Surrey County Council blasted by its ex-boss

Aug 4 2009 By Adam Courtney

The outgoing chief executive of Surrey County Council has lambasted a culture of 'blame, bullying and self-obsession' at the authority.

In a withering assessment of his six-months in charge, temporary chief executive Michael Frater, accuses the council of a "fundamental failure of leadership, culture and governance".

He says top brass are superior and arrogant, lacking vision, and overly bureaucratic, as well as failing to properly resource training.

Mr Frater wrote: "The breakdown in trust has been widespread and affects all key relationships including those between frontbench and backbench members, senior officers and front-line staff and between members and officers. It is of critical importance that it is addressed as a priority."

On leadership, he wrote: "A particularly worrying feature of the management style frequently referred to by backbench members and managers is a 'macho' style, a blame culture and bullying... It is wholly unacceptable." The organisation, he thinks, is "obsessed with itself".

He added the culture of the council is "unhealthy", "controlling, not empowering", "bureaucratic" and displays a poor approach to partnership working, as well as lacking "vision, direction and strategy".

Backbench councillors are "angry and frustrated about being marginalised by the executive", says Mr Frater, and he believe local committees need to be "fundamentally reviewed".

Staff, on the other hand, believe the negative reports on children and adults' services have unfairly dragged a "four-star service down to a one-star council". He wrote: "It is important both backbenchers and staff realise their concerns are manifestations of a wider and deeper problem."

Former Chertsey councillor Ray Lowther, who retired earlier this year, was shocked by the ferocity of the report but agrees councillors' roles were marginalised.

He said: "Over time, there was a fundamental change in the committee structure. Members used to take a far more active role and we could get things done locally. Then things began to change; there were also sorts of unnecessary slogans introduced to describe services which the public didn't understand and it was harder to get things done. A lot of changes were made which were quite wrong."

Mr Frater also questioned staff who believe the county is underfunded because of low government grants. He wrote: "In many respects, the organisation feels extremely well resourced. Two examples are the quality of the operational buildings and the extent of the investment in information technology."

However, just 0.4% of the annual budget is set aside for training, a figure up up to five times less than many organisations.

Despite his criticisms, Mr Frater refers to the "islands of excellence" in the authority, including the contact and history centres, talented councillors managers and dedication of junior staff and says the new chief executive has a "golden opportunity" for a fresh start.

It's a view shared by the council's new political leader Andrew Povey, who said: “We have a new leader and a new chief executive. New people have moved into both of the two most senior positions in the authority for the first time in 12 years. We share a determination to make Surrey a leading-edge organisation and the fact we are both starting at the same time means we can give the county council a fresh start.

“We have a fantastic opportunity to take a different approach to how the county council is run and the direction the authority takes. Everything we do will focus on what is important to our residents. This will not happen overnight but we have made a great start. Surrey is a truly outstanding place and it deserves a local authority that is genuinely world class. That is the vision and aim of both the chief executive and myself. To get there, we’ll work closely with residents, local businesses and other organisations across the county.”

Mr Frater took over as temporary chief executive after the county was given a one-star rating, down from three, and handed over the reigns to former Trafford Metropolitan Borough (Manchester) boss David McNulty.