Best practice in councils is thriving with the help of Beacons

FROM www.communities.gov.uk WEBSITE

Communities and Local Government Minister Parmjit Dhanda welcomed new research today showing how local authorities can innovate and improve by working together and sharing ideas.

The independent research, carried out by Warwick Business School over three years, evaluates the impact and effectiveness of the Beacons Scheme, which recognises excellence and innovation in local authorities and promotes best practice in services which are key to improving quality of life. The final reports and the overall summary of the research project were published today.

The results show that the Beacon Scheme is an important tool in driving improvement and resourcefulness among local authorities, as well as providing important benefits to successful candidates.

Councils striving to develop have found that the Beacon awards are an invaluable source of learning. The large majority of councils agreed that the awards encourage networking with peers, sharing information and ideas, and over three quarters of those who visited or engaged with Beacon winning authorities said they had made changes as a result of the interaction. Award winners claimed that winning boosted staff morale and motivated further improvement.

Parmjit Dhanda said:

"The Beacon scheme is a rich example of improvement through collaboration and innovation. Learning from best practice is a vital part of progress and I am pleased to see that the Beacon awards are continuing to encourage councils and help them achieve their goals.

"The most important product of the Beacons is seeing the real improvements to everyday public services that are made under the remit of every authority that participates in the awards. I know that these statistics can only improve as more and more Beacon authorities share best practice with their peers."

Key findings of the reports include:

• Award winners cite many benefits for their authorities:
  • higher national profile (90 per cent),
  • boosting staff morale (89 per cent),
  • motivating and sustaining further improvement (79 per cent),
  • boosts elected members profile (50 per cent),
  • and helps relationships with partners (49 per cent).
• 84 per cent respondents said it supports innovative practice.
• 80 per cent respondents said it encouraged networking with peers.
• Recipients of the award - in particular repeat Beacons - have key lessons to share on leadership, motivating staff, improvement, change, and customer focus.
• In terms of service improvement, 75 per cent of Chief Executives found the Scheme to be positive.
• 61 per cent of all respondents said that the Scheme provided a positive, direct contribution in encouraging a focus in tangible improvements for customers and clients.
• 79 per cent of those who visited or engaged with Beacons said they had made changes as a result of the interaction.

The Beacons awards ceremony will take place tomorrow, Tuesday 4 March.

Notes to editors

1. The full report of findings can be found at: www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/longtermeval.

2. The Government established the Beacon Scheme in 1999 to identify excellence in local government and enable best practice to be shared with others.

3. Beacon status is awarded to best value authorities representing the diversity of local government - urban and rural, unitary and two-tier, and from different parts of the country. The scheme is relevant to all kinds of authorities, including fire, transport and police authorities.

4. Awards in the current round of the scheme (round 9) are due to be made at an 'Oscars' style award ceremony on 4 March 2008 at the Royal Horticultural Halls in London. All short-listed authorities are invited to the ceremony and will find out on the night whether they have been awarded Beacon status. Further details on this event can be sourced from www.beacons.idea.gov.uk (external link).

5. The Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) work with the successful authorities to organise bespoke learning events and activities. Beacons for each round of the scheme receive a share of £3m to help cover the costs disseminating the good practice identified.

6. An independent Advisory Panel makes recommendations to Ministers on the selection of Beacon authorities in each round. Ministers across Government then make final decisions.

7. Further details about the Beacon Scheme can be found at: www.beacons.idea.gov.uk (external link).

8. Further information and papers are available from the Beacon research team: Jean.Hartley@warwick.ac.uk. Reports are available on the Warwick, Communities and Local Government and IDeA websites. Professor Jean Hartley is the Director of the Beacon research team at the Institute of Governance and Public Management, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick.

9. The data setfor the research is longitudinal over three years. The research team collected data on the population of 388 English local authorities.

10. The research methods include two national surveys of all English local authorities; one survey focused on front-line staff; and case studies based on detailed interviews within 18 local authorities.

11. The results reported above derive mainly from the 2006 national survey of all English local authorities (n=174 authorities, 45 per cent response rate; n="360" responses from a range of senior people).

12. Key reports:

Hartley, J. Rashman, L. Radnor, Z. and Withers, E. (2008, forthcoming). Learning, improvement and innovation in local government. Final report of the Beacon Scheme evaluation. London: Communities and Local Government.

Rashman, L. and Hartley, J. with IFF Research (2007). National survey of English local authorities: Long-term evaluation of the Beacon scheme. London: Communities and Local Government.