‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,’ exhorted Thomas H. Palmer’s 1840 Teacher’s Manual. US writer Dale Carnegie later advised: ‘Develop success from failures.’ For ‘discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success’. Nevertheless, that will not work for everyone. Although Bob Dylan sang ‘there’s no success like failure’, his next line was that ‘failure’s no success at all’.
These thoughts came to mind when on 12 November, Jim McMahon, minister of state for local government and English devolution, issued a statement indicating that he was satisfied the London Borough of Tower Hamlets (the council) was failing to comply with its best value duty in relation to continuous improvement, governance, leadership, culture and partnerships. This followed the publication of a best value inspection report (the report) on the council (published on the same date) which ‘found a significant accumulation of best value concerns across a number of areas’. The minister was therefore minded to issue a direction to the council under section 15(5) of the Local Government Act 1999 to secure compliance with its best value duty.
This duty (in section 3(1) of the 1999 act) requires relevant local authorities to ‘make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way in which its functions are exercised, having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness’. Statutory guidance for authorities on best value standards and intervention (issued on 8 May) identified seven overlapping good practice themes for running an authority that meets and delivers best value. These (which build on lessons learned from past interventions) are continuous improvement, leadership, governance, culture, use of resources, service delivery, and partnerships and community engagement. And continuous improvement is the outcome of all the themes working well together.
The reason behind the opening thoughts on success and failure was the difficult recent history of the council and its leadership. The council (which operates a mayor and cabinet governance model) held its first mayoral election in October 2010 which was won by independent candidate, Lutfur Rahman. Although he was re-elected in May 2014, this election was declared void by an election court. Rahman was found guilty of corrupt and illegal practices under the Representation of the People Act 1983. The election commissioner, Richard Mawrey, upheld a number of allegations made including voting fraud, false statements against a rival candidate, bribery and spiritual influence. Rahman was consequently disqualified from holding any elective office for five years and his May 2014 election was declared void. The period 2014-2018 saw intervention under section 15 of the 1999 act following best value failure. In the 2015 by-election John Biggs was elected Labour mayor of the council and was returned in the 2018 election. Nevertheless, the May 2022 election saw the return of Rahman as elected mayor, now of the Aspire Party.
Unfortunately, as the minister indicated, the report had documented serious concerns across various areas: leadership, including a lack of trust contributing to senior officer churn and a perception among staff that many good managers had left the organisation as a result of ‘speaking truth to power’; governance, where due process is often treated as an obstacle rather than as a necessary check and balance, scrutiny culture ‘weak and confused’, and the level of scrutiny challenge ‘inadequate’. The report also criticised the proposal for the director of legal services to report to the corporate services director, with the monitoring officer continuing to report directly to the chief executive. Splitting the role will be fraught with difficulties and confusing to the organisation. Culture, where the ‘entire organisation is impacted by a lack of trust’, with the administration ‘suspicious and defensive in its behaviour’; partnerships and community engagement, where ‘inspectors found a lack of co-production and joint planning undertaken by the council and saw insufficient evidence that the council undertook meaningful and comprehensive consultation with key partners, staff, and service users before decisions were taken in some key areas’; and continuous improvement where, although the council has made targeted and concerted improvements over the last two years, this has lacked a strategic focus or a cultural prioritisation of continuous improvement. Moreover, the culture, exemplified by the leadership has been to respond reactively and counter criticism rather than honestly appraise and self-improve. And on some issues, the inspectors were sceptical of the council’s capability to self-improve.
The minister consequently considered that, given the serious concerns identified, a broad and supportive intervention package (for an initial three-year period), with robust external assurance, is necessary and expedient for the council to secure compliance with its best value duty. Among the proposed measures is to work with ministerial envoys to create a reconfigured ‘Transformation and Assurance Board’. The envoys will (among other things) work comprehensively within the council to oversee the proposed changes to the board, including agreeing its scheme of work and meeting agendas, preparation of the council’s continuous improvement plan and an open recruitment exercise to appoint a permanent lead for the council’s improvement work. While the minister hopes that improvement will come at pace with focus and oversight, he ‘will not hesitate to consider further action and escalation if necessary, in the interests of Tower Hamlets residents’.
But with the right support, and a positive approach from those in leadership positions at officer and member levels, the council will presumably be able to build on its strengths and deal decisively with its weaknesses. And, like all performance interventions, the November best value report merits close study by all authorities as a valuable improvement document.
Nicholas Dobson writes on local government, public law and governance
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