Six key questions that lead to the two inspection judgements

Judgement 1 – How good is the service?

Q1 Are the Council’s aims clear and challenging?

“Inspectors look to see how a Council has agreed the key aims for the service being inspected, how clear these aims are to the people that receive the service and whether these reflect the corporate aims of the organisation as a whole”.

Q2 Does the service meet these aims?

“Having considered the aims the Council has set for the service, Inspectors make an assessment of how well the Council is performing in meeting these aims.  This includes an assessment of performance against specific standards and targets and the Council’s approach to measuring whether it is actually delivering what it sets out to do.”

Q3 How does the performance compare?

“In order to judge the quality of a service it is important to compare the performance of that service against other suppliers across a range of sectors.  The aim is not exact comparison, but an exploration of how similar services (or elements of services) perform in order to identify significant differences, the reasons for them, and the extent to which improvements are required.”

Judgement 2 – How likely is the service to improve?

Q4 Does the BVR drive improvement?

“The best value review is the mechanism for ensuring authorities deliver continuous improvement in the services they provide.”

Q5 How good is the improvement plan?

“A Best Value Review should produce an improvement plan that sets out what needs to improve, why, and how that improvement will be delivered.  It should contain targets which are not only challenging but also designed to demonstrate and ensure the continuous improvement necessary to put the service amongst the top 25% of Councils within five years.”

Q6 Will the Council deliver the improvements?

Inspectors look for evidence that a Council will deliver what it has set out in the improvement plan.  We look for a track record of managing change within the Council and, ideally, within the service itself.  The plan should also have sufficient support from councillors, management, staff, service users and other stakeholders, particularly those responsible for delivering it.”