Scottish Authorities redefine service delivery performance measurement

Aspiren, Civica and Computacenter consortium awarded £1.5 million contract by ten councils to develop performance management framework

29 November 2004, East Lothian … A group of ten Scottish local authorities led by East Lothian Council has announced a three year project to establish a framework for measuring workloads and improving their performance in service delivery.

The project has received funding from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) along with a number of other local authority projects working to develop products that will bring about improvements in the administration of housing and council tax benefits.

The local authorities have awarded a £1.5m contract to develop the Performance Management Framework to a consortium comprising performance management consultants Aspiren, local government software and services provider Civica, and IT services and infrastructure provider Computacenter.

The Performance Management Framework will assess how well the councils deliver housing and council tax benefits using key performance indicators that measure areas such as the responsiveness and accuracy of their service delivery. Further to this, these indicators will be linked to the performance standards and best practices published by the DWP.

Analysing and reporting performance is an integral part of effective service delivery but can be a huge burden for local authorities, especially when data is distributed across a variety of sources. Additionally, regular workload management information returns are required by DWP, and getting these right is all important as the subsidies paid to local authorities are calculated on the basis of these returns.

The Performance Management Framework will enable managers within the ten Scottish councils to gain greater visibility into performance and reduce the reporting burden, whilst reassuring authorities that DWP is given accurate information about their performance and workloads. These councils will be able to benchmark their activity with other authorities and then work together to address performance issues and find common solutions.

Councillor Norman Murray, Leader of East Lothian Council, said, “We are driving this project because gaining a true picture of our performance as a council is essential in improving services to local citizens, increasing our decision making power and delivering against the targets that we are set.”

The Framework will include the implementation of performance measurement processes based on defined key performance indicators, and software designed to automate the processes and reporting procedure. Following the pilot phase, the solution has the potential to be extended to other local authorities and regions and to address other council areas beyond housing benefits.

Chris Knighton, CEO, Aspiren, said, “The Performance Framework is about helping councils understand where they are, where they want to be, and how they are going to get there, by optimising the performance of the resources they have available to them.”

Paul Tonks, managing director, Civica Systems, said, “Councils are often forced into a balancing act of meeting central government requirements while addressing internal effectiveness. In doing so they must have automated processes for integrating, analysing and reporting data to meet all of these requirements.”

Andy Purvis, Director of Computacenter Scotland, commented, “IT systems can help government organisations simplify performance management, but it is essential that the right technologies and processes are implemented at the outset. By working as a consortium, we are able to provide all the necessary skills and resources for the project, and deliver a seamless, cost-effective service to the customer.”

Notes to Editors
The following 10 Scottish local authorities are involved in the Performance Management Pilot Project Consortium.

East Lothian Council
Scottish Borders Council
Midlothian Council
West Lothian Council
North Lanarkshire Council
East Ayrshire Council
North Ayrshire Council
East Renfrewshire Council
Renfrewshire Council
Dundee City Council

About Aspiren
Aspiren (www.aspiren.com) specialises in performance management consulting and technology solutions. The organisation has deployed some of Europe’s largest performance management frameworks with multi-million pound benefit profiles. This experience, coupled with Financial Times publications and delivering Mastercourses for the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), positions Aspiren firmly at the forefront of the UK’s performance management arena. A key differentiator is Aspiren’s Aspireview performance management tool. Hosted and delivered on an Application Service Provision (ASP) basis over the internet, it is deployed on-demand and therefore avoids the need for complex and expensive performance management IT installations, reducing both cost and risk, and accelerating the value from Performance Management initiatives.

About Civica plc
The Civica group (www.civica.co.uk), which includes Radius, is one of the UK’s most experienced providers of consulting, software systems and managed services to the public sector. The company has a 20-year history of supplying local government, police, healthcare, criminal justice and education organisations in the UK, Australia and the USA. UK customers include approximately 75 per cent of local authorities, 47 of the 53 police forces, more than 250 NHS Trusts and over 30 Local Education Authorities, while in Australia the group is one of the leading local government software suppliers. Civica Services Ltd is an approved prime contractor for software in the GCat government procurement catalogue. Overall the company employs approximately 550 people and has a recent track record of profits growth.

About Computacenter
Computacenter is Europe’s leading independent provider of IT infrastructure services. To help our customers maximise the value of IT to their businesses, we offer services at every stage of infrastructure investment. We can advise customers on their IT strategy, implement the most appropriate technology from a wide range of leading vendors and manage elements of their technology infrastructures on their behalf. At every stage we help them minimise the cost and maximise the business value of their IT expenditure. Our corporate and government clients are served by a network of branch offices across the UK, Germany, France, Austria, Luxembourg and Belgium and, through our international partners, at locations across the globe. For more information, go to www.computacenter.com.

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