Envoys warn Tower Hamlets’ “fragile” golden triangle must improve

Writing in their second report – which was handed to the Government in January, but made public on Tuesday (17 March) – the intervention team noted that the council continues to achieve “good operational service delivery across the board”, with the residents of Tower Hamlets at the heart of council officers’ work.

However, it warned the issues the council faces are "deep" and that many of the core issues have not yet moved forward far enough to demonstrate sufficient positive impact and therefore evidence of sustainable improvement.

The envoys said they had previously encouraged the council to ensure that the golden triangle arrangement was "both visible and that it demonstrates evidence to the organisation of its impact on good governance and leadership".

It added: "We were clear that we wanted to see ‘evidence of the group dealing with some of the more challenging issues that arise in the council and visibly providing robust challenge to the political leadership of the organisation and to one another.

“We have not yet seen sufficient evidence that the Golden Triangle is functioning in this way and our view is that it remains fragile.

"The Monitoring Officer will need to robustly challenge the senior officers and elected members of the council as the local election draws closer, and this will need to continue after the election."

The other statutory officers must also support the monitoring officer in delivering and reinforcing appropriate challenge, the report added.

Elsewhere, the report criticised the council for the slow pace of implementing improvements, including strengthening the council's corporate core and ensuring a "stable golden triangle".

On this point, it said: "We raised on several occasions the fragility of the Golden Triangle with the council, including in our first report. Despite this, we are yet to see material improvement or serious engagement with our concerns."

The report also said the "positive relationships" and trust they would expect to see "do not exist between all of the Statutory Officers and all the members of the council".

The envoys said they have advised council officers that reflecting and ensuring consistency on their day-to-day housekeeping activity, such as responding to emails, enquiries and complaints from members and ensuring a consistent approach to policies and procedures around the election and member engagement, "would be a first step in improving this".

It added: "For example, being clear on the policy of inviting ward members and interested councillors from across the chamber to council, civic events and events in member’s own wards. The council is more than the just the political administration, and it is important that all members are involved where appropriate. This will be essential to mitigating the issues that we are already seeing which challenge the perception of officer impartiality and would go some way to building trusted relationships."

The envoys also said that they were not confident that the council's officers are managing the political environment effectively to minimise challenging behaviours.

Overall, the pace of change and impact has been “too slow and after one year in intervention the council has had a few false starts which are costing them time, energy and resource," the report said

It added: "The rescoping of the [Continuous Improvement and Change Plan] and further statutory recommendations are examples of this.

"While some of these delays cannot be anticipated or controlled, we feel in each case that action could have been taken sooner to address the underlying issues and that the Council’s leadership is at times getting its prioritisation wrong.

“At the current pace and without a significant shift in the approach to change, the council faces a very long road to recovery."

The Secretary of State for Local Government “remains concerned” that the council has not understood the severity of its situation, according to a letter from MHCLG’s Deputy Director, Local Government Stewardship and Interventions, James Blythe.

In correspondence with Tower Hamlet’s chief executive on Tuesday (17 March), Blythe also confirmed that the government intends to expand the intervention, as previously announced in January. It also confirmed plans to appoint another envoy with expertise in finance.

Responding to the new ministerial directions, a spokesperson for Tower Hamlets said: “While many of the issues highlighted are longstanding and we have made significant improvements in these areas, we recognise that we must go further and faster with our ongoing improvements and be tenacious in our approach.

"Our progress so far includes clearing previously unsigned accounts, the publication of all outstanding Annual Governance Statements, investing in member development, introducing a new recruitment system, and deepening our work with partners.”

It added: "This is the first time the Envoy model has been used to support the improvement of a local authority. We welcome the adjustments being made to the support package to improve the focus and pace of the work.

“We are determined to meet the new directions in full through our new Improvement Board with the Envoys overseeing the delivery of our Continuous Improvement Plan.”

Adam Carey