Over the period of CPA the London Borough of Waltham Forest was a fast-improving council that went from a poor rating in 2002 to 4-star and improving well in 2008.
Prior to the 2002 CPA, the council was satisfied with an aspiration to provide services that could be described as average. The poor CPA score highlighted significant problems in a number of areas (including children’s services interventions, low customer satisfaction and poor quality of street scene). The score was nevertheless a surprise, as the council had few systems in place to register when things went wrong.
Following the poor 2002 rating the (then) Office of the Deputy Prime Minister engaged the council in its improvement process targeted at the poorest-performing authorities. The lead official and government monitoring board associated with this engagement introduced greater discipline to the council and focused efforts on the post-corporate assessment recovery plan.
However, the council itself was slow to embrace the need for change. Things improved with the arrival of a new council leader in 2003, who enabled the council to tackle the improvement plan in earnest. The cross-party administration began to unravel the previous problems and rebuild relationships with key people. This was a turning point for Waltham Forest Council as it marked the beginning of a much more functional member-officer relationship.
A new chief executive also came into post. The new leadership appointed other chief officers from outside the council to drive improvement. A performance and service improvement team was created to strengthen performance management, which had been identified as a weakness in the corporate assessment. Since then there has been a relentless focus on performance, both corporate and by council members, with the leader and deputy leader taking an active lead.
The corporate assessment in 2004 was a very useful check on progress and it mirrored the council’s self-assessment. This illustrated the progress the council had made in terms of self-awareness. The initial engagement and leadership changes laid the foundations for the council to respond better to the needs of its community and score more highly in future assessments.
As a result of this learning process, the council was much better placed to meet the needs of its community. In 2008, it had services that performed well across the board and the 2008 corporate assessment highlighted Waltham Forest Council’s notable success in the following areas:
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providing clear and ambitious community leadership
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establishing strong relationships with partners and between officers and council members
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managing performance effectively
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delivering safer and more coherent communities
Staff are now proud to work at the council, which in turn is in a stronger position to attract able staff. The council continues to seek further improvements and feels well placed to address longstanding local issues such as worklessness.