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Barking and Dagenham scoop Council of the Year The iESE Public Sector Transformation Awards were held this year on 4th March in London. This was their 11th year and saw hundreds of fantastic entries from the public sector across the UK. The awards now include 15 categories, including the overall Council of the Year award. To see a full list of winners and photos from the award's night visit: www.iese.org.uk/ events/public-sector-transformtion-awards-2020 he London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) has been driving change hard since 2016/17 when it kickstarted its Ambition 2020 Transformation Programme to implement a Council fit for the 21st Century with a mission to 'leave no resident behind'. There is strong evidence the strategy is working and we were delighted to name the LBBD Council of the Year 2020 The challenge faced by LBBD is, by its own admission, an enormous one. It is one of the most deprived communities in the UK with poor outcomes for many of its residents. For years, it has scored low on some of the key outcome measures for its residents in comparison to other London Boroughs. It is also experiencing huge demographic change. In 2001, 90 per cent of its population was White British, compared with less than half in 2017. Thirty per cent of its population is under the age of 18, and half of these are aged seven or younger, placing huge demand on children's services. As a borough which still has relatively affordable housing and a large private rental market, LBBD faces additional pressure from other boroughs housing deprived families there. The impact of austerity, legislative change and increasing demand means the Council has had a £63m funding gap to close. With few businesses, and large number of residents on benefits, the ability to close this gap through taxation has been limited. LBBD's transformation journey was first born from a Local Government Association peer review commissioned in spring 2014, the conclusions of which led to the appointment of a new CEO, Chris Naylor. He initiated a wide-scale workforce review and the findings and feedback from staff were clear - the Council needed to think differently, be bold, be innovative and stop the incremental yearon-year salami slicing. The Council needed to change the relationship it had with its citizens, from paternalistic provider to empowering enabler. The Council of the Year award was just one of three awarded to the borough. LBBD also won the Community Focus and Intelligent Council
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categories, adding to a growing awards collection it has amassed since completing its transformation agenda two years ago. Publicising this particular win has been overshadowed by the Covid-19 response, but Meena Kishinani, Transformation Director at LBBD says the Council sees great value in award applications. "When we first started applying for awards people were cynical but changed their attitude after we won our first set of awards and realised why it was important. Now when we win an award our Leader takes it around our buildings to show staff what we’ve collectively achieved, and insists on having the awards displayed." Winning awards is a huge morale boost for staff, none of whom have been left unaffected by the Council's complete transformation process. Kishinani says winning awards also helps with recruitment. "We have seen that the calibre of applicants for senior roles in the last three years is significantly different. They are aware of our awards and give this as a reason for applying." While the transformation is complete, LBBD still has huge challenges but has a leadership team that has huge aspirations and a real vision for wanting to change the lives of residents. The borough has been identified as London's Growth Opportunity. It is less than 20 minutes from the centre of London, has space for 60,000 new homes and is proof that economic growth is moving eastwards towards the borough. The Council is top in London and fourth in the country for replacing homes sold through Right to Buy. Stock in its own housing company, Reside, is providing affordable rents to local people, with numbers set to rise from 300 properties to more than 2,000 in the next three years. The income from this, and the other significant investments the Council has made, will deliver a net return of £5.1m a year. Kishinani believes the transformation's success has been down to buy-in from the senior leadership team and members and making sure services continued whilst designing the transformed organisation. "You need to have a clear vision, the right capability and capacity
Barking and Dagenh am
Council of the Year 2020
Barking Town Hall
Community focus GOLD Award
iESE Awards
Awards drinks reception
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