The Modernisation and Importance of Government and Public Services: Great Expectations: Benchmarking for Best Value

Abstract

Many local authorities have embarked on benchmarking as one way of satisfying the Government’s requirement that local authorities provide ‘best value’ services. This article suggests that the Government’s initial enthusiasm for benchmarking was based on an incomplete understanding of the previous experiences of benchmarking in the local government sector. The most recent pronouncements make little mention of benchmarking, but there has been no explicit statement that it is no longer a key feature of best value. Local authorities are investing in developing benchmarking technology that may well fail to pay back in terms of meeting best value stipulations or in satisfying the authorities' own internal management needs. The authors suggest how local authority benchmarking efforts might be redirected to better effect.