Housing Monthly Diary Archive

Best Value

February 1998
Best Value Bids: Scotland

All Scottish local authorities (as at the end of February 98) had their Best Value bids accepted and were exempt from compulsory competitive tendering for a further year. However, three councils continued to tender out (Argyll and Bute, Aberdeenshire and Orkney).

Glasgow's bid was given conditional approval by the Government, subject to regular monitoring by Calum MacDonald, the Scottish Local Government and Housing Minister.

The West Dumbartonshire bid was also accepted, subject to regular monitoring by Government officials.

October 1998
Association Best Value Pilots Selected

The Housing Corporation announced details of the 23 housing association Best Value pilot schemes, selected from 43 applications. The winning schemes, which in total affect some 220,000 tenants of over 40 registered social landlords, run until April 2000. Some schemes embrace the full activities of an association, whilst others are selective and concentrate on a specific area of activity, such as arrears management, lettings, etc.

The successful pilot bids were:

Anchor Trust (with Guardian Retirement Housing and Liverpool HAT).

Bedfordshire Pilgrims.

Bristol Churches (with Caldmore Area, Family Birmingham, Mosscare, Oxford Citizens and West Country).

Circle 33.

Ealing Family (with Northcote and Fortunegate).

East Dorset.

Eastleigh.

East Thames (with Boleyn and Forest, Focus E15 and East Thames Care).

Grosvenor (with Riverside).

Hermitage (with Hermitage Care and Gorseway Care).

Liverpool Housing Trust.

New Progress.

North British.

North Wiltshire.

Octavia Hill.

Orbit.

Paddington Churches (with Notting Hill, London and Quadrant, Metropolitan and New Islington & Hackney).

Penwith.

Shepherds Bush (with Threshold Tennant, Hexagon, Acton, Look Ahead, Bethnal Green, and Victoria Park).

South Staffordshire.

Tees Valley.

Western Challenge.

West Pennine (with Aksa, North British, Northern Counties and Portico).

October 1998
Best Value - Scotland

Speaking at a Chartered Institute of Housing conference, Scottish Housing Minister Calum MacDonald announced that:

Scottish local authorities would be given exemption from writing annual housing quality plans, as part of a move to minimise bureaucracy in Best Value.

Scottish Homes and housing associations would be invited to be involved in a new forum of tenants and local authorities, charged with monitoring Best Value in Scotland and the involvement of tenants in it. He anticipated the forum meeting up to four times a year and its brief would include development of performance indicators.

December 1998
Best Value Bill Published

The Government launched its Best Value Bill, which set 2nd January 2000 as the date for the abolition of the compulsory competitive tendering regime. After that date, there would be no requirement for local authorities to expose services to competition and Best Value would be introduced in England and Wales four months later.

At the launch, Housing Minister, Hilary Armstrong, pointed to possible savings of more than 10% in the cost of running services as a result of Best Value and called on all local authorities to achieve at least 2% savings each year.

Whilst the launch of the Bill set clear targets for implementation, some of the more detailed important questions would not be answered until secondary legislation was also introduced. The current Bill gave Ministers wide powers to step in when local authorities were identified as failing to provide targets set under Best Value, based on reports submitted by auditors and inspectors, but little detail was given on how inspectors will operate and co-operate with each other.

In Wales, the Secretary of State needs the agreement of the new National Assembly before intervening in the business of failing councils.

December 1998
Audit Commission Issues Practical Guidance

The Audit Commission published a report giving guidance to local authorities, as they prepared for the introduction of the Best Value regime. This was the first of a series of Audit Commission publications and events designed to highlight innovation and best practice and help councils meet the challenges of Best Value. The report aims to give officers and members practical advice in preparation for Best Value, based on feedback from a number of pilot sites. It highlights a number of issues that councils need to address in order to prepare for Best Value, including:

Developing political and managerial arrangements, including the involvement of members and senior managers in decisions at strategic and operational levels, and ensuring that the decision-making structures work effectively to deliver the best services to the community.

Clarifying and communicating corporate priorities effectively to partnership organisations, council staff and the local community.

Establishing objectives that outline what people can expect from services, and when.

Identifying services for review and challenging why and how each service is being provided.

