Fund councils so they can invest in resilience

A new report has claimed that councils have ridden the waves of the coronavirus pandemic exceptionally well but they need a long-term funding settlement to invest in organisational resilience.

The County Councils Network, alongside IMPOWER, has set out a framework for how local authorities can improve their resilience following the pandemic.

Based on evidence from over 100 sector experts – including council chief executives, leaders, and senior councillors – the report finds that local authorities’ ability to quickly adapt to the daily challenges of the pandemic are ‘testament to their willingness to grasp everyday disruption’.

However, delivering on successful economic recovery strategies, revised budgets, and postponed service transformation projects could be challenging for local authorities whose workforce is exhausted by the pandemic and those with inadequate central resource to co-ordinate efforts.

The report calls for a sufficient long-term funding settlement for local authorities in this year’s Spending Review so they are able invest in efforts to bolster resilience to avoid workforce burnout and ensure that their organisations are best placed to horizon-scan and address future disruptive events.

The ‘resilience framework’ sets out three areas councils should be strong in:

• Absorbative capabilities: to undertake rapid change to be able to keep going during a shock
• Adaptive capabilities: to make incremental changes to be able to move forward
• Anticipatory capabilities: to ensure positive changes are sustained and optimised, and to prepare for future disruptions

Simon Edwards, director of the County Councils Network, said: “Local government has come out of the pandemic with its reputation enhanced and this is in no small part to the tireless work of staff across the country, with councils’ ability to adapt testament to their willingness to grasp every day disruption.

“Whilst facing fresh challenges every day, it has been ‘business as usual’ for many council services since the first lockdown, showcasing councils’ strong absorbative and adaptive capabilities. But 15 months on, staff who have gone the extra mile face burnout whilst horizon scanning is something some councils felt they could improve on.

“This report is a key learning exercise from the pandemic and sets out how – and why – councils should invest in resilience from crisis events and be better prepared to predict disruption. This cannot be done on a shoestring though, which is why CCN will continue to make the case for additional funding.”