Open letter to the Office for Local Government

The Leader of Wiltshire Council, Cllr Richard Clewer and Chief Executive Terence Herbert have sent an open letter to Oflog (opens new window) Chief Executive, Josh Goodman following the publication of an article in The Times (opens new window) yesterday regarding the worst-performing councils in the country. 

Dear Mr Goodman,

We are writing to express our grave concern that the Office for Local Government (Oflog) has allowed today's article in The Times (Worst performing councils in England revealed - where does yours rank?) to be published using such selective, negligent, and context-free analysis. 

As you will know, Wiltshire Council - its Officers and Elected Members - have been firm supporters of Oflog, and we have enjoyed engaging with yourself, Lord Morse and your teams on the department's development. Indeed, we welcomed your permanent appointment to the role of Chief Executive, too.

However, we are saddened to say, as one of the country's highest performing local authorities, our faith in Oflog is now dented. Never has the need for an independent-minded and credible board of sector experts to oversee Oflog's activity been clearer.

We pride ourselves on our transparency and encourage residents to hold us to account, in the same way we hold ourselves to account every day in our use of the public purse, and in how we deliver for them. Our quarterly performance reports, published and discussed at our local cabinet meetings, provide a rich level of analysis to enable this.

Noting Oflog's intent, we believe there is now a threat of it failing to deliver its vision to 'provide authoritative and accessible data and analysis about the performance of local government and support its improvement.' If Oflog is ever to attain an authoritative voice, it needs to ensure that when its work is cited, there is explicit acknowledgement of the limitations of current data sets, the significant time lag, and forthcoming changes to a range of performance measures. This should sit alongside acknowledgement of differing funding levels and the importance of local context.

The Times has not done this today, and it risks setting a dangerous precedent for poor analysis to enter the public domain. It distorts residents' views of their local authorities and weakens staff morale to see rankings like this so poorly considered and presented.

Oflog also needs to be clearer about its relationship with the qualitative work of the LGA (Local Government Association) in peer reviews and the work of regulators such as the CQC or Ofsted, taking into account their findings in its analysis.

Wiltshire has, for example, been recently rated 'Outstanding' by Ofsted for its Children Services, received glowing feedback from a range of peer challenges, and is a sector-led improvement partner to other authorities. All of these metrics and reports are publicly available.

To see our finances ranked 188th is notably concerning. We have a balanced budget (and are, in fact, putting appropriate reserves aside) and it is led, monitored and scrutinised to a high standard, including by our Cabinet and Elected Members. It, therefore, seems highly inappropriate for Oflog to rely on less relevant indicators and data from 2021/22 when our present position is in stark contrast to many councils across the country.

You will observe that we will be raising our significant concerns about the presentation of Oflog's data directly with The Times, Ministers and our local MPs.

We expect Oflog to strongly rebut the article and the analysis as it begins the journey of rebuilding the sector's faith and confidence in this vital public resource.

Yours sincerely,

Cllr Richard Clewer Leader, Wiltshire Council

Terence Herbert Chief Executive, Wiltshire Council

CC: The Times, The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP, The Rt Hon Michelle Donelan MP, The Rt Hon John Glen MP, The Rt Hon Dr Andrew Murrison MP, Danny Kruger MP, James Gray MP, Clive Betts MP