‘Fetishising failure’ distracts increasingly scarce management time away from improving outcomes, according to a new report naming the top 10 most productive councils in England.
The report by consultancy firm iMPOWER said a negative Ofsted judgement on a local authority’s children’s services department could undermine its purpose to protect children and improve their life chances.
It read: ‘Such a focus is deeply debilitating to system leaders, stifles innovation and is worse for children’s outcomes overall’.
iMPOWER believes its collation of service-based data from 30 different public datasets to create an index of productivity for the 150 upper-tier authorities provides a better measure than the verdict of inspectorates.
The consultancy said its calculations can measure which councils - pound for pound - get the best results for their citizens.
Leicestershire CC and East Riding of Yorkshire Council are in first and second place respectively, with Wigan MBC moving up from fifth place last year to third.
Visit The MJ (£) for the list of the 10 most productive councils and an analysis piece.
