Technical Note 2023, Issue 43 - Local Government Benchmarking Framework 2021/22 Publication

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1. Background
2. 1. The Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) provides evidence of trends in how councils allocate resources, the performance of key council services and levels of public satisfaction with the major services provided and commissioned by councils. The rich data supports evidence-based comparisons between similar councils and over time, provides an essential tool for policy makers and the public.
3. 2. The Framework was introduced in the 2010/11 financial year in recognition that local authorities are best placed to set their own meaningful measures of benchmarking. The framework is regularly refreshed and agreed by SOLACE and the Improvement Service facilitates the delivery of the framework.
4. 3. The key criterion applied to the suite of indicators was that any one of the indicators must be able to be collected on a comparable basis by all 32 councils. The indicator set is not static but intended to evolve alongside the needs of local authorities and regular revisions are made to the indicator set. Due to these revisions, an annual like for like analysis of the overall performance of the dataset is not always possible as individual indicators are introduced and retired from the suite on an annual basis.
5. 4. The data comprises of a range of Cost, Satisfaction and Performance indicators. The principal source of finance data continues to be the Local Financial Returns (LFR,) which all councils submit to the Scottish Government. For satisfaction measures, the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) is the primary source used. The remainder of the data is sourced from other statutory returns to eliminate any extra workload for councils. However, for a certain number of indicators that are not covered in other returns, the Corporate Performance and Research team submits a dedicated return to the Improvement Service.
6. 5. The 2021/22 Benchmarking data was published on the 17 March 2023 on the Improvement Service website. The 2021/22 publication includes a redesigned and slimmed down LGBF Annual report alongside an online LGBF dashboard with detailed indicator level analysis and narrative.  While LGBF data has always been published in the public domain, the new dashboard includes several new types of analysis which is intended to allow users to compare authorities much more easily.
7. 6. Following the initial publication there will be a refresh to the dataset to include looked after Children data and satisfaction data, which is unavailable at the time of publication. This updated data is expected around May 2023.

2. Key Findings – The National Overview Report
3. 1. Summary
4. 2. This year’s National Overview report introduces data from 2021/22, a period when communities and council services were still managing the significant ongoing impact of Covid, while new challenges were emerging in the shape of soaring inflationary pressures and a ‘cost of living crisis’.
5. 3. The report recognises the extraordinary effort and achievements delivered across local government during this exceptional period. Councils have adapted quickly to meet new demands, maintain essential services and implement new ways of working, and have strengthened partnerships with communities as well as the third and private sectors, helping to protect those who are vulnerable, and maintaining community wellbeing
6. 4. The 2021/22 LGBF data also indicates that the shock delivered by the pandemic, cost of living crisis and increasing financial pressures is likely to substantially disrupt performance and efficiency improvements gained in previous years. It is likely that some of these effects will be felt for a long time to come, and along with the demand and budgetary pressures facing councils currently, it is possible that efforts in the short term in some service areas could be focussed more on prioritising and maintaining performance, rather than service improvement.

3. Challenging Financial Outlook
4. 1. The financial outlook for local government is more challenging than ever before given current funding pressures, growing demand, the ongoing impacts of Covid, inflation, and the cost of living crisis. The financial gap for councils, where anticipated income is less than planned expenditure, is calculated to be £0.4billion (3%) in 2021/22, broadly consistent with the gap identified in 2020/21 and 2019/20 (£0.5bn).
5. 2. Total revenue funding for councils has increased in real terms by 5.3% in 2021/22, and by 1.6% since 2013/14 (excluding non-recurring Covid funding). However, during this period there has been greater national direction and less local discretion and choice over how these funds can be used by councils to deliver on what their communities say is most important.
6. 3. Audit Scotland calculate that funding which is ring-fenced and directed or provided with the expectation it will be spent on specific services has grown by £710 million between 2020/21 and 2021/22, from 18.2% to 23.0% of total revenue funding.  This represents a 1.2% real terms reduction in revenue funding available to councils in 2021/22 to pursue local priorities
7. 4. Given that the element available for councils to respond flexibly to local priorities has reduced, local public services are now finding themselves unable to deliver the services most important for their communities, requiring them to make difficult decisions about service reductions.
8. 5. For the second year in a row, councils report an increase in earmarked reserves, increasing from 23.6% in 2020/21 to 24.4% in 2021/22. This compares to pre-Covid levels of 17%. In 2020/21.

4. Workforce Pressures
5. 1. Staff absence levels in 2021/22 were the highest ever reported. Staff absence levels (excluding teachers) reached 12.4 days in 2021/22, compared to 10.8 days in 2010/11, and 11.9 days pre-Covid. The sharp increase in absence in 2021/22 has been driven by NHS backlogs for treatment, longer recovery times due to treatment delays and inactivity, and increased spread of infections as people mix more post pandemic.
6. 2. Councils are also facing persistent recruitment challenges. The areas hardest hit include Education, Social Care and Social Work, Facilities Management, HGV Drivers, and Environmental Health, including both senior posts as well as front-line services.
7. 3. Staff retention and high levels of staff turn-over, including at senior levels, is a growing issue for councils. With retirement levels reflecting the ageing workforce in local government, the pandemic has also been a ‘watershed’ for early retirement, where some staff who had not previously given any indication of their desire to retire decided it was time to do so.

