Friday Funday

The lighter side of local government

London pigeon wars
Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, is known for being outspoken. Never less than when speaking about pigeons. "Rats with wings," he calls them. Writing in a personal capacity only, I am inclined to agree.

But in an effort to rid Trafalgar Square of the winged-rats, Ken has tried to find a natural compromise. He has brought in a pair of Harris hawks to menace the pigeon population and get them to move along to greener squares.

...a pair of Harris hawks who alternately hover above the square, exuding menace and bad intent. New figures released to London's Liberal Democrats reveal that the mayor's mercenary hawks have killed 121 pigeons since 2003, far exceeding their remit which is merely to scare pigeons away.

The Lib Dems are questioning whether the hawks are really value for money, since they've only killed 121 birds and scared away more than a 1000, but have left a hard core of about 1000 really tough pigeons.

But value for money isn't the only flack Mayor Livingstone is taking in the pigeon debate. No - he's got a whole slew of opposition from an umbrella group call the Pigeon Alliance.

Julia Fletcher, of the Pigeon Action Group, called the loss of pigeons "the greatest wildlife cruelty catastrophe that London has ever known". She added: "The mayor is using these hawks as a kind of bloodsport. The birds will not go away. They are committed to being in the square.

The pigeons are committed to staying in the square? Really? I know no one's asked them, but I guess they've voted with their wings.

See a picture of the pigeons in Trafalgar Square in the "good old days".


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You're a winner, no, a loser - either way

Topics: performance, inspection, regulation, funding

Two Oxford University social scientists have conducted reseach and come up with the notion that the current regime of managing the performance in public services is contradictory: Via e-gov monitor:

“If you improve your school results, your CPA score goes up, but your funding from central government goes down. Conversely, if school results worsen, funding from central government goes up, but your CPA score goes down. Either way, you gain a (partly) financial bonus and suffer a (partly) financial penalty.”

The two Oxford researchers suggest public services reform.

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Show me the money

You gotta love the LGA's response to Gordon Brown's conference speech:

Responding to Chancellor Gordon Brown’s party conference speech in Manchester in which he said:- "It is right that local councils, not Whitehall, should have more power over the things that matter to their community and from economic regeneration to public transport, the empowerment and strengthening of local councils and local communities is what we must now do."

The Chairman of the Local Government Association, Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, said:-“Now is the chance for Gordon Brown and the government to prove that this is more than just words by putting the changes he has put forward into the local government White Paper due in a month’s time.”

ENDS

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PM Partner update

Well, this is the last week that I'll be introducing a new topic for PM Partner (at least not part of the scheduled set). But it's probably the most important topic of all - adding value. This is why we got involved in partnerships at all - to get more than the sum of the parts.

But how can you know if your partnership is adding value? How can you increased added value? See this week's topics on PM Partner.

________

What next?

Since this is the last week that I'll be introducing a new topic for PM Partner (though there will be weekly updates for a couple more weeks) - it's time to start thinking about what we should do with the resource. Should we continue to leave it open? Should we preserve it in aspic? What would make the site more useful? Share your thoughts on the PM Partner site here.


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What's new on Knowledge

This week on IDeA Knowledge there's an article on wikis. And it doesn't mention ours... Even so, it's a good overview on the resource - and I think for me highlights one of the most important usages:

For local authorities and government agencies, wiki technology is not so much about providing a journal of record. It is a way to gather technical and managerial information electronically, in a flexible and inexpensive way.

Yep, it's flexible. For me, it's a great way of recording the good practice that I come across - or hopefully it will just appear in PM Partner as our many collaborators share their experience, too. The article also points out the drawbacks...

There are, though, risks involved. A number of public wiki sites have encountered problems with individuals or small groups. There may be attempts to hijack the sites to put across a particular point of view, promote commercial interests, or in some cases, simply to cause disruption.

Actually, there's been an hilarious example of a wiki being hijacked by a notable Internet personality - Guido Fawkes and his band of merry digital trouble makers. I shouldn't really poke fun - because I sure wouldn't be laughing if it happened to me. You can read all about it here on David Wilcox's blog Designing for a Civil Society

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Friday funday

The lighter side of local government

Some councils will bend over backward to get a film crew in - having a movie shot in your area can put your town or city in a good light and stimulate the local economy through temporary jobs and increased tourism. Why not accomodate the film crew when they want to shoot footage in the town hall or they mayor's office for those crucial local government official meets super hero scenes? That's what Gallatin, Tennessee Mayor Don Wright thought anyway when he agreed to filming in the Mayor's office and town hall. Wright says he supports filmmaking for economic development in town.

