To understand why variations in cost and performance are occurring, councils work together to ‘drill-down’ into the benchmarking data across service areas. This process has been organised around ‘family groups’ of councils so that we are comparing councils that are similar in terms of the type of population that they serve (e.g. relative deprivation and affluence) and the type of area in which they serve them (e.g. urban, semi-rural, rural). The point of comparing like with like is that this is more likely to lead to useful learning and improvement.

Family Groupings for Children, Social Work and Housing indicators

These councils are grouped by the type of population they serve, e.g. level of deprivation and affluence.

Family Groupings for Environmental, Culture & Leisure, Economic Development, Corporate, Property and Tackling Climate Change indicators

These councils are grouped by the type of area they serve, e.g. rural, semi-rural and urban.