Boston Borough Council is hosting a visit by a Local Government Association (LGA) peer challenge team from September 10 to 12, and parish councils will be invited to be involved.
The team has been invited in to look at what the council does and give some thoughts on what it is doing well and what it could improve.
A timetable and background information has been prepared, working together with the LGA to deliver this peer challenge.
With the abolition of the inspection and regulatory regime and the national performance framework, there was a shift to local accountability for performance and self-regulation in local government, with sector-led improvement through peer challenge at its heart.
The Local Government Association (LGA) provides a corporate peer challenge to all member councils once every four to five years.
The aim of the peer challenge is to provide external challenge to the council’s own self-assessment.
The peer challenge considers priorities within five key themes:
- Understanding of local context and priority setting
- Leadership of Place
- Organisational leadership and governance
- Financial planning and viability
- Capacity to deliver
The council has shared strategic plans and documents with the peer team, and provided it with a position statement, describing where we currently are. This highlights what the council thinks are its strengths and areas for improvement, as well as priorities for the futures, and key challenges and risks.
Through this process the council demonstrates its own improvement. These documents aim to be open and honest and to act as a guide for the peer challenge team, providing them with areas to focus on during the peer challenge itself.
The peer challenge team hope to meet with a range of stakeholders including parish councils. Invitations will be sent out to parishes shortly and the borough council would be grateful if chairmen could spare some time to attend the relevant session. It will be a relatively short session and refreshments will be provided.