Question of the Month...
Dismantling and redesigning the performance architecture of local services. Have your say....
In response to LGA Group lobbying the new Government has begun to dismantle the restrictive and burdensome top down performance architecture of targets, inspection, and government office monitoring. In future they key issues will be how we identify and manage risk and how we continue to help each other drive performance.
The LGA Group believes that this is best achieved by the public sector regulating and improving itself. We are developing a stream-lined approach involving just three key components:
- Using transparency to support local accountability – making more use of the information councils already collect to manage their performance. This should be publicly available, allowing citizens to hold councils to account.
- Sustained improvement – councils committing to regular self assessment and peer challenge and supported with timely national programmes – such as the Group’s new place-based productivity programme.
- Providing early warning of the risk of failure – a commitment to identifying and working with councils facing performance challenges at an earlier stage so support can be provided and service failure avoided.
Q) Do members support a sector owned approach along the lines outlined?
Q) How can we best identify and offer to work with those councils facing performance challenges? What prevents some councils from voluntarily seeking support from the sector’s national/regional improvement bodies?
Please send your views to nick.easton@lga.gov.uk