ACIG recently assisted several government organizations to evaluate their programs and services, using benchmarking, performance measurement, program logic and process analysis, stakeholder consultation, and applying strategic improvement tools to create a sustainable improvement plan.

Local governments are increasingly using flexible approaches to ensure they deliver best value to their communities. ACIG has recently assisted several local councils to evaluate programs and services, using a variety of methods.

For Council A, ACIG helped by developing costing models for a range of possible service delivery scenarios: in-house, outsourced, and combinations. Using Net Present Value analysis, the optimum combination of service delivery methods for a bundle of services was determined.

For Council B, ACIG delivered several service unit reviews according to Best Value principles. Wide consultation with service unit staff, customers and other stakeholders followed on from an initial analysis of the service program logic model and its linkages with council’s strategic and business plans. Stakeholder feedback was coupled with benchmarking information and data from documentary sources to form a picture of the current status of the service. Service unit staff were engaged in developing continuous improvement strategies for service development and an improvement plan created for each service.