Service Reviews: How are NSW Councils driving progress and demonstrating accountability for service delivery?

In September 2021 the NSW Office of Local Government published guidelines for Integrated Planning and Reporting (IP&R), which included a new requirement to publish a program of Service Reviews. The guidelines also specified an associated new reporting requirement:

5.3 The Annual Report must include information about how the council has progressed on the delivery of the service reviews it has committed to undertake in that year, the results of those reviews and any changes made to levels of service in the areas under review.

Council’s Annual Report provides accountability to the community. Reporting on service reviews is a positive commitment that demonstrates improvements to Council performance and service delivery and can provide information to residents and ratepayers about positive innovations and upcoming initiatives.

How does this new legislative requirement look in practice?

Centium has been supporting Councils to develop and implement their new service review programs over the past two years, and we have conducted a range of reviews of various different services in different environments.

Early in the new year we decided to check in on a sample of Councils recently published Annual Reports (2023-2024) to analyse how and what they were reporting. We chose a few Councils that we know well, and here’s a summary of our findings:

• No report – one Council had no content in their Annual Report about conducting service reviews.  
• Inaccurate report – one Council omitted two service reviews from their Annual Report that were underway during the reporting period.
• Minimal report – one Council merely stated that ‘service reviews commenced and ongoing’.
• Descriptive report – three Councils described their approach, listed the services that they’d reviewed during the year, and provided a brief snapshot of some of the outcomes.
• Full Report – one Council described their approach to conducting the reviews, and listed the services that were reviewed during the reporting period. They also listed the recommendations, how the management response varied from the review recommendations, and the progress they’d achieved in implementing each recommendation.

Insights from Camden’s Service Review Report

We have selected Camden Council as a great example because it not only meets the guidelines, but also has the following better practice features:

Centium’s Support – Organisation or Service Level Focus

Centium can provide support to meet these requirements no matter what your starting point. We can look across all services, to set organisational priorities for both the services selected for review and can also assist you to define the purpose and objectives of conducting the review.

We can also support you to design and conduct a service review. We bring fresh eyes, depth of local government experience and technical capability to conduct a thorough analysis and offer realistic and targeted recommendations for improvement. We will work with your internal corporate and service management professionals in a way that recognises and enhances your inhouse skills and experience.

Enhance accountability and service quality in your council. Get in touch with us to learn how we can assist you. Our expertise in service reviews can help you implement best practices and drive positive change in your community.