New Govt taking away our right to know how badly Council is performing

[Cyclone]

I don't think this is the best example to support your viewpoint.

 

Surely in times of austerity, we should be fed more information about areas like Council Tax collection as this directly affects us all.

 

Spend extra money on reporting of things that we can find out for ourselves anecdotally... Genius, what a brilliant austerity measure.

[LibertyBell]

It certainly does. I've worked in a department in local government which produced information to show how good or bad we were at meeting government targets. That department (and others like it) has expanded noticeably over the last few years, and I'm not convinced that the quality of services has improved to a level that would make the extra costs worthwhile.

 

I'd suggest that those are the departments that might be reduced in size with little or no pain to the public. Don't get me wrong, local authorities do need to be accountable - and they need to listen to the people they serve - but do we need to have access to innumerable targets? How many people actually scrutinise their local council websites or publications to check how well they are doing? We know if our children aren't being educated or our bins aren't being emptied.

 

It is absurd that whole teams of people are appointed at public expense simply to measure and report what the council is doing. The better you can present and manipulate the stats, the more stars or whatever you get.

 

Councils focus on hitting the mark for star ratings rather than actually improving services.

 

I would support any moves to reduce this unnecessary bureaucracy.

[Tony]

You are so right. It seems that the only beneficiaries of the data is the government of the day. Through it they can present their own version of 'facts' at a time of their choosing while micromanaging the minutia of the lives of citizens, business and community.

 

The people receiving and carrying out the service are best placed to know the truth and SF is full of anecdotal evidence if you need some evidence of that (cost to taxpayer, £0.00).

 

This isn't just about cutting costs, it is about reallocating scarce resources to where they are really needed. We do not need endless departments telling us what we already know while developing whole new strata of intelligentsia double speak.

 

It is insulting to the service providers to insist that they need a league table to improve their results - the devastating cuts we now need are motivator enough to eke out as much as possible from their diminishing budgets. It's great that they will be able to look at new ideas, new methods and new practices without having the fear of instant failure and public humiliation chipping away at their talent.

 

Thank goodness that yet more pointless bureaucracy is being removed to allow folk to be transferred to doing something worthwhile for us and more fulfilling for them.

[Vague_Boy]

No, no, no. What you need is a Service Perfomance Assessment Officer to rate it on Key Performance Indicators, then you need an Assessment Validation Officer to check it, before it is passed on to the Performance Management Department where it is added to all the other performance stats and finally signed off by the Beacon Council Performance Grading Executive. The findings then passed to a Council Performance Review Commission to find out why they accidentally missed your bin once this year.

 

I very much fear that Titanic99 would think this is a sensible way of doing things. He does seem to be a bit of a big government enthusiast.

 

He's a bit lacking in hard facts when it come to to the question of where the money is going to come from to pay for it all though.

 

 

Surely in times of austerity, we should be fed more information about areas like Council Tax collection as this directly affects us all.

 

Fine. Who's going to pay for it?

[vResistance]

I can't believe so many people just accept we are treated the way we are.

The fact "we"gave any power over to EU was an act of treason.

so all those that allowed it and continue to allow it are guilty of treason.

We might as well of lost WW2,at least we'd have a better football team.

[mj.scuba]

I can't believe so many people just accept we are treated the way we are.

The fact "we"gave any power over to EU was an act of treason.

so all those that allowed it and continue to allow it are guilty of treason.

We might as well of lost WW2,at least we'd have a better football team.

 

Think you're on the wrong thread mate

[llamatron]

I believe titanic 99 has been well and truly disagreed with!

[Rupert_Baehr]

Think you're on the wrong thread mate

 

Do you mean ... it isn't a conspiracy?

[mj.scuba]

I believe titanic 99 has been well and truly disagreed with!

 

I do hope the government don't do a u-turn and decide to keep all these bean counters, because then we'll be in for a thread titled "New Government to pay statisticians instead of treating the sick", another Titanic special.

[ricgem2002]

I believe titanic 99 has been well and truly disagreed with!

why:huh:just because some people disagree with him dosnt make it right. he beleives in what he thinks is right the same applies to you he could say the same about you