Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
(): The Department for
Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is today
establishing the Office for Local Government (Oflog) and
publishing new Best Value Guidance for consultation.
Oflog is a new performance body focused on local government in
England. It will provide authoritative and accessible data and
analysis about the performance of local government, and support
its improvement.
By collating, analysing, and publishing existing data about the
relative performance of councils, it will help councillors and
the public have the information they need to scrutinise more
effectively local decisions; it will ensure council leaders can
compare themselves against their peers and find examples of good
practice to learn from; and it will allow central government and
its partners to identify where there might be challenges and a
need to step in to give support, where appropriate.
Oflog will improve the transparency of local government
performance by publishing data in a clear and accessible way on
the new Local Authority Data Explorer. Initially this includes a
subset of service areas for data - adult skills, adult social
care, finance, and waste management. These service areas will be
expanded to cover the breadth of what local authorities do, and
the initial metrics will be improved over time.
Local authorities have a critical role in providing essential
services and building stronger communities. Oflog will recognise
and celebrate the local authorities who do this best – making
sure that those local leaders get the credit they deserve and
showcase the best in class so others can learn from them. Where
local authorities are identified as at risk of potential failure,
Oflog will convene dialogues between local authorities and expert
local leaders to explore the issues in more detail. In parallel,
Oflog will consider performance in areas with devolution deals so
that it can reflect their progress.
The Government believes that giving local leaders increased
freedoms creates improved outcomes, but we have heard from
colleagues that devolution needs to be matched with
accountability. Given the scale of ambition of our devolution
programme it is right that we have the appropriate checks and
balances in the system. Oflog will work closely with DLUHC and
local partners, particularly the mayoral combined authorities, to
make sure that the outcome metrics used are the most appropriate
for holding devolved areas and their leaders to account for their
performance.
Oflog is not an attempt to micro-manage councils or establish an
expensive compliance regime, nor will it require box-ticking or
filling in forms. This is not about recreating the Audit
Commission.
To give greater clarity to local authorities – and help to
identify potential failures – we are also launching a
consultation into new statutory guidance on what constitutes Best
Value, and the standards authorities are expected to meet by
government and residents.
This new guidance sets out seven themes of good practice for
running an authority to secure continuous improvement and provide
value for money. These include the characteristics of a
well-functioning local authority and those used to identify
challenges that could indicate failure.
The guidance also sets out the models of statutory and
non-statutory intervention available when standards are not
upheld. We will publish the final guidance after the department
considers the results of the consultation.
Further information on Oflog can be found on the Oflog Gov.uk website(opens in a
new tab) which contains the policy document, ‘Office for
Local Government – Understanding and Supporting Local Government
Performance’ and link to the Local Authority Data Explorer.
Further information on the Best Value guidance can be found on
the Gov.Uk website.