5. Health and Social Care Pressures
6. 1. The scale of the challenge of providing high-quality health and social care and keeping people who need social care safe during the pandemic was immense. Councils and their partners have been able to ensure the continuation of service delivery despite these extraordinary challenges, delivering more hours of care at home than ever before, continuing to shift the balance of care towards greater home based support, and maintaining care home provision during a period of unprecedented difficulty and extreme uncertainty
7. 2. There are however clear indications of system pressure and growing concern about levels of unmet need within communities. Capacity issues mean fewer people than ever before are receiving personal care at home, delayed discharges are rising sharply once again, and satisfaction has declined amongst both those receiving care and the carers who are supporting them.
8. 3. Although councils have continued to protect social care spend against mounting budget pressures, the rate of increase has not kept pace with increasing demand and cost pressures. Expenditure has increased by 25% in real terms since 2010/11, but by only 1.7% in 2021/22
9. 4. The social care sector is currently facing exceptional challenges, including long-standing structural issues such as chronic underfunding, workforce issues, system fragmentation and supply chain limitations. Covid also appears to have made some longstanding problems worse, such as unmet need for care, and the burden on unpaid carers.
10. 5. A sustained and real commitment to the “whole system” of population health is required, including investment in the vital preventative and early intervention services councils provide which are critical to addressing the social determinants of health.

6. Cost of Living Crisis
7. 1. Welfare reform will continue to pose a challenge into the longer term. In light of the current cost of living crisis, welfare rights services will become ever more important in helping tenants maximise benefits so that they can continue to pay rent and tax. It will be important to closely monitor data on rent arrears and council tax payments in the period ahead to understand the impacts on the financial security for low-income households.
8. 2. Demand on the Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF) has grown significantly in recent years with demand continuing to increase. After a period of relative stability, the growth in SWF spend accelerated sharply between 2019/20 and 2021/22 reflecting the combined pressures from Covid and the cost of living crisis.
9. 3. Further evidence of the financial hardship being experienced by local communities can be seen in the growing level of spend on Discretionary Housing Payments. Rent arrears have also continued to rise, reaching an all-time high of 8.7% in 2021/22, compared to pre-Covid levels of 7.3%.
10. 4. Council tax collection rates have almost recovered to pre-Covid levels. Rates have recovered for all but one authority, after all 32 authorities saw their council tax collection rates reduce in 2020/21.
11. 5. The most recent data shows that child poverty rates reduced in 2020/21, falling from 24.3% to 20.9%. This is, however, likely to be a temporary improvement related to the additional support provided to low-income families during the Covid pandemic via the £20 uplift to Universal Credit.

7. Impact of Covid Recovery on Children
8. 1. Covid, and in particular infection control measures such as lockdowns and the closure of schools and early years facilities, has had a profound and ongoing impact on children in Scotland. Children and families from low-income households are amongst those who have been most negatively affected.
9. 2. Data from 2020/21 evidences the negative impact the first year of Covid had on the development of pre-school children, primary phase attainment levels, school attendance levels, and positive destinations for school leavers (*2020 data). Where more recent data is available, it is clear there has been a degree of recovery across each of these areas during 2021/22, albeit the scale of this recovery varies, with some outcomes still below pre-Covid levels.
10. 3. Primary school data shows attainment levels improved in both numeracy and literacy in 2021/22 compared to 2020/21 but have not yet returned to where they were before the pandemic.
11. 4. Pupil attendance rates have declined during the pandemic, particularly within council areas with higher levels of deprivation. Attendance rates declined from 93.1% in 2018/19 to 92% in 2020/21, with levels in the most deprived council areas falling from 92.2% to 91.2%.

8. Overall trends hide substantial local variation in certain areas
9. 1. While both Covid and the cost-of-living crisis are having an unprecedented impact on services across all councils, local areas are experiencing their impacts differently. Responses to Covid and the cost-of-living crisis have exemplified the importance of ‘local’ with local solutions and responses to local needs and issues, varying both between and within authorities.
10. 2. A range of interconnected factors will be important in shaping the variability observed in the data from this period, including:

• • Different local restrictions during Covid (localised lockdowns/tiered system of restrictions)
  • Existing local capacity (infrastructure, e.g. digital; workforce; and partnership context)
  • Local responses (innovation; redesign; and redeployment)
  • Local pattern of demand and need (reflecting demographic and socio-economic profile of local communities)
  • Local priorities and strategic direction pre-Covid
  • Local economy

9. Initial Findings for East Dunbartonshire
10. 1. As with all local authorities the last few years have been challenging for East Dunbartonshire with budgets having been reduced year on year. Despite this, however, for East Dunbartonshire the majority of all the current indicators in the suite have demonstrated improvement since their baseline year.
11. 2. While indicators demonstrated a decline in performance in 2020/21 in 2021/22 the overall trend has gone back to one of improvement, reflecting recovery from the pandemic. The Council’s overall performance against LGBF taking into account comparable indicators from the previous year’s initial publication has improved, with 56% of comparable indicators showing improved or sustained performance from the previous year and 44% showing a decline in performance.
12. 3. In rank, the Council has maintained or improved in rank position in just over 51% of indicators and declined in rank in 49%, demonstrating an improvement in rank placing from the previous year’s data.
13. 4. The Council’s rank performance upon initial publication when compared across Scottish councils now reports 28 (31%) of our indicators in the top quartile, which is comparable to 2020/21 initial publication figures. The number of bottom quartile indicators has dropped from 16 to 14 representing only 16% of the available dataset.

1. 5. Performance indicators with a significant improvement in rank (5 or more places) from 2020/21 included the cost of Museums and Sports facilities per visit, the Gender Pay Gap, Town Centre Vacancy Rates and Street Cleanliness score.
2. 6. Performance indicators with a significant decline in rank included Household waste that is recycled, Roads Cost per Kilometre, Cost per primary School Pupil and number of business gateway start-ups.

10. Next Steps
11. 1. A comprehensive report will follow the attached initial analysis once the full data set is published in May and this should be presented to Council for formal Scrutiny in June. This will provide further in-depth information regarding individual LGBF indicators and analysis against trends at a national level including a focus on improvement for all bottom quartile indicators and those which have shown a significant decline in rank.