13-50 Building a New Local Government Performance Measurement Framework
What’s new or changing?
The Division of Local Government, with local government sector representatives, has commenced work on a new Local Government Performance Measurement Framework and would like feedback on a Discussion Paper. A supporting survey will also be issued to General Managers for completion.
What this will mean for your council
The closing date for submissions is Friday 24 January 2014. Councils are asked to:
- read the discussion paper and provide comment on the proposed principles, objectives, draft Framework and approach to developing core sets of performance measures across four key areas. Feedback is invited from councils and the community on the key questions throughout the discussion paper; and
- ensure General Managers complete a short online survey to inform this work, including consideration about whether there should be a move to a state-wide community satisfaction survey. An email is being sent to all General Managers with the link to the online survey, the login and password.
Key points
- The new Framework aims to move away from compliance reporting to focus on a small set of core, comparable indicators that will help councils drive continuous improvement and communities understand their council’s performance.
- This follows calls from both councils and the NSW Government for a better, more consistent approach to measuring council performance through Destination 2036. This need has also been recognised independently by the NSW Auditor General and the Independent Local Government Review Panel.
- The performance measurement framework will be built in close collaboration with the sector. Local Government NSW, Local Government Managers Australia (NSW) and a number of councils are participating on a steering committee for this project as well as working groups to develop the performance measures.
Where to go for further information
- Further information about the new Local Government Performance Measurement Framework, the discussion paper and survey can be found on the Division’s website at: www.dlg.nsw.gov.au > About Local Government in NSW > Local Government Performance Measurement.
Ross Woodward
Chief Executive, Local Government