Benchmarking
Local Government Benchmarking Framework
Data as at January 2025
What is the Local Government Benchmarking Framework?
The Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) was developed to enable councils to work together to use performance information in a way which will help understand variations and share good practice. At the core of the framework is an agreed suite of performance indicators, collated under the following headings:
- Children’s Services
- Corporate Services (such as Support Services)
- Social Work Services
- Culture and Leisure Services
- Environmental Services
- Housing Services
- Corporate Assets
- Economic Development
- Climate Change
- Financial Sustainability
Publication of our results
The current Local Government Benchmarking Framework 2023-24 report details:
- our results for the financial years 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24
- the movement in performance (SLC trend) between 2022-23 and 2023-24 (where available)
- the Scottish average result for 2023-24 (where available)
- explanatory narrative is included for each indicator, to provide some local context and explanations of the local trend comparing the 2022-23 and 2023-24 results and comparisons within the national context, to help you understand how we are performing.
Summary of performance of LGBF Results
| South Lanarkshire performance | Number (%) of indicators 2021-22 |
Number (%) of indicators 2022-23 |
Number (%) of indicators 2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Improving performance in SLC | 39 (39%) | 52 (52%) | 41 (40%) |
|
Declining performance in SLC |
53 (54%) | 36 (35%) | 34 (33%) |
| No change in performance in SLC | 3 (3%) | 4 (4%) | 5 (5%) |
| Results/trends not available | 4 (4%) | 9 (9%) | 22 (22%) |
| Comparison with Scottish average | Number (%) of indicators 2021-22 |
Number (%) of indicators 2022-23 |
Number (%) of indicators 2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SLC results better than Scottish average | 50 (51%) | 51 (50%) | 44 (43%) |
| SLC results worse than Scottish average | 43 (43%) | 40 (39%) | 34 (33%) |
| SLC results same as Scottish average | 2 (2%) | 2 (2%) | 2 (2%) |
| Results not available | 4 (4%) | 9 (9%) | 22 (22%) |
2021-22 updated results as at 29 November 2023
2022-23 updated results as at August 2024
2023-24 updated results as at January 2025
The release of this report on the performance pages of South Lanarkshire Council’s website, is in line with our Public Performance Reporting duties, as set out in the Local Government Act, and in conjunction with the publication by the Local Government Improvement Service of the 2023-24 Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) results.
The Local Government Improvement Service also publish their National Benchmarking Overview Report 2023-24, which includes the key messages, trends and results from across Scotland as a whole, as well as strong narrative about performance and the challenges facing the sector.
Alongside this is the interactive online Local Government Improvement Service LGBF Dashboard explore the data, which includes several new types of analysis which will allow users to compare authorities much more easily, and which provides overviews of performance and improvement.
In partnership with the Local Government Improvement Service South Lanarkshire Council has developed a new dashboard to show how our performance compares with other councils across a range of strategic benchmarking indicators. This will better reflect the council’s priorities and support scrutiny of progress of the council plan’s Outcomes.
What we will do with these results
Benchmarking is an important aspect of understanding variations in performance against the Scottish average and comparable councils, and is a learning process which allows us to gain a more in-depth knowledge and understanding of our performance. This work is ongoing and South Lanarkshire Council will consider the results, discussions and case studies fully as part of its commitment to continuous improvement and the wider approach to Public Performance Reporting (PPR), performance management and improvement in the months and years ahead. The results are considered and analysed in our local Public Performance Reports which are published annually on our website and contribute towards a balanced picture of how we are performing, what we are doing well and what plans we have or are putting in place to make improvements in the future. It is important that residents, communities, service users, customers and partners can easily and quickly access performance information that is both relevant and informative.
Further performance information is available in our Annual Performance Spotlights (APSs) – bite sized web content performance information comprising a case study, selection of infographics and links to other related material. These can be accessed on the council’s website and summarise our progress in achieving our Council Plan Connect Outcomes. More detailed progress on these Outcomes can be found in the Quarter 2 Progress Report and Quarter 4 Progress Report.
Previous reports
Local government benchmarking framework reports back to 2018-19 are available on the website.
Further information
If you would like further information on the council’s performance or our approach to benchmarking, please email performance@southlanarkshire.gov.uk.
Updated April 2025
- Benchmarking
- Local Government Benchmarking Framework