The damning report into Liverpool Council “identified systematic, whole-council weaknesses” alongside its financial shortcomings.
As well as highlighting the “organisation-wide culture where people do not feel accountable for managing public money” government appointed commissioners at the Cunard Building have found serious gaps in Liverpool Council’s leadership, risk management, decision making and workforce capability. The four-strong team of Whitehall officials, to be joined by a fifth member responsible for finance, delivered their 26-page verdict on progress this morning.
Regarding the capability of the organisation, they said: “The challenge facing the Council is threefold: first, senior leaders must understand the scale of the challenge and prioritise resources to the gaps that are most acute; second, plans are required to recruit, train and retain staff to fill these gaps; and third, the provisions to manage and develop existing staff and resources must be improved to build capability alongside recruitment.” Plans to manage gaps existing across capacity have been inconsistent and “until recently, there has been no joined up cross-organisation thinking to address these issues in an efficient and cost-effective way.”
