New Board and indicators established by Liverpool City Council Commissioners
The Commissioners appointed to Liverpool City Council following the Best Value Inspection are now entering their third year of intervention.
To enable them to monitor the Council’s improvements more closely, key indicators will be reviewed regularly to assess the effectiveness of the Council.
A new Board has been set up to monitor the Council’s progress, with the minutes published on the Council’s website.
Lead Commissioner Mike Cunningham said: “We will be sending our next report to the Secretary of State in September. Between now and then, the Council still has a lot of improvements to make, but we have confidence in the new political leadership and senior leadership team, who are continuing to deliver improvements, at pace.
“We trust the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive to be able to assess the progress of the Council accurately and drive forwards the improvements needed. We are working closely together in a spirit of joint enterprise.
“The intervention will only end however when Liverpool City Council has made the necessary improvements and Commissioners can be confident that we are leaving the Council in a position of stability.
“If, on the recommendation of Commissioners, the Secretary of State decides that continued intervention is required beyond June 2024, then we shall continue to work constructively with the Council to make the necessary improvements.”
Council Leader, Cllr Liam Robinson, said: “There is no doubt that a lot of progress has already been made since the Commissioners arrived in 2021, however, the Cabinet and I are absolutely focused on the scale and challenge of the work we still have to do over the next 12 months.
“On a positive note, the Commissioners have previously stated with cautious optimism that the Council is heading in the right direction.
“We are now in the process of making the final appointments to our senior management team, led by our new Chief Executive Andrew Lewis. They are key to driving forward the improvements that we need to make and developing further capacity and capability within the Council.
“However, there is no doubt that we have an awful lot to do over the next few months. This includes putting together a housing strategy, improving the management of our buildings and property, implementing a new neighbourhood model, which will deliver services which better supports our communities, and a renewed focus on collecting Council Tax and business rates. We are also focused on fixing the recent issues highlighted in the Ofsted inspection of Children’s Services and transforming the way in which we deliver adult social care.
“I very much welcome the support and challenge that we are receiving from the Commissioners and am looking forward to delivering the improvements we all want to see, so that we can deliver the best services for our residents.”
The minutes of the June meeting of the Commissioner Assurance and Oversight Board will be published at https://liverpool.gov.uk/council/commissioners/commissioners-publications/
- Read a blog about the latest phase of the intervention by Lead Commissioner Mike Cunningham: https://liverpoolexpress.co.uk/blog-we-are-now-entering-a-new-phase-of-the-intervention/