Independent review
Completed
West Northamptonshire Council: External assurance review
External assurance review of West Northamptonshire Council led by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) undertaken in August 2024.
Government Response
MHCLG decides to grant West Northamptonshire Council Exceptional Financial Support, issuing a capitalisation direction under sections 16(2)(b) and 20 of the Local Government Act 2003 approving up to £6.52m for 2024-25. No statutory Best Value intervention is imposed; the council does not appear on MHCLG's intervention list.
Recommendations
Recommendation 1
Confirm and embed transformation governance under new structure and develop a clear plan for ownership of transformation (whether continuation of the current roles and responsibilities or a planned hand back to seconded officers)
Recommendation 2
Embed transformation processes to streamline decision-making and implementation and set organisational priorities to ensure focus is directed in the right areas.
Recommendation 3
Continue to work with NCT to ensure that Children's Services costs and demand pressures are managed and mitigated to avoid overspends, while continuing to deliver outcomes for children and young people.
Recommendation 4
Consider options for 'Plan B' if it is not possible to bring Children's Services back in-house.
Recommendation 5
Continue to focus on delivery of savings and identification of mitigations, ensuring that progress reporting is timely, suitably challenged and remedial actions implemented to optimise delivery.
Recommendation 6
Senior officers should lay the groundwork with members over the next few months to prepare them for decisions that may need to be made for the next financial year and get buy in for areas that could be challenging.
Recommendation 7
As part of the star chamber process, include opportunities for cross-cutting delivery of savings or income generation.
Recommendation 8
The council should undertake a formal review against the CIPFA financial management code.
Recommendation 9
Develop a plan to manage capacity issues through targeted recruitment and/or use of external resource.
Recommendation 10
Ensure that the performance framework between the council and NPH includes a measurement for contribution to outcomes.
Recommendation 11
Review governance arrangements in 3-6 months and consider changes as appropriate.
Recommendation 12
Ensure that NCT is scrutinised appropriately by Audit and Governance Committee and that the council understands its corporate parenting responsibility.
Recommendation 13
Develop an implementation plan for Liquidlogic with clear delivery milestones, resource requirements, risk monitoring and management.
Recommendation 14
Accepting the requirement for concentrated effort to support NCT, ensure that established governance processes, including star chamber, retain a focus on all key cost drivers and establish appropriate mitigations to address them.
Recommendation 15
Ensure that transformation activity is balanced between achieving efficiencies and delivering best outcomes.
Recommendation 16
Improvements in Children's Services should be the main focus of activity with NCT to ensure best outcomes are delivered.
Recommendation 17
The process of IT disaggregation needs to be managed carefully over time.
Recommendation 18
NCT should report progress towards 'Good' to the Senior Leadership Team and members to ensure that there is corporate and political oversight.
Recommendation 19
Achieved savings should be monitored throughout the year and mitigations implemented if delivery falls below expectations.
Recommendation 20
Savings delivery should be monitored appropriately to ensure that NCT has capacity and resource to deliver against plans.
Recommendation 21
Make appropriate plans for disaggregation, including discussions with NNC.
Recommendation 22
Ensure that monitoring and reporting arrangements for NCT are fit for purpose and allow the council to ensure proper scrutiny, and corporate oversight, of its activities.
No recommendations with this response.