Best Value then replaced CCT and in 1999 councils were instructed by the Audit
Commission to produce an annual performance plan, this is a statutory requirement and had to be complete by March 2000. The Audit Commission then have regular contact with all authorities and targets are monitored. If performance indicators aren’t met then the Audit Commission can insist that the service goes out to tender. In London (Islington) this has happened in education. Ofsted reports showed that the education for certain age groups were under performing and not achieving national standards. The education department has now been privatised. The new regime offers better options for the local people and gives the Government control again which it had previously lost. Once again if the contractor is under performing it gives the Government the control to step in, thus the service always theoretically being the best the authority can provide.
Best Value was introduced to deal with services in a rational and joined up way. It gives public services an ideal way to look at their services in all aspects of the service not just the end product or service.
The Key Elements of Best Value are: -
- Best Value is about measuring services not only in terms of economy and
efficiency but also in terms of effectiveness and quality
- Because Best Value can be difficult to quantify criteria for monitoring and targets and monitoring for the assessment of it need to be put into place
- Setting performance targets and regular reviews will be a crucial part of the Best Value process, these will be set out in the Local Performance Plan
- National and local targets for Best Value should be built upon performance information
- Audit processes should confirm the integrity and comparability of performance information and auditors will report regularly
- Best Value will apply to as many services as possible
(Taken from www.artscouncil.org.uk/departments/briefings/8.html) – further information into some of these is explained below.
Best Value is based around a 5 year rolling programme. It requires all authorities to review services over a 5 year period in terms of cost, quality and means of delivering services. As part of the five year rolling programme all authorities must produce an annual performance plan. This will provide all of the targets the authority have to put into place, it will also state at the end of the year which targets have been met and if they haven’t been met why they haven’t been met.
The reviews that will take place will be based around the four C’s. These are: -
Challenge why the service is provided and whether the service is provided and
whether the service is needed at all.
Comparing performance with others, including non-government providers.
Competing, the authority must show that it has embraced the principles of fair competition in deciding who should deliver the service.
Consulting local service users and residents on their expectations about the services
being provided. Not only stakeholders should be represented in the reviews, or service managers but also staff and customers.
The concept of the 4 C’s is how Best Value compares to the market place. Businesses who sell the same services would firstly look at the service or product being sold is it worth being on the market? Does it sell at all? They also have to compare themselves to other local and national providers, they have to compete against their local and national providers and they have to know what their customer wants. Service Providers and businesses often have market research completed using companies such as MORI to establish exactly what the customer wants, therefore private and public organisation are very similar now in a market sense whereas the public sector was only used by the public sector before CCT was introduced.
A customer would not shop somewhere for more money if they were not going to get extra services or produce, a customer also wouldn’t spend less if they were aware that they were buying an inferior product. Councils also distribute market research amongst the staff, this is to look at the services they provide and which way they provide them, can a procedure or service be omitted if it is not needed. Sunderland City Council take part in these surveys regularly as part of their Best Value regime to keep up to date with staff and well as customers.
In a free market, competitive pressures should at least in theory guarantee a high level of efficiency. Take those pressures away and organisations may slack. Public enterprises have access to subsided funds and can use them wastefully, with the belief that the Government will neither bankrupt them nor privatise them, this will not happen with Best Value.
Best Value offers a better rationale than a quasi market or CCT. Best Value consists of continual review and the setting of targets by the public organisations themselves. This allows the service providers to set realistic targets for themselves, targets they can achieve. Best Value opens up public services into the market place for services, which do not meet the targets. It makes the organisations accountable for what they do, as mentioned before, as part of the four c’s, is the service needed?
An organisation has to make sure they follow these procedures, as do open markets. An item would not be sold if there was no need for it, the same goes for services,
why provide one if it is no longer used or needed. Behind Best Value there is no assumption that the service will be public or private. There is no reason why a service cannot be put to tender if another service provider is found to be more efficient. This is what is taking public services into the open markets.
Market forces are one of the beliefs at the heart of managerialism. Its expression was to be observed by the governments desire to subject public services to competition and to advance the role, status and power of the one time client of public services, which is now, renamed the ‘customer’.
Internal markets which has been mentioned before was generally used in CCT. Local Authorities such as Sunderland set up their own business units to keep the bids in-house. Internal markets are still used in Best Value. It is about keeping up service standards and this is where the annual review fits in. All aspects of service delivery have to be monitored and reviewed throughout the year to ensure they are adhering to the guidelines of District Audit.
The Labour governments key document on administrative arrangements, which explain that we must not assume that everything government does, has to be delivered by the public sector (HMSO, 1999a: 35). Using Best Value, services can be provided through the sector best placed to provide the services most effectively, whether this is through public, private, voluntary or partnerships between sectors. This is relatively the same as the open market place, once again you can choose who
is the best and not have to make do with what services you have.
Marketisation is seen as an appropriate response to such inefficiency in at lease some cases, so that ‘competition will retain an important role’ in service delivery (H M Treasury, 1998:36). The Best Value initiative opens up the market considerably by having the option of using a mix of service providers each individual authority see fit to use. Other initiatives such as Public Sector Benchmarking, Charter Marks and Public Service Agreements aim to improve services by making relevant institutions more efficient and focused on the customer. The government has expanded the Public Sector Benchmarking Project that was originally launched by the Conservative government in 1996. The project once again as Best Value does aims to improve public sector organisation by developing the Best Value principles that were derived from a Business Excellence Model.
The Trade Union Unison does not agree with these aspects of Best Value it states in its critical guide to Best Value it states “Instead of directly providing services and regulating markets, local authorities are now expected to ‘develop markets’: authorities are expected to go private and voluntary sector providers to find out how they could provide services. Best Value advises authorities to package work according to the market (to ‘reflect prospective market competencies’ – DETR 1999), with an end goal of financial saving rather than improving social provision. This is at the same time as outsourced housing benefit contracts are being terminated or severely criticised for service failures and soaring backlogs by tenants and local authorities. (Best? Value – A critical guide to Best Value, the government’s new regime for local authority services – Unison)
In conclusion the public sector is becoming more and more alike to the private sector. Services are being scrutinised more and are more liable to be put out to private companies if authorities are thought to be under-performing. The government sees Best Value as a new initiative which will motivate councils to do better and to be more customer focussed, but the employees and as seen the Unions just see this as another form of privatisation and scaling down of authorities. Best Value takes local government into the market place by offering under performing services to the best competitor. Best Value is about providing accountability to local people and the money they pay for the services local authorities provide. The consumers don’t mind who provide them as long as their cost is kept to a minimum. Best Value assists this with their monitoring and targets and with the five year rolling programme, the customer will always get the Best Value for their money.
Bibliography
www.open.gov.uk
www.cabinetofficet.gov.uk
www.detr.gov.uk
www.artscouncil.org.uk
(Best? Value – A critical guide to Best Value, the government’s new regime for local authority services – Unison)
Local Government Chronicle Publication – various issues
Victoria Moseley – BA (hons) Public Service Management – Semester 3
