It is important to stress that a peer review is not an inspection or audit of a service - it is a supportive review process designed to help identify areas for improvement and to aid a service's capacity to change. A peer review assesses a service against four key areas:

• leadership and governance
• stakeholder management
• performance management
• organisational development.

The objectives of a peer review are to review key business processes, assess the strategic and operational management of the service, assess the role of performance management and assess organisational development practices.

A peer review combines analytical and consultancy expertise of the Improvement Service with the wealth of talent and expertise within Scottish local government, and potentially the wider public sector. The review is carried out by a Peer Review Team, which is independent of the team responsible for the development and delivery of the service being reviewed. The Peer Review Team will consist of consultants from the Improvement Service and Peer Reviewers - these could be officers from the local authority undertaking the review, other local authorities or other public organisations, who have relevant expertise in the service under review. The Peer Reviewers bring to the review their excellent working knowledge of the legislative and policy context within which the service operates, enabling them to make realistic and achievable recommendations.

We are working with Renfrewshire Council to facilitate a peer review of its rent collection service, ahead of the formal launch of the Peer Review Framework later this year. The Peer Reviewers have been contributed by East Ayrshire, Edinburgh City, Falkirk, North Ayrshire and North Lanarkshire Councils. A summary of the review's key findings and recommendations will be posted on this website later this year.