CROYDON IN CRISIS: Staff in Fisher’s Folly have already dubbed the plan ‘No Future Croydon’. After cuts of £100m from council budgets in four years, now the chief exec is forking out public money to find more ways of axing services for children, older people and SEND. By our Town Hall reporter KEN LEE
Pointless: Croydon residents should be demanding to know what their Council Tax is spent on – as their services face even further cuts
Cash-strapped Croydon Council under Tory Mayor Jason Perry might not have enough money to run its public services, to keep its public libraries open or to continue operating some of its pre-school nurseries, but he’s managed to find millions of pounds to hire-in consultants to advise on how to cut back services even more.
Not one firm of consultants.
Not two.
But three firms of consultants are being hired in by chief executive Katherine Kerswell under the typically unaware project title for the latest round of cuts of “Future Croydon”. Or what the council’s demoralised staff have already dubbed “No Future Croydon”.
This is all part of what Kerswell – who is paid £192,000 per year for whatever it is she is supposed to be doing – euphemistically calls “transformation”. It is, in reality, what looks to be a final hollowing out of the local authority, which already demonstrates on a daily basis that it is incapable any longer of delivering even the most basic services.
According to a Freedom of Information request from Inside Croydon, we know that one of the appointed consultants, Newton, are to be paid £1million for an initial six months’ work on finding more cuts in the council’s Adult Social Care and Health directorate.
This area of the council’s work is positively groaning under the increasing burden of greater demand, especially with an ageing population. Yet in the past three years, it has already cut £36million from its budget.
Newton are being brought in to cut even more from Croydon’s services for many of the borough’s most vulnerable. As the council has itself said: “Ultimately the council has to spend less and, in so doing, will be able to do less.”
As one council insider said: “Croydon has an ageing population, with many older and disabled residents dependent on the services provided by the local authority. We fear it won’t be long before we hear again that ghastly phrase, of ‘managing demand’.
“Basically, finding ways to duck out of the council’s legal and moral responsibilities to save a few quid.”
On Newton’s website, they say, “The volume and complexity of demand, coupled with shrinking budgets, can make it feel like there’s no choice but to reduce service provision.”
Consultants like Newton never come cheap.
When Conservative-controlled Norfolk County Council hired Newton recently to help find ways to make £2million-worth of cuts, the consultants were paid… £6.5million.
And when Newton finished their work, they managed to find… £1million-worth of savings. Trebles all-round!
Our council sources firmly expect the same to happen here. “It won’t be the first time there’s been a mugging in central Croydon,” said our cynical council staff member.
If Newton are to cost Perry’s Tory council £1million, the two other “partners” – another council euphemism, this one meaning “leeches” – will almost certainly demand a similar-sized fee.
In an email to council staff yesterday, Kerswell wrote: “We’re embarking on one of the biggest, if not the biggest transformation plans in local government and for that we need external help,” which sort of suggests that she admits that she and the large team of six-figure-salaried directors are not up to the task themselves.
“We have appointed Boston Consulting Group, a global firm with an expertise in digital innovation in the public and private sectors, to support the council over the next few months to develop a new operating model.”
Massachusetts-based BCG is regarded as one of the Big Three management consulting firms, along with McKinseys and Bain and Company, and have a fairly chequered record over their work around the globe, including in Angola and Saudi Arabia. Not that such trifling considerations as human rights issues and use of off-shore tax havens is likely to bother Perry or Kerswell much.
“Newton, a transformation delivery partner to local authority people services, is already working with Adult Social Care and Health,” Kerswell’s note to her staff continued.
“Impower, experts in public sector change, will be supporting Children Young People and Education.”
This is an interesting appointment, given Kerswell’s own close ties with the Local Government Association. In January, Mark Lloyd, the LGA’s former CEO, joined Impower as an executive director.
But as with Newton, Impower’s track record working with local authorities, especially in the realm of “managing demand”, in their case for SEND – special educational needs and disability – has been less-than-stellar.
Undaunted, Kerswell appears to be on a mission to transfer as much public money into the bank accounts of profit-driven private companies… sorry, “partners”… as quickly as she can.
Kerswell wrote: “Our partners are all taking a forensic look at how we do things in their specialist areas, talking in-depth to staff, residents, partner organisations including the [voluntary community and faith sector] and will develop new ways of working.” Those are our italics.
These “new ways” will undoubtedly include “longer”, “harder” and with “fewer staff”. All the while delivering fewer services to the residents of Croydon, who now pay the second highest Council Tax in London.
