Birmingham pledges collaboration in response to Kerslake criticisms

BIRMINGHAM City Council has pledged to work with its counterparts in the Black Country and Solihull to develop a combined authority and in doing so, implement one of the key measures outlined by the Kerslake Report at the end of last year.

The pledge was delivered by Birmingham City Council leader, Sir Albert Bore during the first public meeting of the Birmingham Independent Improvement Panel.

The panel, headed by business figure John Crabtree, was set up to oversee the council’s response to the Kerslake Report.

One of the recommendations put forward in the council improvement plan states: “A combined authority governance review based on an authority formed of at least in the initial stage the core functional economic area of Birmingham, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Solihull should be completed by July 2015.

“Once this has happened the Government should begin to engage in a dialogue about further devolution. Based on the experience of other combined authorities we recommend that the following proposals should be adopted:

a. wherever possible decisions should be reached by consensus, if a vote is required each member should appoint a single representative and decisions should be taken on the basis of one member one vote;

b. the secretariat should be based outside of Birmingham City Council;

c. the Government wants to see seamless working between Local Enterprise Partnerships and combined authorities. To ensure enterprise retains a strong voice in economic strategy, the chairs of both the Black Country and Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnerships should be invited to join the board of the new combined authority.”

Sir Albert said good progress was being made towards this and the LEPs had been very responsive to what had been suggested.

He said: “We have a level of engagement there that’s very supportive of the direction we are taking. I feel there are many instances where the work we are doing is better appreciated than that reflected in the Kerslake Report.”

He was supported by city council chief executive Mark Rogers who said while there were many areas where there was still a lot of work to do, on the economic front there was strong support for what the council was doing.

“There’s a strong collaboration and a sense that if Birmingham playas its hand well then we won’t be seen to be a problem because of the other challenges we face,” he said.

He said hopefully national politicians would also recognise the efforts the council had gone to and would not penalise it unnecessarily.

Crabtree told the meeting that the panel would assess this – together with the other measures outlined within the Future Council Programme – when it prepared a progress report for new Communities and Local Government Secretary, Greg Clark.

The FCP outlines the steps being taken by the council to answer the criticisms levelled at it in the Kerslake Report. The report was compiled in response to a number of well-publicised failings by the council in areas such as education – the Trojan Horse affair – and children’s services.