I was invited to a local council consultation the other evening. I’m not sure why my name came out of the hat, but I was available, so why not? The topic was performance monitoring of council services, and informing residents of the results.
I realised that I actually knew nothing at all about their costs and value for money, and except for personal experience, nothing about service levels either. How much does it cost to empty my bin, or paint a green cycle lane on the road, or provide us with an allotment? And even if I knew, how could I tell whether they were competitively priced? And even if I knew that, how could I judge whether the service delivered a worthwhile outcome?
But what turned out to be so fascinating wasn’t the topic, but the process.
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