Agenda item

Juliet Whitworth, Head of Research and Information

The Chair invited Juliet Whitworth (JW), Head of Research and Information, to introduce the update.

JW provided members with an update on Oflog, following its formal launch at the LGA Conference on 4 July. Disappointingly, the new Oflog datasets do not make use of data in the LGA’s LG Inform tool. JW showed members a comparison between the new Oflog tool and LG Inform and then ran through the concerns that the LGA still has over Oflog. Moving forward, as DLUHC starts to develop new data topics, the LGA will continue to feed through any sector concerns and to argue for a role for LG Inform.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       It was argued that as Oflog was now here to stay, it was important that the LGA had an effective formalised process for engaging with it and influencing its agenda and ways of working. JW said that engagement was currently on 2 levels – (i) fortnightly meetings with officials discussing more practical issues; and (ii) higher level meetings between the IIB Chair, DS and the Interim Chair and Chief Executive of Oflog, where broader concerns can be raised. The latter had proven constructive in recent weeks.

·       Concern was expressed about potential extension of the Oflog remit to include sending in experts and other senior local government figures to councils where Oflog data flagged up concerns. This was considered to be a clear encroachment onto the CPC process and local democratic accountability and the LGA should push strongly against it.

·       It was suggested that duplication of data provision by councils could have a financial/resource impact which should be factored in. Concerns were also raised about the quality and timeliness of the data used by Oflog, which could be erroneously used by the public and others to judge the performance of their council. JW clarified that, at the moment, Oflog was using data already submitted by councils, and so there is no duplication. JW also explained that the main concern was that Oflog had taken the decision to use only data from the last year when it was available for all metrics – 2020/21. Therefore, it could not be reliably used as an up to date tool for spotting potential problems with councils.

·       Confidence and trust in the LGA’s CPC process had been built up over a number of years and it was often the small number of councils that didn’t engage with the process that had subsequently encountered problems.

·       It was pointed out that it was often failures of governance, management and leadership that led to councils getting into difficulty and this could not easily be measured or picked up by an Oflog metric. The LGA’s system of CPC and regional teams on the ground was much better placed to detect these issues.

DS reported on the potential 5 additional areas of work identified by Oflog in their policy paper issued at the launch – (i) early warning conversations with councils using experts and others; (ii) best practice webinars; (iii) rationalising data; (iv) improving the capacity of the sector to use data; and (v) thematic reviews to capture best practice. DS said that he shared the concerns expressed by members about Oflog encroaching on the CPC process but that further work on (ii) – (v) could, on the face of it, be beneficial to councils, and officers would work constructively with Oflog on these. The Chair added that the LGA as a whole needed to be ready to engage with Oflog at the earliest opportunity on the concerns raised by members as events were likely to develop quickly.

Decision:

Improvement & Innovation Board noted the newly launched Office for Local Government and proposed next steps outlined in paragraph 13 of the report.