LG Inform workshop 1 slides with additional notes

LG Group InformImproving services through information

WelcomeMandy James

National Advisor – Local Performance

19 January 2011 www.local.gov.uk/inform

AgendaWelcome and overview Mandy James

Background and vision Tim AllenAudiences and their use of LG Group Inform Sarah JenningsHeadline metrics and early themes (exercise) Philippa LynchReporting and metrics Philippa LynchKey benefits and risks (exercise) Mandy JamesNext steps Mandy James

IntroductionsLearning Group

Barnsley Hampshire

Dorset Kettering

Durham Lewisham

Essex Stockport

Chief Fire Officers Association

LG Group Inform

Background and visionTim Allen

Programme Director – Analysis and Research


Background•Dismantle of centrally imposed national indicators and Audit Commission reviews it raises question of:

“What degree should the sector manage their own performance?”

•Message from the sector, want help to access and compare data

•Direction that the transparency agenda is heading, challenge of how to make data and performance transparent

•Should be driven by sector not central government

LG Group offers = Peer review process + Core service providing performance and contextual data on productivity

Productivity• Recent financial settlements prompted sector focus on productivity

• Deconstruct activity and services

• Cost analysis

• Case study of LB Hammersmith & Fulham Children’s services

• LG Group taking forward this work with the sector looking at what drives cost in other service areas e.g. Workforce, Adult social care…

• “Industry standards” on productivity to help understand how you are doing, prompt to asking questions

Vision• Yours not ours, LG Inform starts with the view from your authority

• Core performance and contextual data provided free of charge

• Access to national and local data

• Comparability

• Customise own dashboard of metrics and be able to drill down into detail

• Include productivity metrics

• Develop over time

Measures of success• Taking cost out of the system, basic data services should be free to the

sector

• Adoption of more sophisticated tools and approaches to understand the performance of services

• Help deliver services in a better way through better understanding

Real opportunity to work together withmutual support to shape the data agenda

Initial questions from learning group• How will LG Inform work with community budgets?

The accountability remains with the authority and so LG Inform will start from this point. The forthcoming Knowledge hub will be a portal where different organisations can share information and work together

• What will be accessible to the public, what will be password protected?The prototype will be password protected, the future is dependent on what the sector wants

• How frequently will the data be updated?This is dependent on the nature of the data, monthly or quarterly, but customer satisfaction would be real time

LG Group Inform

Designing the serviceSarah Jennings

Head of Online Communications


We start with a brain storm of how it might

look and how the online screens could link

together…

Overview

Login

My dashboard

LG Group reports

Report

Create report

Use components

Save Share

My reports Updates

Shared reports

Browse

Preferences

• My dashboard

• My reports

• Browse (theme, tags, search)

• Create

• Metrics library

• Help

User personas• The aim of LG Inform is to be user friendly and customisable

• LG Inform has a wide range of potential users all with different needs and technical abilities.

• To start the prototype design process we think of a few users who have different needs and abilities on this broad spectrum of potential users and create personas for them.

• See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_persona and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-centered_design

• We have 3 personas for LG Inform ranging from the Expert users, to the Stakeholder user to the casual/ non-technical user.

• When we design the prototype we think about how each of these users will use the service and make it user friendly.

Expert user

• Role: research analyst• Access: daily, perhaps more than once a day• Trigger: former ESD Toolkit guru• Goals: specific performance questions,

compare and benchmark different risk adjustment methods

• Benefits: context, customisation and speed• Barriers: needs light user experience to data

quickly, but responds to technical demands

Range of skill sets, different analytical users depending on their role in organisation.

Not every organisation has a guru

Stakeholder user• Role: Head of service • Access: Weekly• Trigger: Desire to measure departmental

performance• Goal: Analyse performance to understand

improvement opportunities, and also to gain an understanding of what ‘good’ looks like.

• Benefits: Convenience of having personal access to something that was previously difficult to obtain.

• Barriers: Culture of not sharing best practice between other stakeholders. Who will jump in first?

Could there be a briefing space for other users e.g. a member or the public?

A Head of service would want to know when would they use LG Inform?

