Nearly two-thirds of residents trust their local council and 72 per cent are satisfied with the way services are run according to a new research report announced by the Local Government Association (LGA), compared with just over a third of people expressing the same trust in Parliament.
Levels of trust in councils have risen significantly over the last decade, but this latest research gives local government confidence that the sector is making the right decisions about driving improvement and how to deliver quality services for local people while offering taxpayers value for money.
One of the Coalition’s early cost cutting measures was to abolish much of the regime of inspections and targets for local authorities, reducing the burden they placed on councils and saving in excess of £1 billion. This has allowed councils the freedom to concentrate on finding new and better ways of measuring success, identifying areas for improvement and offering residents greater local accountability.
The research published today is part of an appraisal exercise conducted by the Local Government Association (LGA) to assess whether or not the sector-led approach to delivering improvement in local government has the support of councils, councillors, central government and the public, and provides a baseline for ongoing evaluation.
Three-quarters of council policy chiefs who were surveyed as part of the baseline evaluation believe that the sector-led approach is the right way to support improvement in the current climate, with 95 per cent expressing confidence in their own authority’s ability to deliver change. In-depth independent interviews with senior civil servants and regulators conducted by Ipsos Mori as part of the report also showed strong support for sector-led improvement.
Ninety per cent of chief executives and 80 per cent of leaders surveyed as part of the report also showed a good level of awareness of the LGA’s programme of support for sector-led improvement. ‘Peer Challenge’, was the offering most highly recognised amonge council policy chiefs. A total of 137 councils have taken part so far, working with teams of leading experts from across the sector to conduct constructive and knowledgeable reviews of various council services. The LGA’s information sharing system, ‘Knowledge Hub’, also scored highly. More than 125,000 users are now signed up, with 1,443 active discussion groups.
Cllr Peter Fleming, Chair of the LGA’s Improvement Board, said: ’Not only was the old system of inspection and centrally-set targets incredibly expensive to administer and out of touch considering 70 per cent of council spending is now raised locally, it simply wasn’t achieving results.
‘The sector-led approach to improvement is not a replacement for inspection. It offers us a new way to ensure all councils meet the expectations and needs of their residents by giving us the freedom to establish a constructive and positive environment in which to share new ideas and work with one another to implement best practice.
‘It is really encouraging to see senior officers and elected members engaging with the approach and taking up the LGA’s offer of support. I have also heard nothing but positive things from ministers and civil servants in the Department for Communities and Local Government.
‘Ultimately we are answerable to our residents and the new approach to driving change is helping to improve services to meet local needs and offers transparency for both local and national audiences.’
The baseline evaluation is the first of three reports to be published looking at the sector-led approach to improvement. An interim review will be published towards the end of spring and final impact report in early 2014.
To access the full sector-led improvement baseline evaluation report see: LINK
Local Government News: LINK
