Cullen launches Delivering Value for People

28/01/2004

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Cullen launches "Delivering Value for People –

Service Indicators in Local Authorities"

Performance of local authorities against 42 indicators to be published annually

Independent system of monitoring and verification of local services established

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Martin Cullen TD has announced a major new initiative to further extend the public accountability of local government. Minister Cullen announced today (28th January, 2004) 42 service indicators against which the public can measure the performance of their local authority. The action was endorsed at yesterday's Cabinet meeting.

Launching the initiative, entitled Delivering Value for People – Service Indicators in Local Authorities, the Minister said: "Accountability is not and should never be an optional extra. The people who fund our salaries and the services we provide have the right to know exactly how their money is being spent. I think we are taking a significant step forward in this area today."

Examples of the new indicators (42 indicators attached) include the percentage and tonnage of household waste recycled; the average length of time taken to get a planning decision; levels of housing vacancies, the average number of opening hours in public libraries and working days lost to sickness by local authority staff.

There is to be a common methodology throughout the country to compile the indicators, ensuring consistency and to enable easy comparisons to be made between local authorities under service headings.

Local authorities will report on their performance against the indicators by the end of the first quarter of the following year. Minister Cullen also announced an independent system of monitoring and verification of performance against the indicators. This function will be carried out by an independent assessment panel. An annual report on the performance of local authorities against the 42 indicators, incorporating the independent assessment, will be issued to the Minister by the Local Government Management Services Board.

Minister Cullen said that he was not interested in trying to build a huge reporting structure which may divert time and resources away from service provision. "That is why this initiative is structured to be simple to administer yet provide accessible, relevant and actionable information," he said.

The new regime was drawn up by the Customer Service Group (representative of local authorities, the Department and the Institute of Public Administration), which was established by the Minister to further develop and improve quality customer service in local authorities.

The set of 42 indicators, which have immediate effect, span the full range of services delivered. These include Housing, Planning, Environmental Services (water, waste, litter and Fire Services), Roads, Motor Taxation, Libraries, Arts and Culture, Recreational Services, Community participation, Revenue collection and Corporate issues.

Minister Cullen said: "Local government is blazing the trail in the public sector on service standards and performance reporting. No other sector has gone so far in sector-wide service indicators, open reporting of performance and independent monitoring and verification of the performance reporting. Local Government continues to forge ahead in its use of new innovative technologies, ahead on many fronts of other parts of the public sector. The Local Government Computer Services Board, with the active support of my Department is a winning formula, advancing the eGovernment agenda in every county.

"Delivering Value for People is a strong and speedy response to customer service modernisation commitments in Sustaining Progress and the focus on the Benchmarking increases which are linked to them," he said.

The Minister underscored this by saying: "The quest for the easy life can too often lead to debates being solely confined to the issue of how much money is provided, rather than on what is being achieved with the funding. The Government has provided record funding across many headings to local authorities. People are entitled to know exactly what they are getting for this investment. For the customers of all 34 local authorities, Delivering Value for People will visibly show how their local services rate."

The Minister said that service indicators build on the modernisation of local government. "It shows how local authorities are committed to being open and transparent to the public on how they perform. It underlines their commitment to value for money, efficiency and effectiveness and it re-emphasises an openness to change and new ways of doing things."

The Minister thanked the Customer Service Group for their report to him on service indicators and looked forward to their next phase of work in further improving customer service in local authorities.