Technical Notes 2024, Issue 36 - Local Government Benchmarking Framework 2022/23 Annual Benchmarking Report Publication

1. Background

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 3. The key criterion applied to the suite of indicators is 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.
4. 4. 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. 5. 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.
6. 6. 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.
7. 7. The 2022/23 Benchmarking overview report was published on 1 March 2024 on the Improvement Service website. The 2022/23 publication includes the LGBF annual report prepared by the Improvement service and is intended to be used in conjunction with an online LGBF dashboard which includes detailed indicator level analysis and narrative.  While LGBF data has always been published in the public domain, the dashboard includes several new types of analysis which is intended to allow users to compare authorities much more easily.
   8. Following the initial publication there will be a refresh to the dataset to include updates to indicator data that is currently unavailable for 2022/23 including for Looked After Children and Climate Change. The majority of these indicators will be available over the coming months. At present of the full dataset there are 26 indicators for which a 2022/23 update is unavailable.

2.Key Findings – The National Overview Report

1. Summary
2. The 2022/23 National Overview report provides a high-level analysis of the performance of councils during 2022/23 and over the longer-term. It also sets out the challenges facing councils in the context of current funding and workforce pressures, growing demand and ongoing impacts from the Covid pandemic and cost-of living crisis.
3. 3. In terms of overall Council service performance, the long-term picture remains positive, with 66% of our performance indicators within the LGBF showing improvement since the base year. In recent years, however, year on year trends show a slow-down in this improvement, and an increase in the number of performance indicators which are now declining. In 2022/23, for the first time, the rate of decline has overtaken the rate of improvement (45% and 43% respectively).
4. 4. The report recognises that during recent years, funding levels for councils has not kept pace with increased demand, growing need and rising cost pressures and that these financial challenges have coincided with new burdens and additional policy commitments, with the funding for these being ring fenced and eroded by inflation.
5. 5. Councils are facing multi-faceted workforce capacity pressures, including challenges of recruitment, retention, staff absence, and an ageing workforce. The scale of the problem is growing and spans a wide range of skills, professions and occupations, with councils struggling to find and to keep the staff needed to provide the complex and pressured services local communities rely upon.
6. 6. Communities are experiencing increasing poverty and financial hardship, at a time when councils have reducing capacity to support them. Data in this year’s LGBF reveals the ongoing consequences of the cost-of-living crisis on the levels of financial hardship facing communities. Escalating inflation, marked by rapidly increasing energy costs, food costs and other consumer goods prices is making it more difficult for financially vulnerable households to make ends meet and with this is increasing demand on council services.
7. 7. Social care is the area where councils and their partners face significantly growing demands due to an ageing population and the increasing complexity of needs experienced by older and disabled people. These demands were exacerbated by the pandemic, while at the same time the current crisis in workforce recruitment and retention is adding further to the pressures facing the sector. A sustained commitment to the ‘whole system’ of population health is required, including investment in the vital preventative and early intervention services councils provide.
8. 8. The report states this challenging reality highlights the need to progress the ambitions of the joint Scottish Government and Local Government Verity House Agreement. A solution is urgently required to the long-term issues of sustainable funding for councils and greater local financial flexibility in order to protect essential frontline services for our communities.

3. Initial Findings for East Dunbartonshire

3. 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 for 2022/23 have demonstrated improvement since their baseline year.
4. 2. Where in East Dunbartonshire, indicators demonstrated a decline in performance in 2020/21 in 2021/22 and 2022/23 the overall trend has gone back to one of improvement, reflecting recovery from the pandemic. In 2022/23 56% of indicators where data is currently available improved in performance from the prior reporting year and only 42% demonstrated a decline in performance. This is against the national trend of declining performance.
5. 3. In rank, the Council has maintained or improved in rank position in two thirds of indicators (66%) and declined in rank only 34%, demonstrating an improvement in rank placing from the previous year’s data. This also indicates that in areas where performance is declining that East Dunbartonshire’s performance is declining at less of a pace than the national average.
6. 4. The Council’s rank performance upon initial publication when compared across Scottish councils now reports 27 (33%) of our indicators in the top quartile, which is comparable to 2021/22 initial publication figures. The number of bottom quartile indicators has dropped from 14 to 10 representing only 12% of the available dataset. The Council reports almost two thirds of indicators 62% in the top half of Scottish Local Authorities.
7. 5. Performance indicators with a significant improvement in rank (five or more places) from 2021/22 included Sickness Absence Days per Teacher, total household waste that is Recycled and % Rent Lost due to Voids.
8. 6. Performance indicators with a significant decline in rank included the Literacy Attainment Gap, Street Cleanliness Score, Cost per primary School Pupil and proportion of buildings in Satisfactory condition.

4.Next Steps

3. 1. A comprehensive report will follow the attached initial analysis upon the publication of a more complete dataset for 2022/23 later this year. This should be presented to a future Council meeting for formal scrutiny and will provide further in-depth information regarding individual LGBF indicators. The report will include analysis against trends at a national level, and a focus on improvement for all bottom quartile indicators and those which have shown a significant decline in rank.

Appendix LGBF 2022/23 Initial Data Analysis