Transcript Presentation by Dr Clive Grace, Cardiff University

Benchmarking : What is it?
Dr. Clive Grace
Presentation to the
Local Government and Regeneration Committee
in relation to Strand 2 of its Inquiry into
Public Services Reform
Scottish Parliament 10th September 2012
Benchmarking
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What it is & why it matters
Varieties & Scope
Purposes
Issues
Theories of Change and Improvement
Politics, Politicians, and Benchmarking
An arrow not a silver bullet
Be systematic but not one ‘system’
What it is and why local performance
matters
 Comparison of services against an external standard
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Matters because:
Cost and scale of services
Vertical fiscal imbalance
Public aversion to ‘postcode lottery’
Local representation and service delivery without (much)
local taxation
Taxonomy of Benchmarking
 What is benchmarked?
 Services
 Corporate capacity
 Inputs, outputs, or outcomes
 How are the benchmarks set?
 Financial benchmarks for economy
 Productivity benchmarks for efficiency
 Innovation benchmarks for excellence
 Who does it?
 Self regulation
 Sector led regulation
 External agency
Variety and Scope
 Benchmarking is ubiquitous
 Service cost and technical comparison (APSE, CIPFA,
WAO Benchmarking Clubs)
 Statutory performance indicators
 Whole authority & Whole area assessments
 Excellence schemes
 Peer review and challenge
 ‘Communities of practice’
 Improvement Plans? Outcome Agreements?
BVA1 and 2?
Purposes
Economy
Efficiency
Effectiveness
Excellence....
....Evasion?
....Austerity?
Issues
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Definitions and units for comparison
(Very little comparison of public services
between England, Scotland and Wales)
Data validity and consistency
Time series
Authoritative interpretation
Action in response
Context of Public Service Reform approach and
operating ‘Theory of Improvement’
Theories of change and
improvement
Example:
Aim
Funding
Focus
Method
Motivation
Drive from ‘Awful to Adequate’
Large real terms increases
Corporate capacity and national standards
Balanced scorecard
External stimulus, naming and shaming,
terror and targets
Alternatives: self actuated improvement;
consumer/user pressure; political accountability; etc
Example: PSR Approach and Theory
of Improvement
Best Value PIs
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200+ indicators for all frontline and corporate services
287 pages of guidance
Set centrally after consultation
Operated by the Audit Commission
Superseded in 2006 by a more outcome focussed
national indicator set
CPA – single and upper tier
Comprehensive Area Assessment
 Joint inspectorate assessment for each area
 Individual ‘use of resources’ judgements for councils,
police, health, fire and rescue authorities
 Local performance against the national indicator set
 Risk assessment linked to local area agreements
Peer review
Aim
Funding
Focus
Method
Motivation
Improvement from within
Getting tighter (£20,000 per review)
EFQM model with 12 criteria (incl. corporate
effectiveness)
Mixed review teams
Support and ownership
Risk regulatory regimes
Control components
Information
gathering
Context Type of risk
Public attitudes
Organised interests
Content Size
Structure
Style
Standard
setting
Behaviour
modification
Politics, Politicians, and
Benchmarking
 A marriage made in both heaven and hell?
 Critical political accountability....
 ...problematic political time horizons and
public opinion drivers
 Great benchmarking requires tremendous
political self-discipline
An arrow not a silver bullet
 Benchmarking is one arrow in the quiver, and not THE
answer....
 ...it is best applied from the ‘improvement end of the
telescope’...
 ....in the context of a thought through policy of Public
Service Reform and Improvement...
 ...and (ideally) a fair degree of political consensus...
 ...and the support of key stakeholders
Be systematic but do not
impose one ‘system’
 Working out and carefully designing the benchmarking
approach does not guarantee success...
 ...but not doing so guarantees failure
 Not ‘one benchmarking system fits all’....
 ....different services in different situations call for
different benchmarking solutions
[email protected]
10TH SEPTEMBER 2012