Performance management
Best Value Reviews
Best Value Fundamental Service Reviews
What is a Fundamental Service Review?
The central process for achieving Best Value is the Best Value Fundamental Service Review. A Fundamental Service Review is a close examination of all aspects of a service provided by the Council. It looks at why the service is provided, how it is provided, how it compares to other similar services and it obtains the views of the community, staff and users about the service and the issues affecting it.
The Fundamental Service Review Programme
Under Best Value local authorities are required to review all of their services. Authorities must decide in which order services are to be reviewed, draw up a programme and publish this in their Best Value Performance Plan.
As well as reviews of individual services, local authorities are expected to carry out cross cutting reviews. These reviews are based around clear issues or themes – such as Community Safety – which cover services delivered by a range of departments and by other partners. The government expects authorities to tackle at least one cross cutting issue each year of the review cycle and believes that these reviews will make the greatest difference to services locally.
The Review Process
Every Best Value Review must be conducted according to the 4 C’s. They are:
- Challenge
- Compare
- Consult
- Compete
ChallengeIn carrying out reviews of their services authorities must challenge why, how and by whom a service is provided. Challenge requires that we ask a series of questions that fundamentally reassess:
- Whether the service is needed
- What the public thinks of the service
- How it should be provided
- How well it is performing
Of all the 4C’s, challenge has the greatest potential for making a difference and leading to real and lasting improvement. It can be thought of as the hub of the review process.
Compare
Best Value Reviews also require authorities to compare their services with other similar services across a range of relevant indicators. These indicators may include, for example, national Best Value Performance Indicators, set by the Government, which all authorities are required to report on each year. These national indicators are measures of service performance, for example the cost of waste collection per household, which allow an authority’s performance to be measured against other authorities nationally.
Comparison calls for tools such as benchmarking which involves comparing processes and performance with other service providers to seek best practice. Authorities are expected to compare not only with other local authorities but also providers of similar services in the private and voluntary sectors to determine the most economic, efficient and effective way of delivering services.
ConsultUnder Best Value local authorities have a duty to consult council taxpayers, service users, stakeholders and the wider business community.
Consultation is vital in determining customer requirements and enabling staff, Councillors and the community to become involved in, and informed of, progress made. As such consultation must embrace those who may be hard to reach, such as young people, the elderly, homeless people and people whose fist language is not English.
More details about the Council’s approach to consultation and the range of techniques that it uses to engage with the citizens of Bedford can be found in the Communications and Consultations Strategy.
CompeteThe fourth of the 4C’s requires authorities to use competition as a means of securing efficient and effective services. Although Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT), which required local authorities to contract out certain services has been abolished, competition is intended to play a central and continuing role in Best Value.
The purpose of competition is to establish whether another organisation or body is better placed than the Council to provide a particular service. The Council must demonstrate its competitiveness using, for example, cost and quality comparisons with other service providers, benchmarking techniques or by competitive tendering. However, unlike Compulsory Competitive Tendering, Best Value does not imply the same compulsion to contract out and will enable authorities to use a broader range of mechanisms for deciding between providers than the narrowly focused CCT.
More details about our approach to competition and competitive tendering can be found in the Procurement Strategy.
 | Best Value Procurement Strategy. ( 296 KB ) - DOWNLOAD |
SummaryConducting the Review according to the 4C’s generates a picture of current performance levels and a picture of how well the service should be performing. The Best Value Review identifies areas of weakness and enables the Council to redress those weaknesses. At the end of each review an action plan is produced which sets out the Council’s improvement targets.
ONLINE SERVICES
Best Value Feedback Form
SERVICES A-Z
Performance Management
Best Value
Comprehensive Performance Assessment
RELATED PAGES
Best Value Performance Plan
Best Value Links
Best Value Inspections
Business Management
Best Value
Best Value Comparisions
Comprehensive Performance Assessment Documentation
Auditors Report on Best Value
Comprehensive Performance Assessment
Best Value Five Year Plan
Performance Management Framework