“Efficiency” is defined as achieving the same outputs for less resource or additional outputs for the same resource. Consequently, an action that fully or partially alleviates a cost pressure is countable as a cash-releasing efficiency, but an action that frees up cash at the expense of the overall effectiveness of service delivery is not an efficiency gain. Efficiency, improvement and service transformation go hand in hand. Without the ability to continually modernise and become more productive, councils put existing service quality at risk. Sometimes these efficiencies will come from better implementation of tried and tested practices such as strengthening project management or closer scrutiny of expenditure, but innovation must take a more important role as the scale of the challenge increases. Therefore EFFICIENCY– achieving more for the same or less resource – is a vital aspect of service delivery. By getting lower prices for products, automating processes, reducing errors, and removing duplication, councils are able to hold down council tax and drive improvement where it matters most.
Sustainable efficiency means ensuring that members, managers and staff (whether engaged in operational service delivery or business support) have continuous improvement in value for money as core to their roles. Increasingly they will require knowledge and skills to utilise routinely the wide range of business improvement tools and customer-need analyses available to support effective decision making.Many local authorities already have sound foundations in place for effective improvement: an organisational culture that sets a high priority on value for money; access to good customer information and diagnostic tools to identify what needs to be done; and the leadership and skills needed to make it happen. For the efficiency challenge to be met, these strengths must be promoted more widely.
SOURCE : REGIONAL CENTER OF EXCELLENT AND DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT, UNITED KINGDOM, 2003
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