KNOWLEDGE HUB: CONNECT, COLLABORATE,

LEARN AND INNOVATE CONFERENCE:

1st March 2011

www.local.gov.uk/inform

Transparency, Data and ProductivityGeorge Garlick: Chief Executive

Durham

1. Transparency: The Immediate TaskFor Local Government

Commitment to:• January publication of:

– £500+ spend data (all but 1 councils have or will shortly publish)

– Senior salaries (most councils have published)– Contracts over £500 ((just getting to grips with this

one)• Initially, injunction don’t let best be enemy of the good

but subsequent shift to wanting ‘machine readable’ format (ref. Government Transparency Guidelines).

• Underscored by (Central) Government Public Data Principles.

2. The Immediate Task For Local Government

Is this proving difficult:• Practicalities vary depending on systems, but achievable• Issues around:

– Achieving comparability and consistent data quality: e.g. potential for using CIPFA categories for spend data.

– Helping others make sense of the information– Ensuring security of personal data and certain types of

confidential data;– Fraud protection: conflicting views and still to be resolved – Pragmatic details for example who is named in publishing salaries

and related data.• Practitioner help available from the Local Government Group:

http://lgtransparency.readandcomment.com

• Also a Local Open Data community of practice

3. So is this the end of that story?

No:• There well be a legislative basis to the local

transparency agenda with extensions to Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations; and

• A current consultation on a ‘Code of ‘Recommended’ Practice under Section 2(11) of the Local Government, Land and Planning Act 1980 ref publication of information by local authorities about the discharge of their functions and other matters – a significant extension to the range of data and information to be open and public, includes performance.

4. Where is this headed?

Underlying this:• A different form of accountability: less top down and

target driven.

• More about direct accountability to citizens with armchair auditors as catalysts.

• Driven initially by concern to reduce spend and encourage challenge through scrutiny and question, but….

5. Where is this headed?

Scope for:• Developing the accountability agenda: opening up performance and helping local politicians tell the local story;

•Using data and information to support participatory as well as elective democracy – e.g. involving people in decisions about where and what to cut as budgets are reduced (e.g. the London Borough of Redbridge experience).

•Using information as an enabler for Big Society: the process of shifting the balance between state / citizen and unlocking creativity: helping people do it for themselves.

6. But some challenges in doing this…

• Shifting mindsets and culture away from accepted notions of confidentiality and the use of statistics, whilst recognising the role for example of:– Data standards, e.g. for comparability purposes; yet– Creating space for ‘mashups’ and experimentation.

• Fostering innovation at a time of austerity: e.g. generating the market for ‘applications’ – not just an developer activity: this should inform public service behaviour, e.g. real time provision of service information and citizen engagement / feedback;

7. Productivity: the Other Side of the Challenge

Local government is experiencing substantial cuts which challenges us to re-assess how local government and local public services manage and report on performance, and at the same time, do so transparently. The Productivity agenda is supporting this through sector led development of systematic approaches to assess productivity and unit cost to give timely, robust, and comparable data to:

• Inform service performance and corporate overheads, support self assessment, drive savings and improve efficiency;• Offer a means to support challenge, e.g. from elected members; and • Contribute to benchmarking, and help stimulate public scrutiny, e.g. by offering quicker and user friendly citizen access to data, recognising that transparency is more than publishing spend data but a shift to greater and more open accountability to citizens and customers.

8. Productivity: What Are We Delivering?

• Through the Local Government Group, we will offer a free of charge place for councils to lodge data providing:– Access to tools to systematically examine productivity and cost– Easy access to demographic and socio-economic data– On-line means to share experience– Access to analytical expertise

• A facility to share and compare key data:– Efficiency and productivity metrics– Citizen satisfaction– Outcome and achievement measures

• Help in offering citizens meaningful access to performance data.

• Use the Knowledge Hub as a platform.

9. How Will This Work?• Voluntary;

• A service to and for councils (not re-creating the previous centralized system);

• Potential for council cost savings by reducing overheads in managing data, but doesn’t stop councils using consultants if they wish.

• Currently working in in depth with a number of councils and aim to launch the first stage in Spring of this year in what we see as a 2 – 3 year project.

• If you want to know more contact: juliet.whitworth@local,gov.uk

Question to explore

10. The Model: An Aid to Decision Making

Monitor chosen metrics

• “How am I performing” “How do I compare?”

Explore productivity drivers

“How can I identify where to make improvements?”

0

5

10

My council versusPeers, £’000

My metric over time, £’000

Understand in context

Driver A

1 2 3

• Council leader or service leader selects summary metrics they want to monitor

• Then click problem area to see progress over time and comparison to other councils

• Then explore drivers of performance by combining metrics

Driver B

Driver C

Driver D Driver E Driver F

ActionData

Take action to improve

“What actions should I take?”

4

• Use insight to improve decision making and help take action

Example of user path from headline metrics down to analysis

Case StudyCase Study

InsightInsight

11. The tool will continue to develop over time using Local Government Group platform as the basis

Spring 2011

Spring 2012Launch targets

• Metrics and data

• Functionality and tools

• Transparency and activity

– Core, comparable metrics for council and services available

– National demographic and contextual data available

– Best-practice and case study ‘wikis’ start to be available

– Basic citizen feedback function in place

– Basic analysis capability

– Raw data available for 3rd party analysis

– Sufficient ‘mass of councils participating

– Further outcomes metrics available for all service lines

– New user satisfaction data available

– Further demographic / other data functions available

– e-improvement network with knowledge base

– More sophisticated analytic tools offered

– Real-time data available where possible

– Public facing dashboards available for use in council websites

– Substantial number of councils taking part

12. Conclusions

• Transparency and productivity are an unfolding story requiring a shift in culture within the public sector.

• But, we must make it work for citizens.

• Potential to be driver for innovation in public services.

• Remembering the Martha Lane-Fox point about digital being a 21st century element to literacy: we mustn’t forget the 10% who aren’t connected and find ways to draw them in.