Yorkshire & Humber Improvement Framework

What is the Improvement Framework top of pg
Why do we need the YH Improvement Framework
Who does what
When would we use it

What is the Improvement Framework?

The Improvement Framework is a way for councils and their partners to access the support they need as they work together to design and deliver excellent and efficient public services. The Framework is now accessible to all local authorities and a full offer will be worked up by autumn 2009.

The framework has five stages, at each stage YoHr Space will work with councils and their partners to shape the most effective package of support.

Stage 1: recognising support needs

Stage 2: approaching YoHr Space

Stage 3: designing the support package

Stage 4: receiving support

Stage 5: evaluating effectiveness

Full details of each stage can be found in the Yorkshire & Humber Improvement Framework document.
Click here to view the framework

Why do we need the YH Improvement Framework?

To meet the challenges of transforming public service delivery we need a new approach. The old deficit model of improvement is no longer enough. As the RIES 2008-11 explains the only realistic way for councils and their partners to deliver better services ever more efficiently is to work together and to approach improvement as a shared endeavour.

Even more important in the future, will be the ability to improve and transform whole systems, addressing complex issues with partners and sharing learning and expertise across all. This will require local authorities and their partners to work together, drawing upon a coherent offer of support that: provides choice while avoiding duplication; maximises impact and benefits people and places by supporting better outcomes. (YH RIES 2008-11, pg 9)

The YH Improvement Framework aims to provide this coherent offer and to support councils and their partners in meeting the challenges of service transformation, of ‘doing things differently and doing different things’. (YH RIES 2008-11, pg 9)

Who does what?

YoHr Space will provide the first point of contact for councils and their partners who want to access support through the Improvement Framework.

Councils themselves will assist in providing peer support and will need to be willing to engage with each others issues and be open to challenge and scrutiny and accept the responsibility of sector-led improvement as a collective endeavour.

The IDeA will use its peer expertise to support the delivery of support through the Improvement Framework and help to provide some of the underpinning infrastructure.

When would we use it?

Essentially we would expect councils and their partners to access the YH Improvement Framework to:

Help pursue service transformation
Learn from good practice and pursue excellence
Support continuous improvement
Help develop local partnerships
Help tackle common risk areas and tough challenges

In practice their might mean the following:

An area has a strong track record on improvement and community leadership but became aware of weaknesses in aspects of children’s services that could potentially result in, most importantly, unsafe practice and damage to the reputation of the authority.	A council has services that are generally performing well but has developed poor relationships between officers and members and between different political groups. These are resulting in poor media coverage and are considered likely to be affecting the quality of decision making.
Problems with a chief officer requires an external reality check	Dysfunctional political groups
Serious adverse incident	Support to handle a crisis
Problematic political leadership	Leader and Chief Executive relationship breakdown
Work by the Audit Commission identifies concerns about the finances and culture in an authority	A partnership is in danger of missing its agreed LAA delivery targets as a result of conflicting priorities and competitive behaviours between the partners

In all of these cases the routes to support through the Improvement Framework might be:

Council peer review ( corporate or service), Inter authority exchange	YoHr Space projects
Sector specialists	Specialist private sector provision
Voluntary sector	IDeA Regional Associate
IDeA political peers regional and national political parties	Regional LGA
LGA Improvement Board Members	District Audit
Standards Board	CIPFA

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