But I think it kinda depends on just what sort of film it is. Mayor Wright agreed to the use of his office for Thong Girl 3. Even if you haven't seen Thong Girl 1 or 2 (apparently filmed in nearby Nashville), I think you can imagine what kind of film this is.

The town council is pretty upset. Mayor Wright assures constituents that he didn't know what kind of film it was. The plot features an Assistant District Attorney (equivalent to a lawyer for the local Crown Prosecution Service) who discovers her super hero powers after trying on a magical red thong. These powers allow her to fly and to fire lasers from her...well, from a place where the sun doesn't normally shine but which may well be revealed if wearing said thong.

The filmmaker, Glenn Weiss, stressed that his movie is "family friendly." He says "There's no nudity, no cussing and no sex. The family can go to this." My great-grandparents used to live in Gallatin (a satellite town of the state capital, Nashville), but I couldn't imagine sitting down to watch this with my family and a sense of local pride.

Weiss added "We go to comic book conventions. Kids come up to her. She has a cape on. She's very modest."

Well, I guess that's alright, so long as she's wearing a cape...

Story from The Nashville Tennessean. I would have provided a link to the Thong Girl site, but I'm not sure it's exactly work-safe.

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Benchmarking town halls

For me, it's not a holiday unless I've been in some sort of government building. On family vacations when I was a kid, my mom used to drag us into state capitol buildings, the parliament of Quebec, etc. which might sound like it's not that much fun, but usually there's some pretty impressive architecture and maybe a museum featuring state history. (Maybe I was just a weird kid, my brother hated it.) As an adult, I've continued the tradition. I think what government buildings are like tells you something about the way people view themselves, government and the concept of citizenship.

On holiday in France, we saw a few town halls, hotel de ville. The ones I saw were all lovely examples of municipal architecture and best of all, they had fantastic floral displays. These weren't annuals planted up in little soldier rows, but often glorious examples of exotic cottage garden style - like Gertrude Jekyll on speed. I may be wrong, but I've visited a heck of a lot of town halls in Britain and quite a few state and municipal buildings in the US, but I've never seen such amazing civic gardens in front of the town hall. (There are sometimes lovely municipal gardens elsewhere). I know it has a cost, but I wonder if welcoming gardens might help citizens engage more with the business of city and state?

Bayeux


Calais

I also went inside this one

Dinan

Although I'm not sure that this is the town hall, it's definitely a municipal building

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Naked market making

Topics: market making, partnership, procurement, children, health, education

Every once in a while a colleague mentions the topic of market making, supporting and developing markets. It's about understanding the demand in your community for a service, assessing whether demand is being met and then helping ensure there is adequate provision - if necessary by creating a market.

Now, I do have an MA in Economics, but I never really got my head around this. What exactly would this look like? The other night, watching tv on my sofa at home, I saw a brilliant example - only it's taken me until now to figure it out what I'd been watching.

I'm sure you remember the Naked Chef's aka Jamie Oliver's Feed Me Better Campaign. The guy set out to change a school, make a tv programme and has ended up changing national schools' policy. Fantastic. His programme is back on air (here's more on Channel 4) for some new policy-changing initiatives now and I watched it Monday night. Jamie didn't just make school dinners on the show; he made a market.

How did it work? Well, in Lincolnshire a lot of schools, particularly primary schools no longer (or never did) have on site kitchens. So there's no practicable way that someone could make hot meals on campus.

1. There was demand for hot school dinners, better meals
2. Demand wasn't being met
3. It's time to make a market.

Pubs are just about everywhere, and these days many do food. So there's a kitchen close to a school. Is it possible to cook the school dinners? Yes. Was the pub willing to try? Maybe. A bit of work had to be done to persuade the pub meet demand and arrangements had to be made between the school and the pub. There were hiccups. (Jamie had to give the pub a little lesson in wholesale procurement of fresh veg and initially the pub wasn't making quite enough money). Jamie didn't just work with one pub, he held an invent that put food producers, wholesale suppliers and hopsitality businesses in touch with schools. He made a market.

