LGA improvement programmes save councils millions of pounds
As the new Chair of the LGA’s Improvement Committee, I am pleased to share that our improvement offer has continued to deliver high-impact, low-cost support to councils in England.
As detailed in our ‘LGA improvement support: annual report 2024/25’, positive impact scores are evident across our surveys and programmes, which are helping to deliver savings of tens of millions of pounds – including through significant economies of scale and our cost-efficient, well-regarded peer-based approach.
Our offer includes the government-funded sector support programme, which provides councillors and officers with access to a range of learning and development opportunities, tools and resources across key areas, including: governance and assurance; finance; leadership; workforce; devolution and local government reorganisation; research and data; and transformation.
“Assurance and support to deliver Best Value have remained core themes across our programmes”
We also provide wider improvement programmes, such as those for: children’s services improvement; Partners in Care and Health (PCH) for adult social care; One Public Estate for regeneration and transformation; planning (the Planning Advisory Service and Pathways to Planning); procurement and commissioning; sustainability; communications; culture and sport; and cyber, digital and technology.
Our support offers remain highly valued by councils, with all councils in England accessing at least one type of LGA support in 2024/25, and every local authority with adult social care provision receiving support from the PCH programme.
Regional teams – led by expert principal advisers, and supported by the LGA’s political group offices and our vast network of member and officer peers – have also been crucial across this engagement. The annual report highlights how they engaged with 100 per cent of councils in 2024/25, as well as providing a critical gateway to, and being a source of, support. Whether helping councils to navigate changes following the English Devolution White Paper, or addressing concerns around council performance (including governance and finance), regional teams have continued to offer constant support to our local government members when they need it.
Assurance and support to deliver Best Value have remained core themes across our programmes.
We were pleased to launch our new governance and assurance hub, providing a range of useful tools and offerings. Our self-assessment framework, and wider guidance for political and officer leaders to help deliver good governance and Best Value, can be read on the website.
Our highly valued Corporate Peer Challenge programme has remained a cornerstone of our sector support offer, providing both improvement and assurance support. It includes a strong focus on council performance, finance, governance and culture and, following the English Devolution White Paper, quickly adapted to provide scope for considering implications relating to devolution and local government reorganisation.
Throughout 2024/25, this programme delivered 121 strengthened peer challenges and progress reviews, demonstrating the demand and value placed on the programme by councils.
Surveys highlight positive impacts across 100 per cent of peer challenges delivered, with all those responding also saying that they felt more confident in delivering their priorities following their peer challenge.
This comment helps to capture the value of the experience: “It was a brilliant way of getting independent recognition of what we have achieved, feedback on our current plans and real strategic insight to help inform our future plans.”
Our peer-based approach harnesses knowledge and skills from expert councillors and officers, to deliver low-cost tailored support across areas ranging from corporate improvement and transformation to adult social care, children’s services and planning.
More than £2 million in savings was delivered through more than 1,800 days of peer support provided at no cost to the sector. The benefits of this model are mutual: more than 95 per cent of peers said their involvement in delivering a peer challenge had a positive impact on their own skills, knowledge and development.
The peer challenge programme also provides crucial insights into how councils are responding to new and existing challenges, and an analysis of key themes arising from peer challenges can be read in our ‘Corporate, finance and peer challenge programme: annual report 2024/25’.
The report highlights the resilience that councils continue to show in delivering for their communities, despite the pressures of a challenging economic climate, ongoing financial constraints, rising demand for services and a changing policy landscape.
Leadership development has also, critically, been a focus of our sector support offer.
During 2024/25, we delivered a wide range of learning and development opportunities for those in statutory or specialist roles and for specific portfolio areas (for example, children’s services, adult social care and planning) to ensure officers and councillors have the skills and knowledge needed to navigate present challenges.
A total of 1,139 councillors from 258 councils attended leadership opportunities delivered through the sector support programme alone, with one councillor remarking: “This course is the single most important training I have received. All councillors should attend. I really feel the next few years would have been impossible without this course.”
More than two-thirds of councils also accessed our national recruitment campaign for local government, ‘Make a Difference, Work for Your Local Council’, delivered in partnership with Solace and the sector. It’s the first national recruitment campaign for local government and, with our wider workforce support programme, provided much-needed tools and support to address capacity challenges across the sector.
Evaluations show our campaign has made a real difference in supporting recruitment efforts at a local level.
The programme for 2024/25 also supported councils to identify and respond to new challenges and opportunities across areas such as data and digital, with a new artificial intelligence hub launched to share and centralise resources across the sector.
Our free, award-winning, local area data-benchmarking tool, LG Inform, continued to support councils to increase their service delivery capabilities and champion data-informed decision-making across more than 18,000 metrics.
In a year characterised by significant change, councils were supported to understand and respond to workforce reforms, changes to public procurement and to the planning system, and the English Devolution White Paper.
“More than £2 million in savings was delivered through 1,800 days of peer support provided at no cost to the sector”
Across all of our support, this ability to flex in the face of change has remained a core strength of the offer, which has continued to evolve and adapt in conversation with the sector.
This year’s report highlights the breadth of support available to councils and the tangible difference it makes across all areas of service and delivery.
I encourage you to visit the LGA’s sector support offer and/or contact your regional principal adviser to explore the full offer.
I would like to thank Cllr Abi Brown OBE, of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, who served as Chairman of the Improvement and Innovation Board during the period of activity covered in this article. Her leadership, together with the commitment and central role of the wider board, has been instrumental in shaping and championing the support described here.
Have your say…
The LGA’s wide-ranging sector support offer continues to be shaped directly by the views of councillors and officers from across England.
To ensure our programmes continue to meet your needs, please complete our short survey: what aspects of our support are most valuable to your council and are there other types of support that could benefit your council?
Your feedback will help shape our future offer, ensuring that it continues to provide the support local and combined authorities need to harness opportunities and address key improvement challenges. We are very keen to hear your views!
- See the LGA’s sector support offer. ‘LGA improvement support: annual report 2024/25’ and ‘Corporate, finance and peer challenge programme: annual report 2024/25’ are available at www.local.gov.uk/publications