Best Value

An important way the Council secures service improvement is through Best Value.  The government introduced the duty of Best Value in April 2000, requiring all councils to secure continuous improvement in delivering high quality local services. Setting performance targets, publishing Performance Plans and carrying out reviews are an important means of achieving such improvements. 

The aim of reviewing services under Best Value is to ensure that services are customer focused and provided in the most efficient, effective and economic way, to clear standards of cost and quality.

All Best Value reviews are required to explore alternative means of service delivery. Councils need to demonstrate that they are competitive with other external providers both in cost and quality of service provision. 

At Blaby Best Value reviews are overseen by the Best Value Commission, a body comprising of 10 elected Members of the Council.  

Alongside reviews, the Council has taken the step of building in continuous improvement based on Best Value review principles into the day–to-day delivery of  services.  This has been done through requiring managers to explicitly address the principles as part of the annual service planning process.

As part of their duty under Best Value, councils are required to publish annually both a   Best Value Performance Plan and a Performance Summary by the end of June and March respectively. 

 The Performance Plan  contains  detailed information on  performance and achievements in the previous year, and plans, priorities  and targets for improvement.