Public Services Improvement Conference

Thursday 24 November 2011

Benchmarking and Transparency

Ronnie Hinds,

SOLACE (Scotland)

PURPOSE

• Drive improvement• Increase efficiency• Raise service quality• Make best practice ‘viral’• Strengthen accountability

INDICATORS

• Relevant to services and to councils• Unambiguous and clearly understood• Underpinned by timely data• Accessible with clear guidelines on their

application• Statistically and methodologically robust• Consistently applied across services and councils• Cost effective to collect

BENCHMARKING

• Indicators are ‘can openers’• Policy and other contexts• Relationship between benefits and costs• Family groups• Integral to self evaluation

REPORTING

• Public and transparent• Local context• Consistent presentation

NATIONAL

LOCAL

FINAL DESTINATION?