Gove outlines strategic remit for Oflog for next three years
The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, has set out the strategic remit for the Office for Local Government (Oflog) for 2024 to 2027 and its priorities for 2024 to 2025.
Oflog has meanwhile launched a consultation on its draft Corporate Plan for 2024 to 2027, which will run until 14 March 2024.
The remit letter sent by the Secretary of State yesterday (15 February) to Oflog chief executive Josh Goodman is intended to build on the government policy document Understanding and supporting local government performance published at Oflog’s launch in July 2023.
The letter sets out the vision, purpose, objectives, and priorities for Oflog in addition to expectations for its governance and accountability.
In it Gove says the purpose of Oflog is “to help make local government even better. It will increase understanding about the performance of local authorities, warn when authorities are at risk of serious failure, and support local government to improve itself.”
Oflog will seek to strengthen, not replace, the existing systems that support English local government to get better, the Secretary of State writes. “A primarily sector-led self-improvement system is the right one; Oflog will make it stronger.”
He adds: “Oflog will make it easier for everyone – citizens, civil society, media, central government and local government itself – to understand how each local authority is performing. Oflog will support local transparency and scrutiny by the media.”
Gove also says Oflog:
- will help identify when local authorities are at risk of serious failure but have not raised the alarm themselves. “If they are not already subject to formal intervention or inspection from DLUHC, Oflog will help identify the type and degree of risk and make recommendations for improvement.”
- will support local authorities to improve. “Over time, it should become a centre of excellence in ‘what works’ in local government. It will identify, celebrate and encourage good practice, and become a centre of expertise in the use of data in managing local government.”
- must work in close partnership with the local government sector and bodies that represent, support or oversee it. “It should complement, not duplicate, the work of others.”
- should not lobby central government, Parliament, or political parties for regulatory or policy change.
The remit letter also sets out the organisation’s strategic objectives:
- (inform) to increase understanding - among citizens, civil society, media, central government and local government itself - about data on the performance of local authorities;
- (warn) to help identify local authorities that are at risk of serious failure but have not raised the alarm themselves; and
- (support) to support local government to improve performance, productivity, and value for money: championing best practice, improving data capability and rationalising a complex data landscape.
For the period April 2024 to March 2025, Oflog’s strategic priorities include further developing its online tool ‘Data Explorer’ by adding more metrics (working towards covering all the main services offered by local government by mid-2025), revisiting those metrics already on the system, and improving its functionality.
The organisation will also be expected to develop a new early warning system to identify local authorities that are at risk of serious failure but have not raised the alarm themselves. It will also be expected to conduct the first ‘early warning conversations’ with local authorities at risk.
Further strategic priorities for April 2024 to March 2025 are to develop programmes of support and engagement.
These will include helping local authorities to use data in their management and governance; and work with local authorities and government departments to encourage the release of public sector data “that helps local authorities to act as true leaders of places while reducing burdens where possible”.
The letter from the Secretary of State also covers the establishment of an expert panel to advise the government on financial sustainability in the sector, of which Oflog will be a part.
“This panel will review councils’ productivity plans covering the transformation of services, opportunities in data and technology, ways to reduce wasteful spend (including through discredited equality, diversity, and inclusion programmes), and barriers to productivity that the government can alter,” Gove writes.
The Secretary of State also sets out Oflog’s role in supporting devolution and assessing the performance of combined authorities.