Setting targets and performance indicators - which enable comparisons with other authorities and allow improvements to be tracked.

Enhancing the role of local performance plans to ensure that planning processes are coherent and inclusive of other partner organisations and key audiences.

The report contains a checklist of questions that councils need to ask themselves in order to implement Best Value successfully.

Better By Far: Preparing for Best Value Management Paper (ISBN 1862401292): £25.00: Available from Audit Commission Publications: Freephone 0800 502030.

January 1999
Best Value Update

The Best Value Bill received its Second Reading, with amendments which allow the Housing Corporation a greater role in the inspection of local authority housing departments. Under the amendments, the Audit Commission will be able to involve the Corporation as consultants to the housing inspectorate.

The Audit Commission published Changing Picture, Sharper Focus, which outlines its strategic direction over the coming three years. A key issue identified in the document is the need for the Commission to focus on making a reality of inspection. To this end, the Commission has made plans to undertake a comprehensive review of its inspection function and work with stakeholders to develop its approach. The Commission has already published a consultation paper - Principles of Public Inspection.

The Government published its consultation paper on Best Value, which highlights key expectations of local authorities:

Councils must establish authority-wide objectives and measures for evaluation performance.

Performance targets must be agreed and published as part of an annual performance plan.

A programme of performance reviews for all services must be agreed and stated in the annual performance plan.

The public must be consulted on target setting for service costs and quality.

A new range of Performance Indicators (PIs) for housing under the Best Value regime are not included in the consultation paper, as expected. These are to be published in a second paper, due in July. When published and approved, the new PIs are to replace those already issued by the Audit Commission.

Best Value in Housing Framework: Zone 2/B5, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London, SW1E 5DU: Free.

Note: Integral to the Best Value consultation paper are the proposals for Tenant Participation Compact.

February 1999
Performance Monitoring Needs to Improve

A new Audit Commission report claims that 80% of local authorities do not have the comprehensive set of local targets in place that they will need to comply with Best Value.

From April 2000, local authorities will use locally selected performance indicators, alongside national ones, to set targets and demonstrate improved performance. The report reveals that some authorities are already making good use of performance indicators, and the best are consulting local people before setting performance targets. However, most authorities have a lot of work to do, if they are to have good local performance measures and targets in place, in time for Best Value.

Other findings revealed in the report are:

Many authorities set targets but do not monitor whether or not they are achieved - for example, three-quarters of councils have standards for housing but only half measure whether they actually achieve them.

Only a quarter of councils send information on local service standards and targets directly to residents' homes.

Only 40% of authorities declare that they consult the public before setting service standards and targets.

The report includes nine good practice case studies from local authorities, alongside examples from other parts of the public sector and from private companies. It also includes a step-by-step guide, showing authorities how to set up, or strengthen, local sets of performance targets.

The good practice guide covers:

Why local standards and targets matter.

What type of standards and targets are set now.

How to set realistic but challenging targets.

How to set standards for services outcomes and quality.

How to set inter-agency targets.

How to measure achievement.

How to involve staff, councillors and the public.

A Measure of Success - Setting and Monitoring Local Performance Targets (ISBN 186240462): Audit Commission: Tel. 0800 502030: £15

May 1999
Audit Commission's Inspection Role

The Audit Commission published both the results of its consultation on the principles of public inspection and its draft methodology for Best Value inspections. Key issues from the consultation exercise are:

Most respondents broadly agreed with the principles of inspection and that inspection should be used to inform the public about local services. However, there were concerns about how this would work in practice.

The Audit Commission confirms that it will publish inspection reports and that it will work with authorities to enable them to comment fully.

There was general support for the principle that inspections should focus on services as users experience them.

The Commission confirms that one member of inspection teams will have a specific role in focusing on the user and inspections will focus on how services are delivered on the ground - cutting across traditional boundaries.

A number of respondents emphasised that inspection should support involvement, as well as challenge poor performance.

Whilst Best Value inspections will challenge authorities to improve and will be clear where services are failing, the Commission will strive hard to secure ownership of the findings of inspections.

A number of responses expressed concern that inspection teams should include experts in the service and should be streamlined.

The Audit Commission confirms that inspection teams will include service experts as well as lay inspectors. Further, inspectors will not usually come from a financial audit background.

