An interesting report   from the Audit Commission out today, has found that councillors are basing important decisions on unreliable information.

Apparently:

• Councillors say they receive lengthy reports but still do not have the relevant information they need. Powerful data are unexploited.
• Less than 5% of councils have excellent data quality and quality problems are fundamental in nature.
• Almost 80% of councils say a lack of in-depth analysis is a problem.

And perhaps most worryingly:

• Two thirds of councils say councillors struggle to understand information and half say that senior officers do. Training to address this is inadequate or non-existent.There is a widespread concern that inaccurate or out-of-date information drives key decisions.

In typical Audit Commission style, it recommends the use of a ‘toolkit’  to drive better quality data. Ultimately, however, if the information that councillors and officers base decisions on is incomplete, lacking in evidence or badly presented, then they’ve got a responsibility to return it and demand something better. This may temporarily drive local government to a shuddering halt but at least we’ll have confidence in the decisions that’ve been made.