Of course, in public policy, this isn't just about the "output" of hot, nutritious school meals. This is about ensuring that children are adequately nourished to do well in school. They pay better attention, they learn more, there are fewer behavioural problems when kids are well fed and aren't on a diet of junk. The real outcomes are better educational attainment, better life chances for these kids, and eventually this contributes to a more skilled work force and a more vibrant economy. All by making a market. As Jamie would say - Happy Day.



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Naked market making

Topics: market making, partnership, procurement, children, health, education

Every once in a while a colleague mentions the topic of market making, supporting and developing markets. It's about understanding the demand in your community for a service, assessing whether demand is being met and then helping ensure there is adequate provision - if necessary by creating a market.

Now, I do have an MA in Economics, but I never really got my head around this. What exactly would this look like? The other night, watching tv on my sofa at home, I saw a brilliant example - only it's taken me until now to figure it out what I'd been watching.

I'm sure you remember the Naked Chef's aka Jamie Oliver's Feed Me Better Campaign. The guy set out to change a school, make a tv programme and has ended up changing national schools' policy. Fantastic. His programme is back on air (here's more on Channel 4) for some new policy-changing initiatives now and I watched it Monday night. Jamie didn't just make school dinners on the show; he made a market.

How did it work? Well, in Lincolnshire a lot of schools, particularly primary schools no longer (or never did) have on site kitchens. So there's no practicable way that someone could make hot meals on campus.

1. There was demand for hot school dinners, better meals
2. Demand wasn't being met
3. It's time to make a market.

Pubs are just about everywhere, and these days many do food. So there's a kitchen close to a school. Is it possible to cook the school dinners? Yes. Was the pub willing to try? Maybe. A bit of work had to be done to persuade the pub meet demand and arrangements had to be made between the school and the pub. There were hiccups. (Jamie had to give the pub a little lesson in wholesale procurement of fresh veg and initially the pub wasn't making quite enough money). Jamie didn't just work with one pub, he held an invent that put food producers, wholesale suppliers and hopsitality businesses in touch with schools. He made a market.

Of course, in public policy, this isn't just about the "output" of hot, nutritious school meals. This is about ensuring that children are adequately nourished to do well in school. They pay better attention, they learn more, there are fewer behavioural problems when kids are well fed and aren't on a diet of junk. The real outcomes are better educational attainment, better life chances for these kids, and eventually this contributes to a more skilled work force and a more vibrant economy. All by making a market. As Jamie would say - Happy Day.



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Peformance management quick hits

Since I've been away, I guess I thought (or hoped) that the world of performance management might grind to a halt without me. But no, time and performance management stop for no man.


New performance management standards for schools pushed back to '07
Schools Minister Jim Knight has announced an updated timeline for the introduction of performance management requirements for schools and local authorities.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back...
IDeA Knowledge has renewed and relaunched the Best Value online resource.

Adversaries to allies
A Society Guardian article on the power of professionals to transform services. Written by Duncan O'Leary, a Demos researcher, it's based on the work of IDeA and the Demos think tank.

Public health partnerships
The Department for Communities and Local Government has published new guidance on better partnership working Supporting People for Better Health: A guide to partnership working (link to a PDF file). This will also be added to the list of resources on PM Partner.


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PM in district councils

I spoke at an LGA conference on performance management in district councils today. It's always hard to judge how well you've done at these things, but certainly no rotten fruit was thrown. I was speaking in the post-lunch spot, which has two distinct disadvantages:

1. People were likely sleepy after the excellent catering
2. I was a little too busy thinking about what I was going to say later to pay 100% attention to what the morning speakers were saying.

Cate McDonald from the Audit Commission outlined the new "lighter touch" CPA for district councils. Mark Poppy, the Deputy Chief Exec of Welwyn Hatfield council spoke about their experience as a recent DCPA pilot - and about their passion for performance and the role of good managers in getting the best performance. Rupert Dewhirst of the Institute of Public Finance outlined the requirements of the Use of Resources assessment. Rupert always does well at handling what can be seen to be an incredibly dry topic - and a really important topic. I think as a sector, we need to get much better at assessing value for money, but this means combining financial and performance management - often handled by different teams and different people. It was also good to see him again, as I'd done some work with him on the Improvement Network website. Kate Picknett rounded off the morning with an interesting perspective on their involvement with the Area Profiles project. She's from Penwith Council - the most southwesterly district in England - and they have some interesting - if not quite unique - problems with housing affordability and pockets of deprivation among great prosperity. Some of the work they'd done in focusing down to small areas had impact on their Local Area Agreement (LAA) negotiations - Cornwall does really well in certain areas (e.g. educational attainment) but within these areas of deprivation - improving attainment is definitely stretching performance - and they felt is should be included in their LAA.