The key issues of the Audit Commission's draft methodology for Best Value, on which it welcomes comment, are:

Each inspection will take the council's own Best Value review as its starting point - and aim to validate the rigour and challenge of that review.

This establishes a principle of responding to local priorities and recognising that every council and Best Value review may be different, so each inspection will need to be tailored.

The aim of inspection is to challenge whether the council is continuously improving services.

The heart of inspections will be to assess the performance of services as delivered to the public, through observation, seeking users' views, mystery shopping and reality checks on the service.

Performance review, supported by focused reality checks, will be used by inspectors to validate that the council is delivering what it says it is, and assess whether its plans are sufficiently challenging. The depth of inspection will be adjusted to reflect the progress each council has made towards Best Value.

Speaking clearly to residents and service users will be important targets.

The users of services and other stakeholders expect a clear message about whether or not a service is providing Best Value, so a clear overall judgement is needed from the inspectors.

A number of alternative ways to produce and communicate an overall judgement are outlined - including a star rating approach.

Developing Principles for Public Inspection: Consultation Feedback and From Principles to Practice: a Consultation Document: Tel. 0171 828 1212.

May 1999
Recent Publications

Revenues and Benefits in the Best Value Pilots: The Lessons to be Learned from the First Year, available from the Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation. Fax: 0171 831 2048: £15.

Innovation and Good Practice: Themes and Priorities - Projects in Progress - being a database of projects which are either completed or currently under way under the Housing Corporation's Innovation and Good Practice programme. It is either available from the Housing Corporation - 149 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0BN - or on the Innovation and Good Practice website, which is accessed at http://helios.bre.co.uk/igp.

July 1999
Inspectorate Forum Launched

The Government launched a new forum to oversee the smooth running of Best Value inspections. Inspections check that efficient, high quality services are being delivered to people under the new Best Value regime, which comes into force on 1st April 2000.

The new Best Value Inspectorate Forum for England:

Acts as a focus for the work of different inspectorates, allowing greater co-operation and scope for a more flexible approach.

Enables better communication between local authorities, inspectorates and central government.

Shares best practice between inspectorates.

The Best Value Inspectorate Forum is made up of the heads of the separate inspectorates and is to meet at least twice a year.

July 1999
Report Lists Weaknesses

A new report published by the Audit Commission sets out the challenges facing local authorities if they are to achieve Best Value from their resources and deliver quality services to local people. It identifies the key areas of service planning where current weaknesses may hamper councils from producing effective Best Value performance plans.

Key findings include:

Many councils do not have clear objectives - over 55% of staff do not clearly understand their authority's overall objectives.

Community consultation is vital in establishing priorities and targeting services. Whilst 80% of finance directors agree that community consultation should be an important consideration in setting council budgets, over 50% of the same group admit that such considerations are absent in practice.

The process of reviewing services to identify improvements needs to be adequately resourced. However, less than half of councils have medium-term financial plans that identify the resources available for Best Value reviews.

To demonstrate Best Value, local authorities must be able to demonstrate year-on-year improvement against targets that focus on the issues that matter to local people. However, 45% of senior officers admit that their authority does not set outcome targets to assess progress towards local priorities.

The paper makes recommendations to help councils ensure that their service and financial planning will meet the demands of Best Value. It emphasises that change will only be effective where all staff and members are involved in achieving improvements.

Planning to Succeed: Service and Financial Planning in Local Government is part of a series of Audit Commission publications and events designed to highlight innovation and good practice. It is available from the Audit Commission - Freephone: 0800 502030; price £15.

September 1999
Best Value Website

The department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions launched a new website, which brings information on Best Value to one point of access. The website includes information on everything from the pilot programmes and legislation to Best Value plans, reviews and inspection.

New information and publications on Best Value are added to the site as they become available. The interactive EU procurement page enables local authorities to complete electronically their annual returns on contracts let and to e-mail them back to the DETR.

The site can be accessed at www.local-regions.detr.gov.uk/bestvalue/bvindex.htm.

September 1999
Consultation on Best Value and PIs Launched

New proposed guidance on how councils should overhaul their services and set new targets was published, together with a draft set of new national Performance Indicators. Both are the subject of wide-ranging consultation exercises.

