Self-evaluation and continuous improvement
Self-evaluation is concerned with being self-aware. This means understanding where our organisational strengths and improvements lie and ensuring that services are sustainable in the future. It is an ongoing process of learning and delivering year on year improvements, balancing quality of service provision with ensuring value for money.
The duty of Best Value places a requirement on Councils to be able to demonstrate that self-evaluation activity is rigorous and transparent. The following principles are at the centre of Inverclyde Council’s approach to self-evaluation and continuous improvement:
- Improvement activity must be aligned to the delivery of the Council Plan 2023/28 and the achievement of the Council Vision,
- Continuous improvement is everyone’s responsibility,
- There should be a clear understanding of the purpose and benefits of self-evaluation at all levels,
- Self-evaluation frameworks must be flexible, adaptable and proportionate, and
- There should be transparency at each stage of the process.
Using self-evaluation as a tool to reflect on how well we are doing things and how we can deliver greater efficiency is firmly established within Inverclyde Council. At a service level, the Council has used the Public Service Improvement Framework (PSIF), which is a framework developed and managed by the Improvement Service to drive quality and excellence in the public sector, since 2008, A three-year cyclical programme of PSIF assessments is in place, involving a team from each service carrying out a review of evidence, performance information and stakeholder feedback to evaluate service performance and identify potential areas for improvement.
At a management level, the senior management team undertakes self assessment to review performance in particular areas across the whole Council. Recently, this has included an assessment on the theme of Workforce, using the Best Value Statutory Guidance as the assessment framework. This helped to identify areas for improvement in the workplace and in supporting and developing our employees. An evalaution of performance across all the Best Value themes has also been completed and the assessment report is available in the Documents section of this page.
Council Services are also subject to external scrutiny in the form of audits and inspection activities from Audit Scotland and other inspection agencies such as Education Scotland and the Care Inspectorate.
If you would like further information on any aspect of the self-evaluation tools used by Inverclyde Council, you can get in touch via the contact details provided on this page.