Casual, non-technical user

• Role: councillor• Trigger: needs to understand how ward,

council, portfolios are performing• Goal: readily available data and benchmarks• Benefits: can find comparable data quickly

and easily• Barriers: time and technical ability

This is an example, not all councillors are non-technical

Scrutiny members would need a narrative element of the reports

Another key user group identified

• Chief executive and Heads of performance• Overall purpose of the authority• Want a strategic overview• Be able to filter information• Want a space to be able to qualify the reports

and charts with explanation statements• Flag up items, text message alerts

LOGIN

[Forgotten Password]

Information available when open website, but then login for more detailed information

Concern raised that the sector will need to be “ready” for this type of information

The prototype will need a login screen

Concern raised regarding the rules of engagement for political interface

Concern raised that cabinet portfolio holders would want to know what is available to public/ potentially nervous about this

My dashboard | My reports | Browse reports | Create | Metrics library | Help | Preferences

LG Group reports ?-

• Demographic profile• Social care performance• Housing• Efficiency• Asset management• Workforce• more…

My dashboard

My reports ?-

• Housing report for committee Apr ’11• Quarterly social care report• SMT summary report• more…

Shared reports ?-• Yorkshire & Humber healthy living• North East smoking cessation• Productivity ideas• National workforce figures• Latest IMD (map)• more…

Updates ?-

• Mid year pop’n estimates• Claimant count• more…

16/01/201101/02/2011

Change the name Could we archive reports to a library after set time period

Could we have a search facility for existing reports

Boxes shown can be tailored

Updates box very useful, perhaps add more such as news

We want to be able to share templates within organisation

Could we have folders/ categories of reports, be able to sort/ order reports

Could we have SMS/ RSS trigger feed on a set performance level


REPORT TITLESave | Share | Print | PDF | Export

Title ?-+

Title ?-+

Title ?-+

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Title ?-+

Suggestion that title contains description of data Can change the elements that

appear in reports

Suggestion of version control

Would like to know if looking at latest version of data

Include a table of data to identify version of data in charts

Could the data be locked





Title ?- Title ?-+ +

Title ?-

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+

Title ?-+

All reports can be saved for later use, amending, sharing, printing, saving as PDF, or exporting with the detail behind the report.

Suggestion to be able to add properties to report when save

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Title ?- Title ?-+ +

Title ?-+

Title ?-+

Each component can be maximised, minimised or have its properties adjusted.

Like the Audit Commission approach for reports using direction of travel for NI setSuggestion of being able to

see past, present and future data, not just a snap shot

Most authorities already have colour coded excel tables for performance reporting

LGG Predefined Reports ?-


My Dashboard

My Reports ?-

• Housing Report for Committee Apr ’11• Quarterly Social Care Report• SMT Summary Report• more…

Shared Reports ?-• Yorkshire & Humber Healthy Living• North East Smoking Cessation• Productivity Ideas• National Workforce Figures• Latest IMD (map)• more…

Updates ?-

• Mid Year Pop’n Estimates• Claimant Count• more…

16/01/201101/02/2011

[RSS]


Access all the reports you have created.



My Dashboard

My Reports ?-



Updates ?-


16/01/201101/02/2011

[RSS]


View all the reports you have access to - your own and those shared with you.



My Dashboard

My Reports ?-



Updates ?-


16/01/201101/02/2011

[RSS]


Create reports and analyse data for your own use and to share with others.

Report componentsTitle ?-+

My new report


Title

Title

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Title

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My Dashboard

My Reports ?-



Updates ?-


16/01/201101/02/2011

[RSS]


• A list of the metrics available for this service.

• Permitted local authority users can upload local metrics.



My Dashboard

My Reports ?-



Updates ?-


16/01/201101/02/2011

[RSS]


Set up and manage preferences, including:- my personal information

- my dashboard content

- etc.

Additional design comments• Accessibility: AA (as min.) AAA (where possible)

• No integration (at this stage) with existing performance management systems

• Need to reduce burden on providing information

• Authorities do not want to hunt around for information, LG Inform bring together

• Comparisons: existing benchmarking clubs lack comparisons with all authorities

• Aggregate information (at this stage) but in future disaggregated information

Summary

• Navigation• My dashboard• Create and analyse reports• Share reports• Alerts and updates• Usable prototype available 16 February

LG Group InformLunch time exercise: Headline metrics and early themes

Philippa LynchAdviser – Data and Information


Your views over lunch!• The first prototype of LG Inform will include a number of 'ready made' themed

reports to demonstrate and test out the potential scope and functionality of LG Inform; and to provide useful benchmarking information for the sector.

• Some key themes will be presented as ‘headline reports’ detailing core sets of comparable metrics.

• We would welcome your views on:

• what themes would you like to see highlighted in the early releases of LG Inform?

• how many metrics should be included in each headline report?

• what should those key metrics be?

