Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future The SOA as strategic performance management – a local authority view Chris Mitchell, Corporate Research, Fife Council Annual Statistics Stakeholders Conference

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future What I want to cover The Fife approach to the SOA Lessons from Scottish experience Thoughts on next steps

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future SOAs – the basics ‘ Purpose and scope: the joint commitment and mutual accountability of the Council (yr 1), SG and CP Partners (yr 2) to delivery of agreed outcomes’ governance and future development Local contextual fit with National Outcomes National and Local Outcomes and Commitments including national and local indicators, sources, baselines and targets Required actions by local partners to meet performance targets Required actions by SG – ‘the Asks’ High level, comprehensive, complex, evolutionary and radical

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future The Fife Partnership SOA approach Fife Partnership’s not Fife Council’s SOA Three year perspective Fife’s Community Planning strategic management –Scenario planning and ‘winds of change’ – our contextual analysis – tell-tale indicators –Milestones - Community Planning strategic performance indicators –The 2007 Community Plan’s levers of change: Educational Achievement; Tackling Worklessness; Energy and resources; Keeping Fife connected Goals and themes –Annual State of Fife Reporting

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future Fife’s Community Plan and the National Performance Framework Goals for Fife: Inclusive, Sustainable, Best Value Fife CP Themes –Stronger and more flexible economy –Health and wellbeing –Educated and skilled –Sustaining environment –Safer communities SG Strategic Priorities –Wealthier and Fairer –Healthier –Smarter –Greener –Safer and stronger

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future SOA sourced in Fife local public services corporate management systems Partners’ corporate plans and performance reports –Fife Council Plan: Big 8 priorities and Performance Scorecard Indicators –NHS Fife’s Local Delivery Plan and HEAT targets –Fife Constabulary’s Policing Plan Services’ and Strategic Partnerships strategies e.g. –Joint Health Improvement Plan And in existing Statutory Reporting systems SPIs Statistical returns to SG

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future

KnowFife Dataset progress against Community Plan Milestones

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future KnowFife Dataset Interactive maps looking across Fife

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future Lessons from Scottish experience so far (Improvement Service review of 2008 SOAs: Sarah Gardener) 2008 was a learning experience from a forced pace. Convergence: some 20 Local Outcomes and 32 indicators recur in all SOAs. What we can all count? Need strong data. Divergence: outcomes range form 6 to 68, n=30; indicators range from 44 to 319, n=130. Whose priorities? Mix of SMART and direction of travel targets. OK? Varied interpretation of National Outcomes e.g. alcohol, inequality Too detailed – all parties want activity reflected. CP partners see other SG priorities as ‘must include’ HEAT Big variations in integrated area profiles or context for each outcome – former more strategic? Too much use of output rather than outcome indicators?

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future Some thoughts on next steps The elephant in the corner – a Fife SOA ‘ask’ - a bonfire of the statistical returns or review to keep and apply best practice? Light touch Stop kicking the ball into the directors box – start running with it towards the goal Build local government capacity for evidence based practice

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future Building evidence capacity Scotstat potential – we’ve got it so use it s/t Knowledge Exchange pilot on building stats capacity (Napier/St Andrews Univ. with four councils) Secondments between governments? Scottish Knowledge Skills development programme? Capitalise on Improvement Service research and knowledge resource More engagement with research councils, Scottish Funding Council and academic centres Promoting and Developing Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics – single national platform? Building local tools – KnowFife Dataset Inputs and outcomes – expenditure analysis –“Participatory Budgeting in every (English) local authority area by 2012” Hazel Blears 15 Sept 2008 –Can we enhance the tools we have?

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted ” Einstein Beyond statistical indicators – what other evidence? Qualitative sources? –Stakeholder and political engagement, BVA lessons –Resourcing Scrutiny –Strategic self or directed evaluation –Whole system action research – counting or learning Balance new outcome evidence focus with best of inputs, processes and outputs (Martin, Down, Grace and Nutley etc research for ESRC Public Services Programme) ScotStat,ScotResearch, or ScotKnowledge?

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future Attitudinal evidence of performance Significant feature of SOA and National Indicators (NI) –NI 28: % Rate neighbourhood a good place to live in. –NI 31: public perceptions of the crime rate –NI 41: attitudes to Scotland’s reputation –N1 43 and 44: quality of public services and health care English National Indicators –Overall/general satisfaction with local area plus others –Satisfaction of over 65s with home and neighbourhood Cautions –National surveys not for l.a. levels; l.a.s lack survey capacity: must rationalise and boost national samples; support core questions and build l.a. survey capacity. –New English Place Surveys – statutory duty of each l.a. for Audit Commission – is this the route for Scotland? –Satisfaction = performance minus expectations: must contextualise (age, ethnicity, culture, SEG, local history, council tax level) Possible ceiling on overall levels even if expectations met, (Oliver James, Exeter Univ. research for ESRC Public Services Programme)

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future What’s relevant to the SOA? –Just measures of what we as Local Government can change? –measures of what we want Scottish government to change and they of us – that’s the Concordat. –Our UK, European and Global contexts UK Comprehensive Spending Review – the Red Book UK and European Legislative context e.g. carbon Price of oil, FTSE and Dow Jones Interest and inflation rates Banking liquidity! What else…..? –Agile and flexible planning not an end state. –Quality of Life not just services

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future And finally…….. “Culture shifts are necessary at the centre and local level – but will we be able to keep our ‘hands off’?!” Jim Stephen, Head of Children and Families Services, Scottish Government, at launch seminar for SOA, Feb Can we in community planning partnerships be more ‘switched on’? ‘That’s democracy Jim…but not as we might like it’ Central and Local government will and probably should agree to differ.

Fife Partnership…Strengthening Fife’s Future Evolving Strategic Performance Management Corporate Planning and Bains –Regional Reports of 70s Strategic Performance Indicators (SPIs) Key needs data – poverty – Indices of Deprivation (SIMD) – better tools and wider applications Community Planning Single Outcome Agreements Constitutional balancing act: central v local government