The first consultation paper - Implementing Best Value: A Consultation Paper on Draft Guidance - sets out key guiding principles, which councils would be expected to follow in carrying out Best Value reviews and preparing performance plans. The paper also sets out non-statutory guidance on a range of related matters, including the role of audit and inspection and the need to follow Best Value procurement practices.

The second paper - Performance Indicators for 2000/2001 - is a joint production from the Government and the Audit Commission. It sets out the proposed national Performance Indicators which will underpin the whole Best Value framework, together with other Indicators to which the Audit Commission attaches importance. These Indicators will measure local authorities on a range of key issues, including:

The proportion of homelessness applications dealt with promptly.

The speed at which Benefit claims are processed.

The paper gives a specific warning to local authorities about the urgent need to improve performance in their Housing Benefit departments, with Indicators specific to processing time, accuracy of calculations and performance in recovering overpayments. This reflects growing dissatisfaction with the performance levels in processing Housing Benefit claims, highlighted by the recent move by London housing associations in identifying poor performing councils. The national Indicators cover all key local services and they are drafted to embrace cost and quality, as well as customer satisfaction.

It was also revealed that the Housing Corporation would be publishing a new set of Performance Indicators, that are common to both the housing association and local authority sectors. Indicators that are specific to one sector only will be retained but the move is certain to fuel further doubts on the long-term need for two housing regulators.

Copies of both papers are available free from the DETR, Tel: 0870 1226 236, or from the new Best Value website (see above).

December 1999
Audit Commission's Best Value Role

The Audit Commission revealed further details on how it is developing its work on promoting improvement and spreading best practice across the public services. Following on from the principles set out in its strategy document, Changing Picture, Sharper Focus, a new report, Best Assured, outlines how the Commission will carry out its new roles and responsibilities under Best Value.

The report describes how the Commission's appointed auditors will provide assurance on authorities' Best Value Performance Plans (BVPPs), and explains how the Commission will co-ordinate its audit and inspection work. Key points include:

Audit reports on authorities' Best Value Performance Plans - to be issued by 30th June - will be the first public, independent judgements on how well authorities are tackling Best Value.

Under the Local Government Act 1999, Ministers have wide-ranging powers to intervene where local services are failing. Auditors' reports and inspectors' recommendations will be one of the objective triggers for Government intervention.

The inspection service will be managed through four regions in England and an office in Wales. There will be a single lead inspector for every authority, who will agree the annual programme of inspections and co-ordinate inspection teams.

Best Assured is available free of charge from the Audit Commission's Helpline on 0171 828 1212, and also at the Audit Commission's website at http://www.audit-commission.gov.uk.

January 2000
Best Value Guidance Published

The Best Value in Housing Framework publication was launched by junior Housing Minister, Chris Mullin. With less than three months before Best Value was to become a legal reality, the framework document provided councils with guidance on how the statutory framework for Best Value applies to their housing functions and highlights important issues to consider. It provided a commentary on, and is set within the context of, the overall (service-wise) framework and guidance for Best Value. The framework also included an explanatory section, produced in partnership with the Audit Commission, outlining the role of the Housing Inspectorate.

Also published by DETR was Best Value in Housing: A Guide to Tenants and Residents. This provides straightforward information on what Best Value is, the responsibilities of councils within Best Value, the way in which local authorities will be monitored and the way that tenants will be involved through Tenant Participation Compacts.

In a separate development, the Housing Inspectorate announced that it was seeking to recruit and train tenants to an accredited standard, so that they can be involved in housing teams as part of the Audit Commission's Best Value regional inspection service. It is intended that each team will include a tenant representative, although that person can not be involved in inspecting her/his own landlord.

January 2000
Corporation Consults on PI Framework

The Housing Corporation issued a consultation paper on the development of the published Performance Indicator (PI) framework for registered social landlords under the Best Value regime. The consultation paper addresses three principal themes:

Best Value PIs and the implications of adopting the DETR proposals.

The introduction of PIs specific to supported housing.

The introduction of new or amended PIs, replacing others where appropriate.

