External endorsement for Council’s project management approach
An external review has endorsed the City Council’s project management approach, assessing that it has the right level of professional skills and experience available.
Local Partnerships was commissioned by the Council in 2015 to review its project management framework. The Claer Lloyd-Jones report into Silver Hill urged that the Local Partnerships’ recommendations were implemented in full.
Local Partnerships was invited to conduct a follow-up visit in April 2016 to assess whether the Council had delivered its earlier recommendations and to review whether the Council had the right skills and capacity to run major projects.
The external team found that “good progress has been made against all of the recommendations in the last review” and that “many of those interviewed stated that project and programme management had become much more central to the Council and the review team noted a much stronger sense that the disciplines were a part of the culture - ‘the way things are done around here’.”
In summary, the current professional skills and experience available within Winchester City Council seem appropriate for the size of organisation and appropriate external skills are brought in when required.
Cllr Stephen Godfrey, Leader of the Council, said:
I am delighted that external assurance has been given on our approach to project management which recognises the skills and experience officers bring to key projects such as Station Approach and the new homes delivery programme.
The report notes the improvements made over the last year and it gives suggestions as to how we can further improve the way we run our programme of major projects, including continuing to provide clear communication of project milestones and publicising successful delivery of projects across the whole Council.
Local Partnerships is a joint venture between HM Treasury and the Local Government Association (LGA), formed in 2009, to help the public sector deliver local services and infrastructure.