centre for public scrutiny

Accountability Works For You - a focused and proportionate way to improve the way you make decisions, and how you respond to and plan for transformation and change

The Centre for Public Scrutiny has applied the learning from its "Accountability Works" research to the creation of a new and straightforward way to evaluate and improve your governance arrangements, and make your organisation more responsive to change.

The "Accountability Works For You" framework is designed to be proportionate, relevant and to focus on culture and attitudes, rather than process. It is based on robust evidence about the way that accountability, transparency and involvement should work in public services, and is sufficiently flexible to apply to any body delivering a public service.

The framework leads you through some straightforward steps, posing questions that will help you and the people who use your services to tease out some of your most significant challenges, and focus on achievable ways to improve.

Step 1 involves the establishment of a small project group to set out what you want to achieve;

Step 2 is a general, high-level evaluation of your current arrangements for accountability, transparency and involvement;

Step 3 allows you to explore in more detail cross-cutting themes that emerged in Step 2.

Steps 4 and 5 involve the setting of an action plan and the monitoring of that plan in the future.

We've published a short document which sets out some of the key benefits that you can expect from using the Accountability Works For You framework, which you can download by clicking here.

Because the framework is designed to encourage a "pick and mix" approach, allowing you to pick those particular elements of your governance arrangements that you want to look at in the most detail, or that are most relevant to your organisation. This means that you are in control throughout, using the framework as a way to explore how you do business, not as a formulaic tick-box exercise.

Where can I find more information?

We've published the full methodology for the Accountability Works For You in two documents.

• Methodology - general information. This contains detail on how the framework works and how you can adapt it to your own organisation.
• Methodology - appendices. This goes into more detail, particularly on steps 2 and 3 of the framework.

How can we help?

The Accountability Works For You framework is designed to be used independently, and the methodology information above gives you enough information to use it yourself. However, we do suggest that a level of external assurance is needed. This could take the form of an independent ear to check your findings and with whom to consult at key points, someone to carry out the high-level evaluation on your behalf to ensure that the findings of that process are robust, or even someone to take on the management and evidence-gathering for the whole exercise. We can provide this assistance with the support of our Expert Adviser Team, a group of highly experienced current and former professionals with a detailed knowledge of accountability issues in the context of service delivery. Please see our scale of fees and charges for more information on how we can assist.

How does this link in with CfPS's scrutiny self-evaluation framework?

In 2006 we produced a "self-evaluation framework" which allowed those involved in the local government overview and scrutiny function to identify ways to improve. CfPS now recommends that those interested in carrying out internal scrutiny reviews use the Accountability Works For You framework instead. The framework allows you to take a more flexible approach to these kinds of evaluations, and focuses more on organisational culture towards scrutiny rather than the existence of processes and systems. CfPS can provide specific advice to scrutineers as to how they can use the framework to carry out self-evaluations.

Development information

The piloting exercise

We have been piloting the framework with a number of organisations over the last six months. In June 2011, we produced an interim report, itemising the lessons that we had learned so far, and which influenced the latest version of the methodoloogy. The interim report can be downloaded here.

What happens next?

We plan to refine the methodology with a second group of pilot organisations over winter 2011/12. A final report, and revised methodology, will be published in the spring.

For more information on the framework, and on how it can work for you and your organisation, please contact Ed Hammond on (020) 7187 7369 or at ed.hammond@cfps.org.uk.