• what comparison groups would you like available in the system?

Themes identified by the learning group

• Areas of public and member interest: Road maintenance, Education, Waste, Social care, Council tax

• People, Place, Support• Community safety• Cultural services (as no coverage in data list) Libraries, Museums,

Outdoor facilities• Adult social care• Children & young people’s services• Transparency (FOI; DP; EIR (Environmental information regulation)• Efficiency / VfM• Economic regeneration• Environmental services• Frontline service areas (i.e. benefits)• Corporate capacity (i.e. sickness)• Finance (UoR / VfM)

Themes cont.• Contextual / activity data (i.e. population)• Fire• Framing and selection of indicators by theme: e.g. risk and vulnerability• improving life chances• quality environment• interest to the public (currently defined within LAPS model)• Value for money• Unit costs / productivity• Safeguarding / vulnerable people• Public favourites – road condition etc• Performance data• Demographics• Customer insight• Consultation

Number of metrics in each headline report identified by the learning group

• Only just as many as we can cope with running properly. The top, top priorities we all know we will measure / compare.

• The minimum

• Core datasets: CLG, Health; Equalities; IMD

• Up to 10 thematic areas; and up to ten metrics per theme. Don’t get too hung up on just outcome measures – volume of transactions / per population; business and costs vital too (e.g. changes in benefit claimants).

• The metrics need to be as simple / easy to interpret as possible.

Key metrics identified by the learning group• Unit cost data• Headline report – summary of key metrics would be useful• Cost data – RSX data is at too high a level – need to use the RO data (but

outturn data could be 18 months old!)• How efficient is the organisation?• Service / output measures• Demographic / trends• Impact / outcome measures• National• Corporate reports• Spatial dimension? (ward / neighbourhood)

Key metrics cont.

• Planning• Housing• Benefits• Sickness (overall, long term, short term)• Invoices paid• Benefits – time to process claims• FOIs responded to in 20 days• Unit cost measures• ‘Cluster approach’: performance output / outcome; time to get service;

quality of service….linked with supporting PIs: caseload (over time and per head of population; staffing (numbers, vacancies)

Comparison groups identified by the learning group• Family• Nearest neighbour• Customer profiles• AC nearest neighbour or similar• Upper tier authorities• Counties• Ofsted, CQC• Geography (National; region, sub region)• Service types

Comparison groups cont.

• Regional• Authority type• Similar socio demographic areas• Current AC ones (i.e. on their website (Oneplace includes: All English

councils; Children's services statistical neighbours; Geographical neighbours; Nearest statistical neighbours; By organisation type: Districts, metropolitan districts, counties, unitaries, London boroughs, single tier and district councils, single tier and county councils)

• and ability to customise• Indices of multiple deprivation• How performance is linked to costs

LG Group Inform

Reporting and metricsPhilippa Lynch

Adviser – Data and Information


LG Group Inform: an overview• LG Group Inform is an online service that will allow councils to

collate and compare essential data at both high and detailed levels.

• LG Group Inform will draw data from other councils and central sources, such as ONS.

• Users will be able to gain insights from the results of data comparison to ensure more rigorous and informed decision-making based on the available evidence.

• Longer term, the service will be hosted within the LG Group’s forthcoming Knowledge Hub environment which will help the sharing of best practice through the community it serves.

Why are we developing this service?

• Information is valuable, but it can create a burden through the effort of :

– Keeping up to date with the latest information and knowing where to find it

– Collecting it – either from external sources or through your own services and activities

– Processing it so that you can use it

– Analysing it so that you can make sense of it

– Creating reports so that it can be shared and discussed

– Making contact with others so that you can share, compare and learn.

• LG Inform aims to minimise this burden and maximise the opportunities and value added.

LG Inform will help you spend less time doing these activities

…and more time to do these activities

What are we offering in the prototype?• Access to a wide range of metrics and data across a number of services

• A number of ready made reports – summary and detailed views of the local authority relative to other authorities

• The flexibility to develop, modify, view and export reports to suit your local requirements

• Easy access to the underlying data

• The ability to input and share your own data for comparable metrics where there is currently no existing collection facility, including provisional data for national sets

• Easy access to the latest published data from a number of providers such as NHS IC, ONS, NOMIS

Suggestion to concentrate on doing a smaller number of metrics well then build on this

Our approach so far• The approach so far has been to focus on the functionality:

– Testing our capabilities and relationships with providers – can we get timely access to the wide range of information

– Getting a critical mass of information

– Testing the capacity of the system

– Exploring and demonstrating the functionality and ease of the reporting

– Demonstrating the potential range of reporting

• Once we have explored and tested out the possibilities, then we can refine the content.

