Benchmarking

We aim to continuously improve the services we deliver to you. You can find out what we are involved in on our Improvement and how we compare page.

We use benchmarking to understand how our services perform compared with other councils or organisations. This helps us spot what’s working well, where we can improve, and how to provide better value for residents. We publish results, trends and actions so you can see our progress and hold us to account.

What is benchmarking?

Benchmarking is a starting point for questions, not an answer in itself. Benchmarking means comparing results (cost, quality, outcomes) with similar organisations to identify differences, explore why these differences happen and identify improvement actions for our services. We also use it alongside our local data, plans and priorities to give a balanced picture of performance: Public performance reports and Annual performance spotlights.

At a glance

• What: comparing our service performance and costs with other councils
• Why: to learn from others, improve services, and deliver Best Value
• How: using the Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) and national and  local dashboards
• When: reported biannually; firstly in December, then updated the following September
• Where: results, view South Lanarkshire's dashboard, or explore the data on the Local Government Improvement Service Dashboard