LGA warns new outcomes framework for councils remains “top-down”

The Local Government Outcomes Framework (LGOF) was published in July, following a speech at the LGA Conference from the then Secretary of State for Local Government, Angela Rayner.

She said it would provide a "completely new way of measuring performance" and form part of an effort to move away from the "Westminster knows best" approach and the "micromanagement of previous governments".

However, in a written response to a call for feedback on the new framework, the LGA said: "Whilst we welcome the Government's recognition that it needs to work with councils to achieve nationally for local people and communities, the list of outcomes and outputs within the framework is ultimately a top-down approach.

"In future, in the spirit of partnership, we would like to see government working with the sector to identify and unblock barriers to the achievement of the outcomes; to resource councils to deliver those; and to review and refresh the outcomes in due course."

The framework sets out 15 outcomes that the Government expects to work on with local authorities to deliver key national priorities for local people and communities.

The LGA stressed that it is "essential" to ensure that there is recognition that priority outcomes and the metrics associated with them cannot be achieved solely by the local government sector.

"Local government cannot be held (or seen to be held) accountable for delivery of outcomes which are contingent on other partners," it added.

The response called for a commitment to working with other government departments so that the metrics are added to partners' outcomes frameworks within the next two or three years.

The LGA recommended that the framework be retitled the "Local Outcomes Framework" and that "relevant metrics, such as the wider determinants of health, should be woven through expectations for all public sector partners".

It also said that the Government should explore how subnational accountability can be better joined up as a matter of urgency.

In addition, it said the framework should recognise the importance of local priority-setting, as local authorities' strategic plans and priorities will not always align neatly with the framework.

There should also be a recognition of the risk of measuring local authorities' performance against individual metrics and the wider framework being viewed "out of context or without nuance".

"For example, many local authorities include both affluence and pockets of severe deprivation within their boundaries, and so reviewing performance at an authority level will only give part of the picture," the LGA said.

Elsewhere, it called on the Government to be aware of the risk in presenting data as league tables, adding that any comparisons should only be made with similar statistical peers.

Adam Carey