“The Government could save billions of pounds by scrapping a flagship programme to assess and publicise the performance of local services”, a think-tank report stated recently.
The Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA), launched last year, brings together reports from six inspectorates to provide an overview of local services on the ‘Oneplace’ website.
The think-tank's chief executive, James Morris, said: "Local authorities are more accountable to central government than to their residents. Without doubt this has been a contributing factor in the disengagement of local people. The new system we propose can turn this underwhelming system of performance and assessment on its head."
This is welcome news indeed, recognition of the accountability that’s been forced on local government when the only true accountability should be to the taxpayer, i.e. the customer.
My recent work with Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council (much more on this coming soon!) is focussed on working with the frontline workers, from the binmen to the receptionists, to the team that maintain council vehicles in fact everyone who provides direct services to the public. Time and time again I’m amazed, impressed and encouraged by the ability of these people to devise and deliver the best, most efficient and relevant processes/services within their remit. They are the people doing the job and therefore have the most knowledge when it comes to understanding what works best, simple really!
A long process of assessment and response at a distant level from central government cannot have the insight and impact that the frontline people can have. The assessment of public services should, I believe, be completely in the hands of the customers and the response to complaints or inefficiencies should be dealt with by the service providers.
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