Improve your Council's performance using
a Modern Local Government Balanced scorecard

We have a track record of improving performance by applying
balanced scorecards and strategy maps properly, in Local Government

Why use a modern balanced scorecard in Local Government?

The current climate in the public sector makes modern balanced scorecards more relevant than ever. There is pressure to cut costs, and yet protect front line services. There is the need to break down silos, to create joined up thinking and working. The Local Area Agreements and Local Partnership working demands that councils and their partners collaborate to deliver services and results. Local Government has to focus on delivery, make change happen, and demonstrate even better value for money.

Modern, fourth generation balanced scorecarsd are ideal for this. As we have demonstrated in various client engagements, our approach facilitates joined up thinking and working, without the need to reorganise at great expense and time wasted. Our public sector strategy maps enable partners and local government to share objectives and work out how each can best contribute to the end results.

As an example, the remit for one City Council was:

"To introduce a coherent, robust and simple set of performance management tools, capabilities, arrangements, techniques and business processes that will enable the Director's Group and Cabinet to steer the authority more effectively according to its genuine strategy"

To do this inside 5 months. It quickly became apparent the agenda also involved:
"...changing the working practices at Directorate levelto create joined up thinking and working across the authority."

 

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How our approach to the Local Government Balanced Scorecard can help:

• Using a Local Government Balanced Scorecard to to link overall themes, such as sustainability and a safe community, to individual service plans and objectives.

• Operating a cohesive, integrated performance framework: One that brings together local government requirements and national measures and the demands of the various plans at various levels into a balanced performance management approach.

• Using the "balance" of balanced scorecard to manage the trade-offs, and sometimes conflicts, between service, costs and political demands in Local Government

• Making it clear why measures are being used, not just applying them. Using a well designed local government balanced scorecard means you can explain what indicators, such as Best Value, are trying to achieve. You can communicate what improves performance far easier.

• Making a real difference to the quality of service, and people's lives, in the community. Our well designed Local Government Balanced scorecard ensures the service an individual receives from the authority is integrated across the various services responsible for delivery. For example we have used Balanced scorecards to integrate local government services such as planning, corporate parenting, housing services and social services.

  If you are looking for an extensive case study, on the Local Government Balanced Scorecard, download the "The Strategy Focused Council" from our case studies page.  This describes using a modern Balanced Scorecard approach to improve the strategy, and performance of a City Council.

At Excitant we have answers that can help you implement balanced scorecards so people believe in them and want to use them. We are committed to helping Local Government and other public sector bodies tackle their challenges, improve the way they manage performance and make a difference.

We demonstrate that the Balanced Scorecard approach, applied well, is a solution to these and other problems. We also believe that the approach is much misunderstood, misapplied and under-exploited. For a simple overview have a look at our document: "The Balanced Scorecard Is, and is not" where we explain in two pages the characteristics of a useful and effective public sector balanced scorecard.. (Public Sector balanced scorecard case study & papers).

There are also Local Government Balanced Scorecard case studies.

We have much more about how to apply the Balanced Scorecard in Public Sector and Local Government organisations.

For a, no obligation, conversation about how to make a difference call us to discuss making improvements using Local Government Balanced Scorecards.