Reporting Performance Information to Citizens, which was commissioned by Communities and Local Government, investigates how local authorities report their performance information to citizens and the support available to help them do so.

Findings of the research, which was based on literature review, residents' focus groups, 40 ‘light touch' and six in-depth case studies and consultation with local government stakeholders, include:

• There is little existing guidance available on reporting performance in England.
• There is wide variation in how local authorities are currently reporting performance information to citizens. However, there appears to be a relatively small group of authorities who are well advanced and are developing more innovative approaches.
• Whilst the majority of authorities are reporting corporate performance information in some form, this tends to be in formats that are relatively indigestible to citizens.
• One of the key challenges for local authorities is how to determine what information should be reported.
• The most common methods used to report performance information was via websites, through press or media releases and via council newsletters.
• Reporting on the performance of partners was undertaken in only a relatively small number of cases.
• There are different strategic approaches to reporting performance information. In some authorities it was much more closely tied in with community engagement strategies and/or area working structures.
• A range of barriers were identifi ed by authorities. These included communicating quite ‘dry' information to citizens in a meaningful way, process issues around time delays in reporting performance information, technological barriers and political pressures to only communicate ‘good news stories'.
• The majority of authorities supported the idea of further guidance in relation to reporting performance to citizens.

The report also makes a number of recommendations to Communities and Local Government including highlighting to local government its responsibilities and potential benefits in terms of reporting performance information to citizens, developing further guidance for local government and establishing or promoting some form of portal or discussion thread specifically related to the sharing of good practice.