The leader of Nottingham City Council says he is “impatient” for signs of improvement in children’s services following a £6.5m investment in a consultancy firm.
The Labour-run authority, led by Cllr David Mellen (Lab), recently commissioned an outside specialist in the improvement of children’s services following an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted report last year.
The council must now improve these services or face potential intervention from the Government’s Department for Education, all while under continued scrutiny from an improvement board, chaired by Sir Tony Redmond.
To try to speed up progress, the council has hired consultancy firm Newton Europe, which has experience in helping councils improve children’s services, at a cost of £6.5m.
Newton Europe will conduct an investigation into the way children’s services are currently provided, ending in a report to the council outlining its findings at a future date.
The decision to hire an outside consultancy was signed off by Cllr Mellen, Cheryl Barnard, portfolio holder for children and young people, and corporate director for people Catherine Underwood because the authority itself does not have adequate internal expertise.
During a scrutiny committee meeting on February 8, Cllr Mellen said: “Sir Tony makes a point that transformation has progressed well so far but is yet to see the results of that and the challenge of it being funded through to its conclusion is real for us.
“I met yesterday with officers and with representatives from Newton Europe who are working with us in children’s services and I told them I was impatient with the programme that they have set out and the results coming through.
“They would say, and they are probably right, that they are on schedule.
“I suppose I am just anxious to see the results of that investment, because it is a considerable investment in an outside company, bringing fruit not only in saving us money but also in a way that is going to be better for children and young people in our city.”
Newton Europe lists among its operations consultancy services within a number of sectors including healthcare, adult social care, children’s services and local government. It is based in Oxfordshire.
The decision to appoint the firm comes on top of an additional £5.5m spend on consultants as part of the council’s ongoing Together for Nottingham Plan, which seeks to instil improvements at the authority to avoid further Government intervention.
Better pay in the private sector, the council’s reputation and labour market pressures following the pandemic have all been blamed for Nottingham City Council’s lack of internal ability to deliver improvements to its services.
The firm will help deliver an improvement programme alongside a Government-appointed improvement adviser, Lou Williams, a former director of children’s services in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
“There is still a lot to do,” Mr Williams said during a council meeting in January.
“It takes some time to fix something, some of the challenges that are here, but I think the building blocks are absolutely here.”
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