“YEARS of inadequate governance and action” at Slough Borough Council has prompted the government to appoint independent commissioners to overview see action to fix its financial woes for three years.

This follows two damning reports drawn up by the Chartered Institute of Public Finances and Accountability (CIPFA) and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) into the council’s governance and finances.

Salford’s former chief executive Jim Taylor was appointed by the government to investigate the council’s accounts when it declared a section 114, effectively declaring bankruptcy, when a £174m blackhole was discovered.

Its borrowing quadrupled from £180m in 2016-17 to £760m in 2020-21.

In Mr Taylor’s damning report, he outlined a series of failures carried by the council.

Despite “recent best efforts” from the council’s new finance team, he found the financial governance and governance arrangements did not provide the necessary scrutiny and assurance for the authority’s leadership.

Corporate governance was “inadequate” and “poorly understood by officers”, adding “some members feel let down by the information given to them by officers…some members now have limited confidence in officer reports due to the current situation”.

The council’s transformation programme, which was set out to ‘modernise’ its service delivery’ was “executed poorly” and has resulting in some services operating at a “sub-optimal level,” with some services showing “clear signs of failure”.

Mr Taylor found the Wifi inside the council’s £40m HQ, the Observatory House, and in some cases, phone signal, do not work effectively; children’s social workers have been unable to work from the new building for many months.

Other failings uncovered include:

  • an overreliance on interim officers
  • a lack of corporate capacity
  • many inadequate internal processes
  • signs of distrust among and between councillors and senior officers
  • the absence of effective scrutiny, transparency, and public consultation
  • insufficient capacity to achieve the change required
  • instances of poor-quality advice to members
  • a lack of understanding of how some meetings should be conducted
  • in some cases, members not understanding their role
  • significant unknown past liabilities yet to be determined

Mr Taylor wrote: “Slough Borough Council has been displaying these characteristics over past years until present day and has failed its best value duty despite the concerted efforts in the past few months. It is unable to resolve the difficulties on its own.”

In another report published by CIPFA, they found the council did not have a "good track record" in delivering savings.

The council is set to make a capitalisation directive to DLUHC in order to sell up to £600m of its £1.2bn-worth of assets to plug its financial hole and keep its borrowing levels down.

CIPFA pointed out even with the sale of assets, further support and spending reviews from 2022/23 will be needed for the council to balance its budgets in the medium-term financial strategy.

As a result of these failings found, the Secretary of State is “satisfied” the council is failing to comply with its best value duty.

This means an intervention package has been set up by the government and have appointed commissioners with the following reserved powers to use if necessary for a minimum of three years:

  • The governance and scrutiny of strategic decision making by the council.
  • The strategic financial management of the council.
  • The oversight of collection of revenues and the distribution of benefits by the council.
  • Appointment and dismissal of statutory officers

The council will have to complete within three months an assessment of the functional capability of all service areas to identify the gaps in capacity and capability.

It must also prepare an improvement plan to action on its financial sustainability; improvements in democratic services, including the audit and corporate governance functions; a scrutiny function that is fit for purpose; improvements in internal audit; properly functioning procurement and contract management functions.

It must also prepare and agree, within six months, action plans to the Commissioners’ satisfaction to address any functional shortcomings and undertake any actions to avoid further incidents of poor governance or financial mismanagement.

Other measures include:

  • Devise and implement a programme of cultural change to rebuild trust between officers and members within six months
  • Following the review of council companies, within six months consider the roles and case for ongoing operation of each subsidiary company (except Slough Children First)
  • Take steps to enable better and evidence-based decision making, including enhancing data and insight functions