Following the publication of joint proposals by the DETR and the Audit Commission for Best Value PIs for councils to apply from April 2000, the Corporation had been working with the DETR to introduce indicators which, for the first time, will enable direct comparison between relevant RSL and local authority housing activities. Whilst the introduction of Best Value PIs is the focus of the consultation paper, the opportunity was also taken by the Corporation to consult on other developments within the PI framework. This included proposals for PIs specific to supported housing. The current PI framework has evolved largely with general needs stock in mind, whilst supported housing has either been excluded from the data collected or included by default.

Performance Indicator Framework for Registered Social Landlords had a consultation period of 8 weeks from its issue date of 21st January 2000. For further information - Tel: 020 7393 2228.

February 2000
Report Outlines Inspection Service

The new Best Value inspection service for local government was revealed by the Audit Commission in a report, which sets improvement in local services at the top of the agenda. The report explains how the inspection service will work and what it will be like to be inspected. It describes what the inspection service and the authority will be doing at each stage of the inspection.

Key messages from the report are:

The intensity of inspection will vary depending upon the nature of the services being reviewed and the quality of an authority's own Best Value review.

Authorities will be judged on how well they are currently providing a service, on a rating from nil to three stars, and on how likely the service is to improve.

Inspection reports will show how the services inspected compare with those of other authorities, or with different services within the same authority. Recommendations will be made to help the authority achieve Best Value.

In most cases, authorities will be given an opportunity to address failure or improve services. Inspectors will undertake a programme of follow-up inspections each year, to review whether progress has been made.

Under Best Value, the Secretary of State has powers to intervene in cases of service failure. The Commission will refer an authority to the Secretary of State in the cases of serious service failures that expose the public to risk, persistent failure to address inspection recommendations, or failures in a number of services revealing serious weaknesses in an authority's corporate capacity.

A separate report, explaining how inspection will be carried out in Wales, was to be published following discussion and consultation with the National Assembly for Wales, the Best Value Inspectorate Forum for Wales and the Welsh Best Value Project Group.

Seeing is Believing: How the Audit Commission Will Carry Out Best Value Inspections in England (free of charge). Audit Commission - Tel: 0171 396 1494.

February 2000
Best Value Regional Directors Appointed

The Audit Commission appointed the five Regional Directors, who will lead the Best Value inspection service across England and Wales. Two hundred and fifty applications were received for the Director posts, who will head the inspection regional offices covering the North (Leeds), Central (Leicester), London, Southern (Bristol) and Wales (Cardiff).

Details of the appointments were as follows:

Darra Singh: Regional Director for the North. He joins the Commission from Hexagon HA, where he is Chief Executive overseeing 3,000 homes.

Paul Kirby: Regional Director for the Central region. He is Corporate Director for the Highways and Planning Department at Lincolnshire County Council.

Andrew Webster: Regional Director for London. He moves from directing the joint reviews of social services, which gave him a central role in developing the review process and creating its customer focus.

Peter Wylie: Regional Director for the Southern region. He is Director of Education at Knowsley Borough Council.

Stephen Nott: Regional Director for Wales. He was formerly Chief Executive of Wychavon District Council.

February 2000
Corporation Issues Discussion Paper

The Housing Corporation took the first steps in its regulation revolution with the publication of new proposals which challenge Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) to put Best Value at the heart of their services to tenants. The proposals are set out in a discussion paper - RSLs - Next Steps in Best Value and Performance Reporting.

In the paper, the Corporation sets out the debate in four key areas:

Trends in performance data, relating to the Corporation's current performance standards.

Options for further publicising Performance Indicator (PI) data.

The review of the Corporation's Performance Standards framework.

The advancement of the Best Value agenda within RSLs.

At the time, the Corporation had established 23 Best Value pilots involving over 50 RSLs. Now, building on an analysis of RSLs' approaches towards implementing Best Value undertaken by the University of Birmingham, the Corporation is developing a ranking method to enable RSLs to receive feedback on their Best Value approaches for the future.

Under the proposals, the Corporation will also be requesting RSLs to submit a Performance Plan each year, covering a range of issues, so that their progress on Best Value can be ranked.

A copy of the discussion paper is available free from the Corporation - Tel: 0171 393 2151. It can also be downloaded from the Corporation's website at www.housingcorp.gov.uk.

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