"For some time now, local authorities in Scotland have set efficiency targets for themselves but have not had a consistent way to measure these efficiencies nor of demonstrating to the public how they are making the delivery of local services more efficient. Through this project, local government will be able to establish a common set of efficiency measures that can be used across all services to account for the efficiencies they are achieving and delivering on behalf of local citizens.” Mark McAteer, Head of Governance & Performance Management, Improvement Service
Since October 2006, the Improvement Service and performance management consultancy Aspiren have been working with Scottish local authorities to establish a common set of efficiency and productivity measures.
The aim of the project, which is sponsored by COSLA and supported by the Scottish Executive, Audit Scotland and SOLACE, is to provide a transparent method for local authorities to measure efficiency gains and to account and report on them in a consistent manner.
The project aims to provide each local authority with a common framework to show how they have improved their services and implemented efficiency gains. This will help demonstrate how much local government has contributed to increasing overall efficiencies in the Scottish public sector by the provision of a robust evidence base. The project will also develop a process for councils to check that estimated savings are achieved through genuine efficiency savings and not cuts, in order to measure the ongoing efficiency of council services, and track the performance impacts of efficiencies once councils establish them.
Putting our heads together
The first stage of developing the performance measures took place at a three-day event in October when over 60 participants from 25 Scottish councils, plus representatives from SOLACE and the Improvement Service, came together in Edinburgh.
The objectives of the event were to:
-
understand and agree the importance of the efficiency agenda to local government;
-
agree the role of performance management to deliver improvement;
-
validate service area classifications and agree key outcomes;
-
build and agree a framework of appropriate efficiency and productivity measures that enable better customer outcomes;
-
through collaborative working, demonstrate and share leading practices on genuine efficiencies across local authorities to maximise opportunities;
-
collectively agree and commit to the way forward.
The participants worked intensively and creatively across the following eight service areas to produce a draft suite of efficiency and productivity measures:
-
Children's Services
-
Corporate Management
-
Corporate Services
-
Cultural Services
-
Environmental Services
-
Public Protection & Regulation Services
-
Regeneration Services
-
Social Work
Working in these service groups the participants began by considering the context in which their services are operating, the broad outcomes they seek to achieve and the barriers to their achieving this. Days two and three were spent identifying possible measures that were then refined and iterated and reiterated through a succession of challenges by the whole group.
Through hard work, dedication and commitment the participants achieved their objectives. Their success was also made possible through the adoption of an innovative and creative collaborative work process: music to summon everyone together at key points; moving walls which constantly created new spaces in which to work; and a cartoonist who worked in real time were just some of the elements that were employed as part of this process.
Getting results
Tangible results included 35 draft efficiency and productivity measures. These included cost of “corporate management” as a percentage of total revenue budget, the unit cost of delivering services to children, and the average unit cost of repairs and maintenance per house. All the outcomes were collected and summarised into an executive summary that was made available on CD-ROM to all the event participants.
At the end of the event all the participants signed up to the measures as a demonstration of their buy-in and commitment to take them further. Many also volunteered to continue to actively support the project and to work with the Improvement Service and Aspiren to gather the views of their colleagues on the draft measures and to develop the detail required for their implementation.
In his closing address Colin Mair, Chief Executive of the Improvement Service, said: “I've been really impressed by what happens if you give people space to work together continuously rather than just having half an hour meetings spread out over consecutive weeks. All of our work was constructive... And your creativity has been impressive - you have demonstrated that you can do big, bold and creative thinking.”
The next stage of the project will involve wider consultation through an online discussion forum and in-depth discussions with local authority professional associations. It is hoped that agreement for the indicators will be obtained by January 2007 to enable some reporting for the financial year 2006/ 07.
Further information
For more information contact Mark McAteer at the Improvement Service.
