Review says Council making “considerable progress” but more to be done
A review of Wirral Council’s capacity and ability to deliver for the people of the borough has concluded that the authority has made significant improvements but there remains further work to do.
Wirral Council has published the outcome of a Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) carried out by the Local Government Association (LGA) which took place in November.
The CPC process allows councils to bring in external expertise to assess how much progress it is making in its improvement.
The CPC brought a diverse team of experienced senior local government councillors and officers to Wirral Council to undertake a review of key finance, performance and governance information across the authority.
As part of the CPC process the members of the LGA Peer team also conducted dozens of interviews and focus groups and observed meetings of the Council.
Having reviewed their findings, the team has produced a report with their findings and a set of proposals for how the Council can continue to develop and improve.
The CPC team says Wirral Council has made “considerable progress in its improvement journey” since 2022 when the last CPC was carried out and praised the authority’s leadership as well as “examples of all political groups working together on high profile issues” including the Local Plan, 2024-25 budget and the ward boundary review.
However, it did also say that “despite significant focus and effort and demonstrable progress, there remains substantial financial challenges facing the organisation”.
The Peer team has made 11 recommendations to the Council. These include:
- Strengthen planning to address the council’s financial challenges
- a clear financial improvement plan
- Refine the new Council Plan and performance management framework to support prioritisation
- Develop a “Wirral first” approach across groups to ensure there is an appropriate political agreement to provide stability of decisions and direction
- Recognising the dispersed nature of decision-making in the Council’s committee system it should bring together committee chairs with the Leadership of the council on a regular basis to support strategic decision making
- Promote the importance of the council’s Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) within the council’s wider policy framework
- Develop a Wirral narrative that brings together the Council’s progress, current challenges, and ambition for the future
- Develop a shared corporate vision for regeneration at a borough wide level by bringing together the council’s wider programmes and projects under a single banner
- Closer working with public, community and voluntary sectors, to enable more joined-up approaches to cross-cutting issues
- explore how the council could maximise the strategic contributions of elected members to support health and social care at a Cheshire and Merseyside level
- Maximise the contribution of early years and youth engagement
Leader of Wirral Council, Cllr Paul Stuart, said:
On behalf of the council, I'd like to thank the CPC team members for conducting this review and producing this report. I would like to thank our staff, elected members, and stakeholders who participated in this LGA Corporate Peer Challenge.
Wirral Council has faced extremely challenging circumstances in recent years and, like many councils across the country, is facing financial challenges around adults and children's social care. While recognising the current challenging circumstances, this report highlights our strengths, particularly the authority's leadership, the positive steps towards improving governance and culture, staff and councillor development and our regeneration ambitions. The report also provides valuable recommendations for continuing our improvement journey. We will carefully consider these recommendations to continue improving our service delivery for our residents and the people of Wirral.
Leader of the Conservative Group, Cllr Jeff Green, said:
The progress that we need to make to right-size the Council started before the latest budget difficulties, and I am grateful that this external review confirms that we are on the right track, however we will only make further progress if we all keep our focus on what needs to be achieved for the residents and taxpayers of the Borough.
The Council is now due to publish an Action Plan by no later than 7 April 2025 and there will be a CPC Progress Review which should take place and be publicly reported by 7 November 2025.
