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What is Best Value about?
The duty of Best Value was applied to all principal local authorities from 1 April 2000. It required these authorities to make arrangements to secure the continuous improvement in the way in which they exercise their functions, having regard to a combination of economy, efficiency, and effectiveness.
The Government's vision for public services centres around five main themes:
- ensuring that public services are responsive to the needs of citizens, not the convenience of service providers
- ensuring that public services are efficient and of a high quality
- ensuring that policy making is more joined up and strategic, forward looking and not reactive to short term pressures
- using information technology to tailor services to the needs of users
- valuing public service and tackling the under-representation of minority groups
Best value is about delivering these commitments at the local level.
Our Approach
Process Improvement is at the very heart of delivering Best Value. All of the results that an organisation produces are due to the organisational processes that exist to deliver them. The key to improving results lies in improving these processes.
Documentation
Documentation of processes and evaluating current process performance is an essential first step to enable local authorities to carry out the fundamental performance review that the Best Value Performance Management Framework requires.
In these reviews, authorities need to consider the "4Cs": Challenge purpose, Compare performance, Consult community, Compete with others.
Documenting your process graphically makes it ACCESSIBLE to a wide range of people.
Improvement
With processes effectively documented, you now have a firm baseline from which to engage in improvement.
The Best Value Management Framework requires authorities to set and publish performance and efficiency targets in a best value performance plan. And PLAN is the first word in a powerful approach to improvement: Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA).
How does the PRISM Improvement Experience help?
The PRISM Improvement Experience offers well-proven principles and methodology that should be at the heart of Best Value and teaches students how to apply the methods of process improvement within the Best Value framework.
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