11 June 2004
All local public services should be scrutinised by 'select committees' of councillors to ensure that unelected bodies are held accountable to the public, a think-tank has recommended.
The Local Government Information Unit suggests that authorities' current powers to scrutinise health authorities should be extended to other organisations such as police forces and job centres.
In addition, it says these bodies should have a statutory duty to co-operate with scrutiny activities.
LGIU policy officer Dick Sorabji told Public Finance that the think-tank envisages a committee-based system that takes written and oral evidence, along the lines of parliamentary select committees.
'The success of the model depends on the effectiveness of the questions asked. Any system that hauls people in and tells them how badly they're doing is going to fail,' he said.
'But committees can take an overview of how public service bodies are delivering outcomes, and ask how it could be done better. We would expect them to look at issues where there is likely to be a local authority role as well.'
The LGIU made its call in A charter for local democracy, published on June 7, with which it will lobby the main parties in the run-up to the next general election, widely expected to be in 2005.
There should also be a shift of emphasis from national inspection regimes to collective self-regulation within local government, the charter adds.
All authorities ought to be allowed to experiment with outcome-based user satisfaction surveys as an alternative to national assessments.
In addition, councils that pass a test of performance management excellence, as devised by local government, should undergo peer reviews rather than external inspection.
This would involve a council's internal performance management regime being assessed by a team of senior colleagues from other authorities.
Sorabji said the proposals would help to sharpen the focus on service improvements. 'A side effect of national inspection is that the mandatory data can get in the way of focusing on delivery,' he said.
'This could be a way of cutting to the chase and measuring how a council is meeting the public's expectations.'
PFjun2004
