Progress published after Stockport Council Corporate Peer Challenge

The results of a progress review on recommendations made to Stockport Council by colleagues from other local authorities and the Local Government Association (LGA) in its 2022 Corporate Peer Challenge assessment have been published.

Officers and political peers from the LGA and other local authorities assessed the council on its achievements and processes in November 2022, with results published the following February. The Corporate Peer Challenge report praised the council’s financial management, its collaborative culture, and its place-making regeneration efforts; however, neighbourhood working, the way Stockport Council works with partners, and building its brand as an employer to address recruitment challenges were all identified as areas for improvement.

During November 2023, Stockport Council was revisited by the Corporate Peer Challenge team for a progress review on recommendations made in the previous assessment. The summary letter on the outcomes of the revisit has now been published and reveals the CPC team was impressed by what they saw and acknowledged that the council had gone further than expected in delivering on their recommendations; highlights included:

• the ‘sophistication’ of the council’s approach to neighbourhood working, which brings together communities, health, physical places, and public services to work together on a scale not seen brought together before in other locality models
• the strength of cross-party working in Stockport’s diverse political environment
• a purposeful and targeted approach to developing the council’s workforce through its One Team People Plan
• a continued strong financial position, illustrated by balanced budget setting and achievement of savings targets

The CPC team concluded that Stockport Council has a well-established mechanism to support continued improvement and encouraged a focus on equality, neighbourhood work, and performance management. The full Stockport Progress Review report is available to read in full here.