Getting a balance• We need to get the balance of provision right:

– How many metrics should we include? How many ‘themes’ covered?

– Focus on a broad overview or drill into very detailed aspects of delivery?

– Include just existing ‘published’ data collections? Just fill in the gaps with new metrics defined by and relying on input by the sector? Or somewhere in between?

– Provide light touch benchmarking through on line comparison and analysis? Support data analysis with wider sector knowledge and research? Provide face to face support?

Suggestion to reduce burdens, start with single data set and perhaps update quarterly or monthly

Benefits• In summary, the key benefits of using the service are:

– it is a free to access service

– the core common metrics shared online allow meaningful comparison with other councils

– it will draw together information from not only other councils, but national sources such as ONS, to provide a context for the metrics

– the council can choose to stay ahead of the transparency and open data requirements and publish information for residents

– when this application is linked to the new Knowledge Hub, it will allow councils to quickly access relevant resources, and share analysis, issues and expertise with other councils.

Your views?• From what you have heard…..

– Do you think this service has the potential to be useful to you and your authority?

– How much information do you want in the system?

– What themes and functionality would you like to see covered?

– What support would you be looking for to help you make good use of information?

– How much resource would you and your authority want to put in to support and contribute to such a service?

• And finally, we would like to see examples of the reports that you use locally.

Feedback and commentsFrom work undertaken by London councils

the metrics used need to be real, for example improving life chances, to show

politicians it is worth using the service

Definitions of metrics need to be clear, many use former BVPIs

Benchmarking is really a way of publicising the council, by

producing “nuggets” of information for the politicians

Including productivity measures would be useful to see where the

cuts in funding to a service have had expected (and unexpected) effects

Use clusters of metrics to help understand performance and

productivity

Show volume and trend data over time

We would expect to see existing performance indicators as a minimum; cost, productivity and customer profiling to be added

LG Group Inform

Exercise: Key benefits and risks Mandy James

National Advisor – Local Performance


Benefits: identified by the learning group• Free • All information in one place• Transparency• Public information• Save on FOI requests

• And more on the LG Inform community wiki page

Risks: identified by the learning group• Credibility• Sufficient data• Lack of buy in• Rubbish in = Rubbish out

• And more on the LG Inform community wiki page

LG Group Inform

Next Steps

Mandy JamesNational Advisor – Local Performance


Next steps• Feedback on indicators questionnaire (via LG Inform Community of

Practice) by Friday 28th January

• What measures do you currently have for productivity in your organisation?

• Feedback on the suggested 33 indicators from the London Councils (list to follow early February)

• Share your current performance reports

• LG Group will assign buddies

• Date for next workshop 16th February

Timescale for developmentNovember December January February March April

2010 2011

Share proposals with sector

Identify participating councils for prototype development

Storyboard Reviewed

Establish ongoing support services for the sector

Launch service

Accelerated prototypingAccelerated prototyping

Council engagementCouncil engagement

Major milestonesMajor milestones

Jan 19th

Project start

Nov 5th

Prototype of service

launch

Apr 1st

Core metrics agreedSystematic approach to assessing productivity developed

PrototypeDemo

Feb 16th

LG GroupInnovations

event

Mar 22nd

Technical Specification and build of platform

Prototype “App” building and test with “Learning Councils” input

Showcase the results

User Testing

March 2nd

Buddy list

Mandy James [email protected] Tel. 020 7296 6834

Durham Essex Lewisham

Claire Tomlinson [email protected] Tel. 020 7664 3270

Dorset Hampshire Stockport

Chris Bowron [email protected] Tel.

Barnsley Kettering

Juliet Whitworth [email protected] Tel. 020 7664 3287

Chief Fire Officers Association

LG Group Inform: Find out moreLG Inform web page• www.local.gov.uk/inform

LG Inform CoP• http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/c/9045727/home.do

Knowledge Hub• www.local.gov.uk/knowledgehub

Claire Tomlinson or Mandy James• [email protected] or [email protected]

http://www.local.gov.uk/inform

http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/c/9045727/home.do

http://www.local.gov.uk/knowledgehub

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

LG Inform workshop 1 slides with additional notes

Business

contextual data

basic data services

group informbackground

sector focus

sector wantshow

data agendainitial questions

authoritycore performance

performance of serviceshelp