How can you inject added value into local government?

Value in local government is a pretty anorak-ish theme and will remain so unless it results in greater and genuine citizen and community empowerment. Measuring hundreds of service inputs is meaningless unless they are real predictors of changes in the public perception of performance.

Performance measurement itself justifies the existence of the measurers, thus adding to both the cost of the service and to the distance between citizens and the providers. A principal objective of public sector procurers should be to transfer as much performance management as possible to citizens and thus replace the army of monitors. There are, of course, limits on the capacity of citizens at any particular time, but well-publicised service standards help enormously.

A case in point is wheeled-bin refuse collection, where the service is pretty foolproof compared to the old and messy sack and bin systems. Why shouldn't citizens manage the contractor's performance in such a simple service directly, with the power to have the council withhold the relevant portion of their council tax to the provider on their behalf? This would be a powerful lever for improved performance when aggregated across a service provided to the whole community.

The keys to this approach are: turning services into a series of direct transactions between citizens and a provider, widely-known service standards; the council having an aggregating rather than a measuring role; and sufficient e-systems to bring it all about.

Direct engagement between providers and the citizens they serve might persuade the latter that they have an active rather than a passive stake in their communities, and thus lead to an improved image for the (changed) local authorities themselves.

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