“We’ve set out our objective to become the most cost-effective and efficient council in London, putting our residents first and delivering excellent customer service – our partners will help us get there,” Kerswell said.
Or to paraphrase: “spend less do less”.
After 10 years of austerity policies from central government which had already shrunk Croydon’s annual spending by at least 20%, since 2020, another £137million has been cut from the borough’s operating budget, with a further £30million planned for 2024-2025.
Mayor Perry, meanwhile, appears to have abandoned any pretence to “fix the council’s finances” by getting some kind of settlement – a write-off of some of the council’s debt – from central government.
‘More incremental cuts are not the answer’
Kerswell’s staff email went into further detail.
“To become financially sustainable and offer our residents the best possible value for money, we need to reduce spending and do more with less. We know how hard you are working, and we are clear, from our conversations with you, that more incremental cuts are not the answer – quite simply, we must fundamentally change the way the council operates.
‘Dedicated webinar’: the council’s demoralised staff will be looking forward to their appointment with CEO Katherine Kerswell on Thursday
“We do not underestimate what has already been achieved – we should all be really proud of what we’ve managed to do so far, from making huge savings, to delivering major improvements right across the organisation. But we do need to go further.
“Our partners will offer fresh eyes, additional expertise and can draw on what they have achieved with other organisations.” Try not to laugh.
“This is a real opportunity for us all to learn and help come up with radical new ideas for the council.”
Kerswell added one further, suitably craven note: “Finally, if our partner colleagues get in touch with you… or you see them in our buildings, please join me in making them feel welcome.”
Council staff have been promised a “dedicated webinar” (not just any old webinar, you know) held on Thursday to explain away all their concerns.
For Croydon’s long-suffering residents, they got a press release this morning, which was a little lighter on the grim detail of what the leaches/consultants are likely to come up with.
“Some of the council’s costs, such as children’s and adults social care, remain among the highest in London. This is not financially sustainable for the future – and this is why the council needs radical change,” the public were advised today.
Kerswell hints at how Boston Consulting – big fans of using AI – will take the council’s existing “digital first” approach – meaning the public rarely get a chance to actually engage directly with a council employee – even further. What Kerswell describes as “making better use of technology to deliver services”, and “offer excellent customer care”.
Which would make a change.
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
I always find with public sector consultants that somehow they never recommend restructuring the layer of management that had commissioned them to restructure the organisation.
Not always – I’ve seen it happen. But the top management salary bill in most authorities is only a tiny fraction of the total. There are loads more dedicated minions whose wages and pensions bill is the lion’s share of the total.
I got the ‘transformation’ email but, as you reveal, there was no mention of the bill. Unforgivable. Was ever a noun so misused as ‘transformation’? Management consultants like to present it as indicative of improvement and efficiency. But the dictionary simply says it means ‘change in form, appearance, nature, or character’. And here’s a thing – a ‘transformation’ can also be a woman’s wig or hairpiece, which makes me think of a cover-up. Wonder why
or a merkin 😉
I find it so heartbreaking that the people who have formal responsibility for all people in the council district can be so ruthless to those who need it most.
Why are Kerswell and Perry pushing through these cuts now? Everyone knows Labour is going to win the election, austerity will end, local government will be fully funded and everything in the garden will be rosy. No? Oh
Why pay huge amounts of money to a chief executive and the senior management team to manage the Council if they are just going to pay consultants to do it for them? Consultants just ask local staff for their ideas and copy what other Councils have done. Surely one of the senior management team could do that.
At the last Council budget the Greens proposed a review of senior salaries to identify ‘savings’ there that cut be used to pay for staff in front line delivery of services instead. We also proposed savings from the amounts paid as ‘special allowances’ to Councillors and the Mayor because there is no reason why any of them should be protected from the cuts they are forcing on everyone else.
Unsurprisingly the Conservatives voted against cutting money for themselves and their rich friends. And equally unsurprisingly Labour just sat there and abstained on the vote.
At the election on 4 July, the Green Party is the only one of the major parties saying that multimillionaires and billionaires should pay more in tax so that we can restore public services. So, if you want our Councils to continue to carry on cutting services then you just carry on voting for the same old parties. If you want better then you have to vote for better – vote Green.
Quite right.
Why does No One so anything about the Corruption of Croydon Council🤔
What “corruption” of Croydon Council? What’s the allegation? Where’s your evidence?
That you post this anonymously, with your silly little emojee, shows that this cannot be taken seriously.
Routinely, anonymous comments will not be published.