Co-design will be crucial to the success of the new Office for Local Government
It has been a busy start to the year so far for local government improvement, with government continuing to press on with the development of the Office for Local Government (Oflog). As a result, I’ve been actively involved in discussions to ensure that council views help to shape this body.
In recent weeks, I have met Local Government Minister Lee Rowley and Lord Morse, the interim Chair of Oflog, to underline how important it is that Oflog is co-designed with the LGA and that it meets the needs of the sector, the Government and the public.
I was pleased to hear the minister reflect many of the points we raised at a recent webinar, including a commitment to co-design with the sector, as well as the need to take into consideration contextual data and variability in the approaches and priorities set by councils.
Government has indicated that Oflog will aim to equip local leaders with data to help them deliver improvements for their places, while enhancing transparency and accountability by providing residents with detailed information about their local areas. We are also advised that it will provide government with an oversight of the sector.
We recognise that councils already provide and use extensive data on an extremely wide range of topics, which the LGA supports through our award-winning and highly valued data benchmarking tool, LG Inform.
In working with government, our objective is to ensure that Oflog is complementary to LG Inform and can be useful to the sector – for instance, by making data available about what government and other parts of the public sector spend at council level, so councils can shape and influence what other partners are doing for residents and businesses.
A further key piece of work that I have been leading on in recent months, alongside the vice-chairs of the Improvement and Innovation Board (IIB), is the review of our peer support offer. The review confirmed that peers make a vital contribution to the LGA’s sector support offer and are, on the whole, highly regarded for the support and value they provide.
Recommendations arising from the review are being implemented to enhance this offer, with IIB lead members taking forward an action plan that will, in particular, develop our member peer support offer. This will include looking at how we ensure we have the appropriately experienced, skilled, and diverse cohort of peers that councils require, while also looking at providing more training and support for our member peers.
The LGA’s support to councils relies heavily on the expertise, experience and time of dedicated peers, because we are best placed to understand our sector. It’s important, though, that we continue to develop our peers to deliver the best support possible to local councils.
As an LGA peer myself I know what a highly rewarding experience it can be, providing a fantastic opportunity to learn from other authorities.