I spoke about some of the key lessons from PMMI, but also how we're looking to carry that learning forward and build on it - part of this will be to develop learning from the PM Partner project - about how we can get performance management stories from a community of practitioners. Nigel Riglar, of Stroud DC, followed with (as ever) a very entertaining discussion of their improvements to their planning service - but with fantastic metaphors around the Titanic. Who's driving your ship? Are you avoiding icebergs and getting folks into lifeboats - or are you actually gonna make it to New York? Nick Easton spoke about the IDeA/LGA new performance framework. I'd seen him speak before on this to a similar audience a few months ago - and no reflection on Nick, but the audience was much more engaged this time. I think people are now really hungry to take on the challenge and see this as a good time to be ambitious about a sector-led approach to regulation. We're all going to need to be engaged with this approach and support each other.

The conference finished off with a two-hander from David Cook, Chief Executive of Kettering Borough Council and Deborah Snow who talked about the "Top 20 performance indicators". Now even I, a performance management junkie, thought that sounded a little dry. But they gave a great presentation - largely on getting the basics right. David Cook had the best "back to the floor" type tip. He regularly listens in on randomly selected customer calls to the council on tape on his drive home. This helps him get a finger on the pulse of what the main customer issues are, and also on how customer service is being handled in the council.

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I'm back

Well, I'm back from holiday, reasonably well-tanned, well-rested and well-fed. I went to Normandy and Brittany and had a great time drinking cider, visiting sites and just chilling. I also snapped a few pictures of the rather picturesque French town halls - hotel de ville. Here's the one in Calais (not a great pic), showing the town hall and the famous Rodin sculpture The Burghers of Calais (another casting of this statue can also be seen near the Palace of Westminster). If you're not up on your medieval history, King Edward III besieged the French port of Calais - and the town leaders - the Burghers of Calais - came out and offered themselves and the key to the city to save the remaining citizens. That's some example of public service.



You can actually go into the town hall and we did. It was just as splendid inside - including the council chamber which had another image of the surrender of Calais -



And the stained glass window in the great stairway pictured the English leaving Calais with writing in French saying something like "the English leave, hoping to return"


(Click thru to see notes on the photo)

And, of course, the English did return, but in peace these days...in search of bargain wine.



And being such a history buff, I didn't just see the burghers of Calais...I ate the burgers of Calais.



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Friday funday

The lighter side of local government

Biscuits for birds
Any species can become a pest. But some species are more pesty than others. Sea gulls, for instance. It can be expensive and tricky to deal with such a problem, but councillors in Bristol are willing to make sacrifices. How? They're giving up the annual biscuit budget of 25K to go most of the way towards the 30K it will take to reduce the sea gull population humanely.

Effective community consultation?
I've blogged before about graffiti and community engagement. And I've just seen a Chinese example that's a corker. Chinese local government bodies paint slogans on the side of buildings to discourage "anti-social" behaviour among residents. Messages like "Stay away from drugs and AIDs" might not be winning any creativity awards, but it's hard to argue with them. Others are a bit more dubious - such as "If kids set a fire, their father will go to jail" (no doubt part of a better parenting campaign) or downright scary like "Destroy a line of trees and your mother will die first." See these and more at the China Digital Times.

Campaign convenience
Via Governing's 13th Floor, the US State and Local government blog, I read that Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's campaign headquarters have been broken into. Mayor O'Malley has visited London before to work with Westminster City Council and he's been a pioneer in using CitiStat performance management approaches for local government. So did someone break in to steal campaign information - or maybe a PM report? Nah -

The guy was apparently intoxicated and looking for a bathroom," a police spokesman told the Baltimore Sun. "That's all there is to it. There's nothing sinister, as far as we can tell. He apparently had no idea what office he was in."

Governing's take on it:

Let's put the blame back where it belongs: on O'Malley. Let's have some public
toilets, Mr. Mayor!

Busman's hols?
I'm off on holiday for two weeks from today. Where am I off to? Well, here's an image of a town hall in the region.


Photo credit Enro

You won't be getting the daily doses of my doubtful wit and wisdom, but you never know, I might do a little mobile blogging on holiday.

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case studies on fire

Topics: case studies, fire and rescue

The DCLG has published a new set of case studies of "notable practice" for fire and rescue - some featuring performance management.

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