LGIU Response: Local Government Outcomes Framework (LGOF)

Jonathan Carr-West, Chief Executive, Local Government Information Unit (LGIU), said:

“As if there wasn’t already enough going on in the world of local government reform – today, the Deputy Prime Minister has unveiled the government’s new Local Government Outcomes Framework (LGOF) for councils across England.

The government’s ambitious plans to reform the sector already include reorganisation, devolution, and financial reform as outlined in the English Devolution White Paper and Fair Funding 2.0 consultation. Overall, the sector has welcomed the government’s attempts to tackle some of these long-standing issues and the positive tone of their engagement with councils.

However, councils may want to be cautious in response to today’s LGOF consultation. Everyone agrees with the need to move away from ringfenced grants and burdensome reporting requirements for local government. Instead, the government has proposed an approach focused on outcomes-based performance measurement against key national targets. It will be critical to understand how these 15 outcomes were determined by Whitehall, how they will be reported on and how this process will support the promise to shift power away from central government to local institutions.

The government suggests that these measurements are not targets but a way to provide central assurance and local flexibility, but it will be crucial to have clarity on how these outcomes will be monitored and progressed. While past approaches to performance management have successfully driven up minimum standards, they have also acted as a brake on local innovation and created a significant administrative burden. How can we make it different this time?

We also need to think about how this fits into the bigger picture. While the individual elements of the government’s reforms for local government – such as reorganisation, devolution, and financial reform – are all perfectly sound and represent significant undertakings for anyone working in councils across England, the critical task is to tie them together. The challenge lies in creating a cohesive whole that is stronger and more impactful than the sum of its individual parts. The question remains: how do these seemingly disparate pieces coalesce into a unified and effective system that works best to deliver for our communities?”