Consideration was given to the report of the Chief Executive which detailed the recommendations and identified actions of the Council’s Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) carried out by the Local Government Association in March 2022.

A copy of the finalised CPC was received on 6 September 2022 and attached at Appendix 1 to the report.  The Peer Team considered the  five themes which formed the core components of a CPC, namely, local priorities and outcomes; organisational and place leadership; governance and culture; financial planning and management; and capacity for improvement.  The process involved a series of meetings with a range of Members, officers and external stakeholders.  The CPC contained 12 recommendations for action and the Council’s responses were identified at Appendix 2 to the report.

During the discussion the following salient points were noted:

•     recommendations were currently being or had been actioned;

•     the Council had a Corporate Programme Board (CPB) and a Property Investment Panel, and the role of the CPB had recently been expanded to include the Financial Stability Programme. The recommendation to create a Capital Programme Board was therefore covered across both these existing mechanisms;

•     Members recommended and agreed to add another column to the responses table in Appendix 2 to the report to identify each recommendation as either ‘Implemented, Part-Implemented or Not Implemented’;

•     recommendation 8 concerning the regeneration strategy would be addressed by the Economic Recovery Plan report being brought to Cabinet in due course;

•     Members were pleased to note the comments in the Feedback Report concerning the Climate Change Strategy and the Anti-Poverty Strategy and the active role of Members in the organisation; and

•     the second stage of the staff restructuring would deal with the use of data to inform services and strategies.

After consideration, Cabinet noted and agreed the actions / responses identified within the CPC.  It was also pleasing to note that the opening paragraph of the CPC stated that “the Council had dedicated and hardworking staff who wanted to deliver for Rother and its residents.”

RESOLVED: That the:

1)   report of the peer challenge review team at Appendix 1 to the report be noted;

2)   comments made by officers in relation to the key recommendations be noted; and

3)   an extra column entitled ‘Implemented/Part-Implemented/Not Implemented be added to the responses table at Appendix 2 to the report.