Council improvement plan watchdog to meet in public

THE Birmingham Independent Improvement Panel is to meet in public for the first time.

The panel, which is monitoring the progress being made by Birmingham City Council on behalf of the Government, will be holding a meeting in public on June 11.

It will be considering a progress report from the council about the implementation of the recommendations made in the Kerslake Review, published at the end of 2014. 

Sir Albert Bore and Cllr Ian Ward, leader and deputy leader respectively of the council and Mark Rogers, chief executive, will respond to questions from the panel and from members of the public.

Immediately following that session the leaders of the two opposition parties, Cllr Robert Alden (Conservative) and Cllr Paul Tilsley (Liberal Democrat) will, in succession, respond to questions from the panel and the public.

Businessman John Crabtree, who chairs the panel, said: “This first public meeting of the panel will provide a good opportunity for the council to demonstrate that progress is being made in relation to key elements of its improvement plans.”

The panel was appointed by the previous coalition Government to oversee the local authority’s progress.

It signed off its improvement plan in March and now has a monitoring brief.

The plan responds to the recommendations made by the Kerslake report, published last December. 

The Way Forward: An Independent Review of the Governance and Organisational Capabilities of Birmingham City Council, was published following highly-publicised failings in areas such as education and children’s services.

The meeting of the Panel will be held in the Council Chamber at the Council House in Victoria Square, Birmingham, between 12 noon and 2.30pm on Thursday 11th June.