I’m a self-confessed fan of the LGA peer review. I lived through the Comprehensive Performance Assessment and other regulatory inspections, and been involved on both sides of a peer review process. In a contest of Key Performance Indicator driven inspections versus sector-led improvement, there is only one winner.
So why at a select committee evidence session last week did I reiterate our stance that the LGA peer review should be mandatory?
Since joining the Centre for public Scrutiny, I have had the privilege of working with a wide range of councils, councillors and senior leaders. My understanding of the types of leaders and organisations that seek out or accept improvement support has increased dramatically. I am also much more passionate about the power and benefits – some tangible, many not – that an act of scrutiny or involvement can bring when it is done well.
We all know that the leaders that are open to scrutiny and want to learn from others generally lead organisations that look outwards and are ambitious for their people and place. For those that are less forthcoming, it is obviously not as simple as they don’t care or are bad. Resources are reducing, the corporate capacity to invest in and manage a review may not exist and the time is often never right to invite this small team of extremely bright people in to prod around your organisation.
At times of pressure however its often the drawbridge that’s the first thing to go up. This can manifest itself in many subtle ways to start with – not getting out and about as much to learn from others, turning away from partnership activities, and less engagement with scrutiny and other functions that provide a different perspective. The consequences of this mindset can quickly impact on organisational culture: less confidence to challenge, inward looking, dismissive of involvement in decision-making and a sense of having nothing to learn.
Mandatory gets a foot in the door. Yes, it would change the dynamic of the review. But this is a small price to pay and one that we should confidently take with a tried and test product.
A healthy democracy is one that embeds scrutiny and challenge. We’ve seen the impact that a crisis in one area can have on the whole sector. We want the best for local government and all public services, that means supporting every council to be the best they can be, not just the volunteers.
Jacqui McKinlay is chief executive of the Centre for Public Scrutiny