial decisions, leader of the opposition group (Lab) Cllr David Perry said: “The Labour Group of Councillors are always extremely grateful for the hard work the staffing core at Harrow Council do on a daily basis on behalf of our residents. The staff are the lifeblood of the organisation, and we would always seek to work with staff on any initiative to improve the forward workforce strategy.
“Our biggest concern locally is the political decisions taken by the Conservative run Council directly impacting staff, whether that be cuts in Children’s services which has led to a failed OFSTED inspection now rated as ‘Inadequate’ or ignoring, following consultation, the already pressured frontline staff when £1.3m was cut from 4000+ of our most vulnerable families in Harrow through reduced council tax support. We continue to be impressed with staff resilience despite obvious huge local service challenges”.
However, improvement across the board and the borough remains challenging, particularly as the consistency of the council work depends on the political direction and the financial decisions which are thought to be mindful of the political gains in some instances.
From a comparative position, Harrow council has a balanced budget for 2025/26 where its Quarter 3 financial reporting period indicates to have a slight underspend by the end of the 2024/25 year.
Across London now, seven councils are in receipt of Exceptional Financial Support from the Government because their expenditure is unsustainably above their income.
“Therefore, although Harrow’s position is still challenging it is manageable, and we have been able to invest in priority areas for the 2025/26 year which residents should directly see the benefit from” said Alex Dewsnap, Managing Director of the Harrow council.
Responding to how the council assures consistency in its work, Mr Dewsnap said to ensure consistency of good services, the council underwent a Peer Review in 2023 led by an independent team via the Local Government Association.
The review, he informs, highlighted a number of good practices in the council, including a refreshed strategic performance reporting process, which has oversight of achievements and challenges every quarter, as well as focusing on specific issues such as the customer experience & complaints, finance, performance indicators, corporate priorities, workforce data, and risks.
“In addition to this, the council has regular performance reporting via a Corporate Improvement Programme, assurance statements, routine internal audits, customer satisfaction surveys, and oversight of key programmes through the Scrutiny process” Mr Dewsnap added.
“More recently, we have developed and implemented a Workforce Strategy and a Management Competency framework to support us in delivering high quality public services effectively, with a greater focus on productivity” Mr Dewsnap said.
Looking forward, Mr Dewsnap said “as a data driven organisation, the council is exploring the adoption of new technology and how such innovations of Artificial Intelligence can support our improvement journey”.
Regarding the effectiveness of the Workforce Strategy and a Management Competency framework, and the broad implications of the financial decisions, leader of the opposition group (Lab) Cllr David Perry said: “The Labour Group of Councillors are always extremely grateful for the hard work the staffing core at Harrow Council do on a daily basis on behalf of our residents. The staff are the lifeblood of the organisation, and we would always seek to work with staff on any initiative to improve the forward workforce strategy.
“Our biggest concern locally is the political decisions taken by the Conservative run Council directly impacting staff, whether that be cuts in Children’s services which has led to a failed OFSTED inspection now rated as ‘Inadequate’ or ignoring, following consultation, the already pressured frontline staff when £1.3m was cut from 4000+ of our most vulnerable families in Harrow through reduced council tax support. We continue to be impressed with staff resilience despite obvious huge local service challenges”.
Harrow Monitoring Group 
Improvements in the work of Harrow Council’ is quite a revelation for the ever suffering residents of Harrow whose cries for help to deal with local problems goes unheard or not dealt with by incompetents staff.
LikeLike