CIPFA Statistical Information Service

Service Health Checks

In the era of open public services and spending cuts, it has never been more important for authorities to understand the costs and performance of their services. The ‘transparency’ agenda, coupled with ‘right to challenge’ that features in the Localism Act, will mean that citizens, the local media and suppliers have the ability to scrutinise public spending closer than ever. The result is likely to be that poor-performing and/or expensive services will be subjected to outside challenge and perhaps ultimately outsourced.

We draw on the extensive datasets held by CIPFA and others to produce tailored Service Health Checks that analyse the costs and performance of your authority’s services and therefore identify those that may be at risk of challenge. Our datasets include:

• CIPFA’s benchmarking clubs
• Back-office VfM indicators
• VfM toolkit
• CIPFAstats
• Locally-held data
• National data that is publicly available

How do you measure up?

We can help to show how you are performing vis a vis a range of comparator groups, taking account of your corporate priorities and the local context. The ensuing report will feature both graphical and narrative analysis and provide you with the essential starting point for getting your services into shape.

Over recent years we have undertaken around 50 similar reviews, demonstrating how costs compare to others in relation to performance, service delivery and outcomes achieved.

For more information, please take a look at our example report. Alternatively, please contact statistics@cipfa.org.uk for more information.