Written - All Wales Local Government Performance Data 2008-09

At 9.00am today, 1 October 2009, the Local Government Data Unit – Wales will publish comprehensive and verified data on local authority performance in 2008-09. The Unit will also publish a Statistical Bulletin, which will provide a clear and accessible analysis of the data and will enable citizens to consider their authority’s performance.  

I welcome today’s publication of the 2008-09 local government performance data and the fourth annual release of the accompanying statistical bulletin. We should all consider this data important. It provides a wide range information about the standard of services provided by local authorities.

In the first instance local councils are responsible and accountable for their own performance.  The services that this data represents have a massive impact on peoples lives.  In many case these are services which we take for granted and only notice when they are not there or not working well.

Local authorities need to use this data to track their performance over time, to identify areas where they are not performing as well as they could, and to take the necessary actions to improve.  The Assembly Government has provided all local authorities with a unique performance management software system, Ffynnon, completely free of charge to allow them to do this more effectively.  We expect our local authorities to take maximum advantage of it.

This year’s data once again demonstrates that local authorities are, in the main, providing good quality services and there is year-on-year improvement in the majority of service areas. Of the performance indicators that are comparable with last year almost two thirds show an improvement across Wales.

There is much that is positive in today’s release.  However, although the standard of performance continues to improve there is still considerable variation among services within and between authorities.  We are determined to work with local authorities to drive through improvement in areas in which they are not doing so well and the new Local Government Measure will help in this regard.

Under the New Local Government Improvement Measure, Welsh Authorities will be required to publicly account for their performance in a new way.  We want to make sure that local authorities are focused on delivering real outcomes for their citizens.  Moving to an accountability model focusing on outcomes for the citizen rather than on resource based input measures will help to address these issues.  

It will provide a better opportunity to give account of their performance in context of the new, wider, definition of improvement in terms of what works for citizens, families and communities.

To support this, the Welsh Assembly Government will move towards agreeing a smaller number of performance indicators that best track the delivery of the council’s contribution to the Assembly Government’s strategic priorities. The Welsh Local Government Association will become responsible  for collecting  and maintaining a wider set of performance measures that will be for Welsh councils alone to decide.

This new arrangement will be centred around the development of outcome agreements with local authorities as well as a new relationship which will reward service improvements by providing increased flexibility in funding arrangements.

The move towards Outcome Agreements as a development of the existing Improvement Agreements also reflects the spirit of the Local Government Measure.  They will allow local authorities to focus on issues that matter locally while also contributing to our national strategic agenda.   It will provide us with the opportunity to meet the challenges of prioritising limited resources, whilst at the same time improving services, and helping deliver the services to the standards that citizens and we both aspire.  

I recognise that a wide range of influences affect service quality and only some of these are under a local authority’s control.  However, there is no room for complacency. We will continue to work with local authorities, urging them to use this performance data to understand and respond effectively to the challenges facing them.  In meeting this challenge local authorities must be willing to share information, to learn from each other and work in partnership to drive up standards and better deliver to their citizens.

This data shows broadly based and sustainable improvement in the vast majority of indicators. I would like to thank all those colleagues in councils across Wales for their hard work and dedication in continuing to provide these vital front line services.