The improvement of public services is a major theme of government policy, embracing better performance management, organisational reform, new working practices and cultures, greater use of e-services and new forms of service delivery.
The Local Government White Paper (2006) signalled a new emphasis on place – and excellent community leadership, governance and performance management are fundamental for success. Local Area Agreements (LAAs), Multi-Area Agreements, and the transition from Comprehensive Performance Assessment to Comprehensive Area Assessment, as well the implications of the Sub-National Review 2007, mean the scope for councils and their partners to join up on this complex delivery agenda present both opportunities and challenges.
SQW works with central, regional and local government clients to evaluate new approaches to public service delivery and to identify practical and deliverable changes to enhance effectiveness. Our work explores how public services can become more responsive to local needs through more active engagement of service users and communities, including development of new mechanisms for local and neighbourhood involvement and governance.
SQW also has considerable experience of supporting clients to find constructive ways to manage change in their strategy and delivery environment and to seek improvements and efficiencies in how they run their organisations.
Examples of SQW projects
National Evaluation of Local Area Agreements and Local Strategic Partnerships
SQW is part of the national consortium undertaking the longitudinal three-year evaluation of Local Area Agreements and Local Strategic Partnerships on behalf of Communities and Local Government. The evaluation covers ten specific research areas including surveys, case-studies and action learning sets. It includes consultations with senior partners from across LSPs including the public, private and voluntary sectors, and involves reviewing the LAA development process and comparing experiences between LAA rounds.
Research to Inform the Management and Governance of Children’s Centres
The children’s centre concept was promoted in the Childcare Review (November 2002). This concluded that an integrated approach, ensuring the joining up of services and disciplines such as education, care, family support and health, is a key factor in determining good outcomes for children. The purpose of the research was to provide information on the different governance and management structures and arrangements already in place – both locally and at local authority level; and identify those approaches and features that were seemingly successful at that stage.
Integrating Parish Plans into the Wider Systems for Local Government
SQW was appointed by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to carry out a study of how well parish plans had been integrated into the mainstream of local government and local service delivery. The study was informed by a series of scoping interviews with national-level stakeholders, a literature review of neighbourhood and parish working and 14 case studies from a mix of areas across England. The report highlighted a series of critical success factors and barriers to mainstreaming parish plans and outlined recommendations for central and local government and parish council.
LAA Case Studies
We produced a set of case studies for the IDeA Partnership and Places library on innovation and improved performance on climate change and clean and green service issues.
Fiscal Incentives to Reduce Household & Business Carbon Emissions
SQW was commissioned by the Local Government Association to explore the existing and potential range of fiscal powers available to local authorities and how these can be applied to achieve carbon reductions at the level of households and businesses. Measure such as Council Tax, Business Rates, parking charges, personal carbon allowances, carbon trading and a variety of grant scheme options were examined in detail. The carbon reduction impact and revenue/cost implications were established at a national (England and Wales), local authority and individual dwelling levels.
Corporate Plan Performance Framework
SQW was commissioned by AWM to provide support to the agency in developing and implementing a programme-based approach to the organisation and performance management of its activities. The work involved a significant change management exercise to first develop programme specifications, logic chains and monitoring and evaluation procedures, and then roll-out the new approach to corporate management team, other senior staff and wider agency officers.
Review of London Councils’ Grant Making Process
SQW was commissioned by London Councils to review the effectiveness of their commissioning process for their voluntary sector grants programme (£28 million per year disbursed to 350 groups). The review included: a desk-based review of existing data and information held by London Councils; scoping consultations with stakeholders including representatives from voluntary and community sector organisations and elected members; an e-survey, telephone consultations and focus groups with voluntary and community sector organisations; and a final report setting out recommendations for improving the transparency, effectiveness and clarity of the bidding process.
Review of Local Delivery Incentives
Communities and Local Government appointed SQW to undertake a literature review of the evidence on Local Delivery Incentives, to feed into the Treasury’s review of operational efficiency.
Mentoring on Approaches to Migration
SQW was commissioned to provide mentoring/advice to Allerdale District Council on strategic approaches to migration. This is one of series of similar contracts as part of the IDeA migration excellence mentoring programme.
Review of Children’s Centres’ Governance Arrangements
SQW was commissioned by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council to review its children’s centres’ governance arrangements (developed under the Power to Innovate scheme run by the then Department for Education and Skills). SQW developed a framework to evaluate the effect of the new governance arrangements. Quantitative data on the educational attainment of the cohort was limited, so the review focused on qualitative research with children’s centre commissioners, managers, practitioners, governors and parents to assess the effects on the quality of provision. Information on wider benefits, such as increased community engagement was also captured. SQW then assessed the new arrangements in the light of national good governance standards and made recommendations to operationalise and embed good practice.