Multimillionaire Council consultant makes more cuts – Inside Croydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Fisher’s Folly staff have already dubbed the plan ‘No Future Croydon’. After £100m of cuts to council budgets over four years, the boss is now running public money to find more ways to cut services for children, older people and SEND. By our City Hall reporter KEN LEE

No Sens: Croydon residents should demand to know what council tax is being spent on – as their services face even more cuts

Cash-strapped Croydon Council, under Tory Mayor Jason Perry, may not have enough money to run its public services, keep its public libraries open or keep running some of its nurseries his pre-school, but he managed to find millions of pounds to hire… in consultants to give advice on how to cut services further.

No consulting firm.

Not two.

But Three consultancy firms are being hired by chief executive Katherine Kerswell under the usually unknown project title for the latest round of cuts in ‘Future Croydon’. Or what demoralized council staff have already called “No Future Croydon”.

It’s all part of what Kerswell – who is paid £192,000 a year for whatever she’s supposed to be doing – euphemistically calls “transformation”. It is, in reality, what appears to be a definitive emptying of the local authority, which already proves daily that it is no longer capable of providing even the most basic services.

According to a freedom of information request from Inside Croydon, we know that one of the appointed consultants, Newton, is to be paid £1m for an initial six months’ work to find more cuts in the council’s social care and health for adults.

This area of ​​the council’s business is positively reeling under the growing burden of greater demand, particularly with an aging population. However, in the last three years, it has already decreased 36 million pounds from its budget.

Newton is being brought in to further cut Croydon’s services for many of the borough’s most vulnerable. As the council itself said: “Ultimately, the council needs to spend less, and in doing so will be able to do less.”

In reality, that usually means job cuts for the council’s lower-paid front-line workers, while Kerswell hires more and more well-paid executives.

As one councilor said: “Croydon has an aging population, with many older and disabled residents reliant on local authority services. We fear it won’t be long before we hear that dreaded phrase, “demand management” again.

“Basically finding ways to shirk 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 you have no choice but to cut back on service provision.”

Consultants like Newton are never cheap.

When Tory-controlled Norfolk County Council hired Newton recently to help it find ways to make £2m of cuts, the consultants were paid… £6.5m.
And when Newton finished his work, they managed to find… a million pounds worth of savings. High everywhere!

Our board sources strongly expect the same to happen here. “It won’t be the first time there’s been a robbery in Croydon town centre,” said our council staff member cynically.

If Newton costs Perry’s Tory council £1m, the other two “partners” – another council euphemism for “leeches” – will almost certainly demand a fee of similar size.

In an email to council staff yesterday, Kerswell wrote: “We are embarking on one of the biggest, if not the biggest, transformation plans in local government and for that we need outside help,” suggesting that she admits that she and her large team of six-figure-salaried executives are not up to the task themselves.

“We have appointed Boston Consulting Group, a global firm with expertise in digital innovation in the public and private sectors, to support the board over the next few months to develop a new operating model.”

BCG, based in Massachusetts, is considered one of the big three management consulting firms, along with the McKinseys and Bain and Company, and has quite a proven track record in terms of their work across the globe, including in Angola and Arabia Saudi. Not that such trivial considerations as human rights issues and the use of offshore tax havens could bother Perry or Kerswell much.

“Newton, a local authority people services transformation partner, already works with social care and adult health,” Kerswell’s memo to her staff continued.

“Impower, experts in public sector change, will support children, young people and education.”

This is an interesting appointment given Kerswell’s close links with the Local Government Association. In January, Mark Lloyd, former CEO of LGA, joined Impower as chief executive.

But as with Newton, Impower’s track record in working with local authorities, particularly in the area of ​​’demand management’ in their case for SEND – special educational needs and disabilities – has been less than stellar.

Suffolk Council spent £1.6m hiring Impower from 2021-2023, but frustrated parents claimed the SEND service was “the worst it’s ever been”.

Undaunted, Kerswell appears to be on a mission to funnel as much public money into the bank accounts of private profit-driven companies…sorry, “partners”…as fast as she can.

Kerswell wrote: “All our partners are taking a forensic look at how we do things in their specialist areas, talking in depth with staff, residents, partner organisations, including (the voluntary community and faith sector) and will develop new ways of working.” These are our italics.

These “new paths” will undoubtedly include “longer”, “harder” and “less staffed”. At the same time, it provides fewer services to Croydon residents, who now pay the second highest council tax in London.

“We have set our sights on becoming the most cost effective and efficient council in London, putting our residents first and providing 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 have already cut Croydon’s annual spending by at least 20%, from 2020 a further £137m has been cut from the borough’s operating budget, with a further 30 million pounds planned for 2024-25.

Mayor Perry, meanwhile, appears to have given up any pretense of “fixing the council’s finances” by getting some sort of settlement – a cancellation of a council debt – from central government.

“More incremental cuts are not the answer”

Kerswell’s staff email went into more detail.

“To become financially sustainable and offer our residents the best value for money, we need to cut costs and do more with less. We know how hard you work and it’s clear from our conversations with you that bigger cuts are not the answer – we simply need to fundamentally change the way the council works.

“Dedicated Webinar”: Demoralized council staff will look forward to their appointment with CEO Katherine Kerswell on Thursday

“We don’t underestimate what has already been achieved – we should all be really proud of what we’ve been able to do so far, from making huge savings to making major improvements across the organisation. But we have to move on.

“Our partners will bring fresh perspectives, additional expertise and can build on what they have achieved with other organizations.” Try not to laugh.

“This is a real opportunity for all of us to learn and help come up with radical new ideas for the board.”

Kerswell added another, appropriate note: “Finally, if our fellow partners reach out to you… or 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) to be held on Thursday to explain all their concerns.

For the long suffering residents of Croydon, they got a press release this morning that was a little lighter on the grim detail of what the leachers/consultants are likely to come up with.

“Some council costs, such as social care for children and adults, remain among the highest in London. This is not financially sustainable for the future – and that is why the council needs radical change,” the public was advised today.

Kerswell suggests how Boston Consulting – big fans of the use of artificial intelligence – will take the board’s existing “digital first” approach – meaning the public rarely has a chance to engage directly with a board employee – even further . What Kerswell describes as “making better use of technology to deliver services” and “providing excellent customer care”.

Which would make a difference.

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