Choppy waters: How to be an s151 at a troubled authority

Northamptonshire County Council recently announced the appointment of its fourth finance director in two years. Richard Harbord looks at the challenges of taking over financial leadership at an authority in difficulty.

At this time, sadly, there are a number of local authorities who are in some kind of trouble.

The recent years of austerity have made financial management very difficult.

This situation is not helped helped in any way by the government’s fixation on Europe and its failure to provide any support to maintain the excellent record local authorities have for medium-term planning.

Given all the difficulties, it seems surprising to outsiders that difficult authorities seem to have no problem in filling their top posts.

The question is what particular attributes do you need to succeed in such positions?

The first things you need are a thick skin and an ability to get on with the job despite all the noise around you.

Often a lot of senior staff will have left for one reason or another, and actually finding out what has happened and why the decisions made have been made is a very difficult thing.

Relationships with elected members are absolutely critical to any kind of success in sorting out a difficult situation.

I have pointed out before that elected members are elected to grow the authority and improve the service to the public.

They are not elected to remove services and many find it very difficult to see why they should do so.

It is my view that relationships with members has not been helped by the move to the cabinet system.

Of course, there are many plusses, but it has meant that exposure to members starts at a relatively senior level and is often quite restricted.

Those of us who are very old will remember that in any sort of senior position you would be the finance representative at some meeting or other.

I started my member involvement at the libraries committee and, although finance was not the major topic, I learnt from the relationships I built with those members.

I remember being “promoted” to be the director’s representative on the highways committee, only to discover it never finished until two in the morning and the financial element outside of budget time was fairly small.

But the relationship with senior members – both of the governing party and opposition – is paramount.

Unless they have confidence in your ability to smooth the path ahead you are doomed.

This is a difficult area because there is a need to win confidence so you can openly impart bad news without difficulty.

The difficulty is that that you are doomed once members lose confidence in you.

I remember a leader of a council I worked at early in my career saying to me as we left scrutiny committee that we wouldn’t let me attend again as I told too much of the truth.

I realised instantly it was time to find another job.

Also – and I am sure the new section 151 officer at Northamptonshire will be feeling this – there needs to be some caution in setting out solutions that seem to resolve things neatly.

The news that the council’s projected deficit has trebled will indicate that caution is needed at every point.

There is also a great frustration that everyone inside and outside the authority wants to know how you are going to solve any problems.

There is a need to keep on good terms with external media, residents and backbenchers.

This can be a major use of time which may not seem very productive but will happen whatever and needs to be managed.

It goes without saying that communication with all staff and close working with other directors and the chief executive is essential.

There will always be people in the authority who feel your advice is flawed, but sticking to your decisions once made and taking the majority with you is essential.

People do not reach the position of being considered for these difficult tasks unless their experience and temperament suits them for it.

As every authority is difficult to manage financially the training and experience will see good results in the end.

There are still some relatively straightforward section 151 posts but they are few and far between.

Richard Harbord is former chief executive at Boston Borough Council