Moreland Council in Melbourne’s northern suburbs has begun using the Australian Business Excellence Framework (ABEF) to test services against the six Best Value Principles. Under Victorian legislation, all services must be extensively reviewed under Best Value Principles of quality and cost standards, responsiveness, accessibility, continuous improvement community consultation and reporting back to the community.
Moreland’s Corporate Planning Manger, Christine Doyle, said the ABEF was based on a set of 12 proven principles.
“It offers a systematic and structured approach to assess and improve performance in leadership, customer and market focus, strategy and planning, people, knowledge, quality and improvement, along with success and sustainability,” she said.
By using the ABEF as a basis for its Best Value reviews, Moreland is demonstrating to its community that the organisation had a structured and systematic approach to improving and achieving best practice and excellence. The process involves the elected Councillors at an early stage.
“Councillors receive information on the current service and are requested to raise service issues they want addressed as part of the Best Value review process,” Christine Doyle said.
The agenda is set for the six month period over which time the service will be reviewed. A panel with the Portfolio Councillor, CEO, Service Director, Manager and Christine Doyle meet to discuss issues raised by Councillors. Agreement is now reached on the general direction of the service in the future. During this stage, a systems review of the service is developed and the service is assessed against the 12 principles of business excellence. Opportunities for improvement are also identified and prioritised.
The panel then meets to discuss and agree upon the prioritised opportunities for improvement. “If contentious issues are raised at this point a council meeting may be necessary to resolve them,” Christine Doyle said. “One or two of the improvement opportunities are then worked through a continuous improvement process. The finance branch has recently looked at improved ways to speed up transactions across Council with less work. Community consultation occurs during this stage.”
The service is then assessed using the ABEF snapshot diagnostic and then audited by Council’s Internal Auditor. From this work, four year service and continuous improvement plans are then developed. The final panel meeting is convened to discuss the ABEF assessment and agree on the four year service plan and continuous improvement plan. The review process is finalised with a report to Council, followed by a report to the community and to the State Government.
For further information contact Christine Doyle on (03) 9240 1111.
