The Wandsworth guide to value for money
Author: ConservativeHome |
Cllr Edward Lister, the Conservative leader of Wandsworth Council will present a report to Hammersmith and Fulham Council’s Value for Money Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday. Here is a sneak preview.
Wandsworth Council has a long and continuous record of pursuing value for money for its services. In fact this goes back for some 30 years: the majority control of the Council changed from Labour to Conservative in 1978, and some key policies, such as the pursuit of value for money and efficiency, and house sales and diversification of tenure started then. Other specific economy and effectiveness measures soon followed, and the Council was one of the first to experiment with competitive tendering, adopting a general policy of embracing competition for procurement of all its services, where feasible, in 1980. By the late 1980’s and early 1990’s thorough going work on quality monitoring and clear charters with standards for all services were well advanced.
As I therefore have 31 years to cover in a reasonable time and allow questions I will have to be succinct and cover Wandsworth’s case history in a light-touch way. A more detailed summary was presented in the excellent recent Localis booklet “Big Ideas” edited by Stephen Greenhalgh last year. I will cover the Wandsworth story in 3 main sections – achievements, political management and decision taking on policy, and finally our seven main approaches to ensure savings and effectiveness.