Coventry and Organisation and Methods
| Published date | 01 March 1954 |
| Date | 01 March 1954 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1954.tb01721.x |
Coventry and Organisation and
Methods
The news of the Reports of the Treasury
0.
&
M.
Division
on
the depart-
ments of the Coventry City Council aroused great interest. We are greatly
indebted to Mr. Charles Barratt, the
Town
Clerk of this forward looking
Authority, for permission to publish part of the reports of the Council’s
Policy Advisory Committee dealing with this matter.
’,
EXTRACT FROM FIRST REPORT OF POtICY
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
INTRODUCTION
A.M.C. Memorandum on the Review
of
Local Government
Organisation and Procedure
IN
June, 1951, we reported to the Council a memorandum which had
been prepared by the Association of Municipal Corporations drawing
attention
to
a
number of matters in the review by the
Local
Government
Manpower Committee of Local Government Organisation and Procedure.
The memorandum, although making no claim to be comprehensive or
of
universal application, drew attention to a number of matters which, in the
light of present-day requirements and the need for economy in the use of
manpower,
it
was suggested might usefully be considered by
all
municipal
corporations and of which the following is a summary
:
(a) Delegation to Committees.
The memorandum recorded the
advantages, from the point of view of efficiency, expedition and economy,
of the use of delegated authority to Committees, provided a council
(i) determined its policy clearly and (ii) was prepared to have confidence
in its Committees and not to retain too many safeguards or to impose
too many limitations.
(b)
Executive
Work.
The need clearly to define the authority
of
officers to carry into effect the decisions of a council or its committees,
so
avoiding detailed supervision and speeding up the administration.
(c)
Committee Meetings.
The desirability of carefully considering
the number of committees (and, linked therewith, the number of depart-
ments) advisable for the dispatch of council business, and in conjunction
therewith, the frequency with which committees need to meet, the
size
of
Committee? and the nvmbers of Committees on which members
are required
to
serve.
52
COVENTRY
AND ORGANISATION
AND
METHODS
(d)
Written Reports, etc.
The need to examine, in relation to the
manpower and expense involved, the number and nature of written
reports to be submitted to committees and the danger of overloading
both elected representatives and the administrative machine by demanding
unnecessary papers.
(e) Discussions with Government Departments.
The advisability
of
encouraging informal discussion between officers of the council and
officers of the appropriate Government Departments at an early stage
so
as to obviate possible waste of time later on.
(f)
Co-ordination
of
Work.
The importance of effective co-ordina-
tion of the work of the council both as between committees and Depart-
ments, and the need to emphasise the function
of
the Town Clerk in
this respect.
(g)
Meetings
of
Chief Officers.
The desirability of encouraging
informal conferences of the Chief Officers and the desirability of main-
taining informal inter-departmental relationships.
(h) Communications.
The necessity of maintaining a single channel
of communication for the official views of a council through the Town
Clerk and the desirability of avoiding, simultaneously, administrative
action through the Department of State concerned and political action
through a Member
of
Parliament.
(i) Public Relations.
The importance of initial public contacts and
the usefulness
of
public relations in avoiding possible causes of friction
and reducing the volume of work.
(j)
Stafl.
The desirability, where the size of the total staff justifies,
of an independent Committee or sub-committee charged with respon-
sibility for the supervision of training, promotion, terms and conditions
of service and the determination of the establishments of departments.
At the time the above memorandum was received, the Committee were
satisfied, generally speaking, that the various matters to which the mem-
orandum drew attention were adequately covered in Coventry. The system
of
delegation to committees worked reasonably satisfactorily
;
by and large
there was a clear working arrangement between the various Heads of Depart-
ments and the controlling committees concerned
;
the Committee structure
appeared to meet the basic local needs
;
Committees themselves could be
relied upon to consider from time to time the question of the nature and
volume of reports made to them either verbally or in writing
;
the practice
of
informal discussion between the Council's officers and appropriate
Government Departments had long been established in Coventry
;
co-ordina-
tion
of
administration and informal conferences .between Chief Officers had
developed
satisfactorily
of
recent
years
and the
Corporation
were
certainly
not behind other local authorities in their arrangements concerning staff.
53
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
The Organisation and Methods Service
Later in the same year the Town Clerk reported to the Committee that
the heads of departments had, for some time, been considering at their
monthly conferences, and particularly in the light of the Report of the Local
Government Manpower Committee, whether any specific proposal might
usefully be made with a view to the further improvement of the Corporation’s
administrative organisation. The report pointed out that the Chief Officers
had recently experimented, in consultation with the Ministry of Labour,
in the possible use within the local government service of the Ministry of
Labour’s Training Within Industry scheme. The Chief Officers reported
that, although the T.W.I. scheme, suitably modified, appeared to have a
useful place in local government, there appeared to be scope also for some
form of advisory service on organisation and administrative methods which
might be made available to the Heads of Departments without undue cost,
and that the matter appeared to justify further investigation.
We favoured this opinion and authorised the Town Clerk to approach
the Organisation and Methods Division of H.M. Treasury to ascertain if
the Division would be willing to supply trained personnel for a limited period
to assist in a local review of organisation and administrative methods. Although
the
0.
&
M. Division
of
H.M. Treasury do not normally accept assignments
of this character outside Government Departments, they agreed to make an
exception in this instance in the hope that the experience gained during the
review would be helpful not only to Coventry, but also to local authorities
generally, in considering whether-and if
so
in what form-0.
&
M.
as
practised for some time in the Central Government Service could be applied
in the field of Local Government.
It
was agreed (January,
1952)
that the
work should be undertaken on an experimental basis for an initial period
of one year, the Corporation reimbursing H.M. Treasury the cost of the
services rendered
;
the work was subsequencly extended until July,
1953.
The success of an investigation of this nature was clearly dependent
to
a material degree on the wholehearted co-operation of the heads of depart-
ments and we should like to express our thanks to the Chief Officers and
their staffs for the assistance which (as the
0.
&
M. reports frequently
mention) was
so
readily given.
THE
0.
&
M. REPORTS
The results of the
18
months’ investigation by the
0.
&
M. Division
of
H.M. Treasury have been embodied in
32
reports, as follows
:
1.
2.
Economies in Official Advertisements.
3.
Shops Act,
1950.
4.
Typing Services.
5.
Fire Department.
6.
Baths Department.
7.
8.
Architectural and Planning Department.
Duplicating, Printing and Photographic Services.
Parks, Cemeteries and Allotments Department.
54
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