Support to individual authorities
Improvement East is committed to supporting individual authorities which are experiencing difficulties. Support will be available if there is an identified service failure and/or the authority has an overall score of 1 in any area such as Organisational Assessment, Use of Resources or Managing Performance. If your authority falls into any of these categories, please contact Improvement East for guidance before making a submission for support.
One of Improvement East's greatest strengths is the willingness of the sector in our region to support struggling individual authorities. We aim to identify any issues early on and to provide support to ensure that there is no intervention by Whitehall at a corporate level in authorities in the East of England.
What kind of support is on offer ?
The basic premise for support to individual authorities is that it should build capacity, not fund day-to-day operational work. The following criteria is applied to requests for funding:
- address the needs identified in authority's improvement plan
- funding can be given for individual post-holders where there is a clear and explicit relationship to the authority's improvement agenda and the post will build capacity within the authority
- be authority led
- be self-sustaining beyond the life of the funding
- demonstrate a commitment through Member/officer time, resources and Chief Officer support
- not duplicate other initiatives that are funded by other bodies such as CLG and LGA
- utilise existing material/practice where possible.
Additionally, Improvement East may require the authority to:
- Establish an Improvement/Joint Agency Board of key authority Members, officers and key partners including Improvement East. Click here to read more about the role of the Joint Agency group or Improvement Board
- Work with an Improvement East Chief Officer lead. Click here to read more on the role of the Chief Officer lead.
Authorities currently receiving support
In 2009/2010 Improvement East directly supported nine individual authorities. Performance has significantly improved in a number of these as evidenced by improved Use of Resources scores.
These improvements have been achieved by utilising chief executives and partners from across the region to support these authorities through change; establishing Joint Agency/Improvement Boards to oversee improvement planning; and accessing support through nationally recognised improvement programmes. Importantly, to ensure that intervention is timely, Improvement East works closely with partners to identify which authorities are, or likely to be, struggling.