A new report from the Social Market Foundation has found that local government services are being held back by low morale and an inability to attract and retain staff.
The report, titled Local Heroes? Assessing leadership and management in local government and published in partnership with the Chartered Management Institute, utilised testimonies from senior managers and leaders across the local government space to discover that 20% of local authority leaders think that their senior leadership is ineffective. A further 40% believe that their senior leadership is poor at motivating staff or fails to do so at all.
Alongside this, 56% of leaders included in the report thought that their local authority isn’t ensuring accountability for failure, with 69% also reporting that there are serious obstacles that are stopping them from doing their jobs. The main reasons for these issues are recruitment and retention – this was cited by 38% of the testimonies – and internal bureaucracy (33%).
Social Market Foundation’s Senior Researcher, Richard Hyde, said:
“Good leadership and management deploying best practices are associated with better public sector organisational performance. Local government is no exception.
“Given the centrality of local government in daily life, sufficient numbers of, and sufficiently trained leaders and managers are vital.”
In order to try and support local authorities to improve leadership and management practices, the SMF has recommended that:
- Benchmarks are established for good quality leadership within local government, ensuring Oflog includes assessments of management quality in its work.
- The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities brings forward a comprehensive 10-year workforce strategy for local government.
- Council funding for recruitment and retention of staff at all levels is improved.
- A local government leadership academy is established, following the precedent set for the NHS and the Civil Service.
Anthony Painter, Director of Policy at the Chartered Management Institute, also commented:
“Local Government is in the jaws of a fiscal and demand crisis. Years of Government cuts and increasing local pressures, especially in social care, place enormous and sometimes unbearable strain on local authorities. The ability of management and leadership to motivate and guide best organisational behaviours under difficult circumstances remains an indispensable skill when resources are increasingly strained.
“This research paints a worrying picture, but leadership and management failure is not inevitable. Investment in quality leadership and management and reinforcing that capability relentlessly will help navigate stormy waters and is ultimately an investment in communities.”
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