The effectiveness and efficiency of arrangements to improve local public services have been at the heart of Government activity for at least two decades. The increasing reliance on targets and performance management techniques; the review of efficiency by Sir Peter Gershon; and the Cabinet Secretary's recent announcement that government departments will go through a Capability Review, are but the latest in a long line of measures to ensure that the public pound is spent effectively and efficiently on behalf of taxpayers and those who use local public services.
A 'delivery chain' refers to the complex networks of organisations, including central and local government, agencies, and bodies from the private and third1 sectors, that need to work together to achieve or deliver an improved public sector outcome defined through a central government Public Service Agreement (PSA) target.
The Audit Commission and the National Audit Office have long-standing responsibilities to safeguard the effectiveness and efficiency of public spending. They have recognised the increasing complexity of improving local public services by jointly producing three reports on the chains of organisations involved in delivering in England specific Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets those for affordable housing, increasing bus use and, in conjunction with the Healthcare Commission, halting the rise in child obesity. This report derives wider conclusions from those reports and other recent Audit Commission and National Audit Office work.
This report is intended to help government departments and their delivery partners at regional and local levels to address the risks we have identified in our three delivery chain reports; to provide helpful guidance; and to assist all those involved in delivering challenging public sector targets to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of existing delivery chains and to make decisions on future delivery chains in the knowledge of what works best.