In March the Local Government Association will carry out a Corporate Peer Challenge to ensure Essex County Council’s plans are fit for the future.

The peer challenge will look at priority setting, leadership of place, organisational leadership and governance as well as financial planning and viability.  There is also the chance for ECC to ask the team to focus on areas where it would most appreciate some external challenge, so it has asked that they look in some detail at whether the council has the right culture, structures and systems in place to support its focus on delivering great services and outcomes for residents and places.

A cross-section of partners have received invitations to attend some of the focus groups or one-to-one interviews or get involved in site visits and ECC is very grateful for this input into this tool to support its improvement.

An experienced team of eight peers will be on site during the week beginning 30 March led by Anthony May, Chief Executive of Nottinghamshire County Council, and Izzi Seccombe OBE, Leader of Warwickshire County Council.

The team’s findings will be shared in due course but if you do have any questions about this work now, please contact corporate.peerchallenge@essex.gov.uk for further information.