As part of its Placement Fellowship Scheme the ESRC welcomes applications from academics interested in working in a research capacity in the Department for Communities and Local Government. The Scheme encourages social science researchers to spend time within a partner organisation to undertake policy relevant research and to develop the research skills of partner employees. The Fellowship will be jointly funded by the ESRC and Department for Communities and Local Government while the Fellow remains employed by his/her institution.
- Project Title
- Understanding value for money in local authority led public services: what it is and what drives it and how can it be measured?
- Length of Fellowship
- One Year - part time (2.5 days per week)
- Proposed start date
- March 2010 or as soon as agreeable to both parties
- Location of Fellowship
- The Local Governance Research Unit (LGRU) within the Department for Communities and Local Government (Eland House, Victoria, London)
Expected tasks
- Analysis and review of the analytical framework that should be applied to understanding the value for money of local services (as delivered by local authorities and their partners).
- Mapping of VfM policy interventions according to that analytical framework (in order to show the intended effect of the intervention (including specific regulatory/performance management activities).
- Mapping of other policies (and their interactions) which may influence the attainment of VfM (eg empowerment) according to the analytical framework (in order to show the VfM effect of the intervention).
- Mapping of national and local data that could be applied to the analysis of VfM at the service level. Referring, in particular, to relevant CLG initiatives such as Total Place. How can these data be used in the measurement of service level VfM?
- Through the mapping exercise, assess the potential gaps in policy (inc regulatory) focus, duplication, conflicting aims etc.
- Review of evidence on effectiveness of current individual policy interventions that explicitly address value for money: what are the levers, do they work, can the policy be improved etc?
These are indicative tasks at this stage as the final scope of the work would be informed through the advice being sought from independent academic advisers to the Department and agreed with the appointee.
Skills required
Essential
- Strong analytical capability
- Good interpersonal/communication skills
- Ability to work independently
- Ability to maintain focus on the requirement and deliver outputs to satisfactory standard
Desirable
- Knowledge of and interest in public sector economics
- Knowledge of and interest in local government/local area service delivery
- Quantitative analysis skills
Background
Local authorities and their local partners deliver a wide range of services including adult, secondary and primary education; waste collection and disposal; transport planning; regeneration; housing; etc. Local authority services alone cost in the region of £117bn annually.
Given severe budgetary pressures over the forthcoming years, there is an urgent requirement to ensure that local services provide the highest levels of value for money. However, in the absence of comprehensive and reliable information of the VfM performance of locally delivered services, Government has, in reality, to trust that its assumptions about its policies are correct. But are these assumptions correct?
The conventional model of public service value for money decomposes the service delivery chain - inputs, outputs and outcomes - into three phases which impact on the attainment, or otherwise, of value for money:
- Economy - the cost at which inputs can be procured.
- Efficiency - the ratio of outputs to inputs (eg number and timing of planning applications processed resulting from expenditure on planning services).
- Effectiveness - the relationship between the outputs and the outcomes that are achieved (eg spend on education and realisation of value added in the wider economy - this example does not hold - is relationship between input and output? Would a better example be eg spend on education (input) with? (output) with? (outcome)).
Policy interventions should be formulated according to a coherent analytical framework as outlined above with evidence justifying the choice of any one intervention according to expected or actual impact on VfM. (This effectively argues for a more elaborate cost/benefit approach to policy assessment).
The questions that need to be posed include:
- How suitable is the conventional VfM Framework - for example, how should policies aimed at changing behaviour be treated?
- To what extent has current policy formulation adhered to a coherent VfM framework (which should guide where resources applied to interventions are put)?
Thus, aside from work on reviewing the analytical framework, it will be necessary, in the first instance, to map interventions that are aimed at improving VfM and relating these to the (reviewed) analytical framework
To bound the scope of the work, the mapping exercise would focus on the explicitly VfM related policy interventions currently being applied by CLG:- regulatory activity (Comprehensive Area Assessment); procurement policy (National Procurement Strategy) etc. and probably with reference to a small number of key service areas.
This process in turn will lead to a series of other important questions.
- Are there gaps in the use of VfM evidence in CLG policy formulation? What, for instance, is being done to ensure the adoption of best (efficient) practice in the delivery of social care?
- Could the policy formulation processes be improved and in what ways?
- What evidence is there on the effectiveness of existing VfM policy (with reference to the framework)?
- How does emerging policy thinking fit according to the framework? Is personalisation primarily an attempt to improve service effectiveness? Is that the best option to improve service effectiveness?
- To what extent is the attainment of particular service (or policy outcomes) actually within the control of Government? What are the implications for expenditure?
- What information could be collected to provide summary evidence of service level VfM and spatial variations as well as sources of best practice?
In helping to answer at least some of these questions, the appointment of an ESRC Fellow would assist greatly in developing the Departments analytical framework concerning the treatment of service level VfM. The work of the Fellow will also be supported through the ability to commission discrete work from the LGRU’s Panel of Experts.
The closing date for this call is 26 January 2010.
Application is by the JeS system and should be submitted accordingly - the call will go live on 26 November 2009 and remain open until 26 January 2010. Please refer to the scheme specific guidance notes. A list of FAQs relevant to the Placement Fellowship Scheme is provided to assist you.
Any enquiries please email: lesley.lilley@esrc.ac.uk
For enquiries about the nature of the research please email derek.egan@communities.gsi.gov.uk