New Website Makes Local Government Data Available

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) has recently launched a new website, developed by ORC International, which will provide open access to all the UK's local government Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI).

The site allows local people to compare their council's performance against that of other councils. It also allows users to check the performance of their council on nearly one hundred aspects of services delivered locally, including the number of GCSE passes achieved, the level of waste re-cycled and the amount of council tax collected. As well as providing information to the general public the site is also a research tool for local government officers, academics, private sector companies and the wider public sector. The interactive area of the site allows detailed analysis, tabulation and charting of BVPI data.

The site was designed to be simple to use and navigate, and also provide users with the ability to interrogate more complex data if required. The structure of the site was agreed upon after initial consultation with members of the public and local government officials. With a working model in place, ORC International conducted website evaluations with potential users to assess and refine the site.

Rachel Lopata, research director at ORC International commented: 'This website will be invaluable both for members of the public who want to know more about how their local council is performing, and for authorities which may wish to compare their performance with other similar local authorities. It is an innovative approach to giving people better and more flexible access to performance information of this type, in a format that is easy to use and understand.'

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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