72 New South Wales councils have received their first report as part of a self-assessment project undertaken by Local Government Professionals Australia, NSW in collaboration with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
This comprehensive dataset is expected to prove important for council’s submissions to the state government in 2015.
The in-depth report will give councils feedback on five key themes: Workforce, Finance, Operations, Risk Management, and Corporate Leadership, with each topic showing statistical findings and analytical insights on each aspect to help give feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of each council.
The report will also give each council feedback on how their council performs in relation to the total results of participating councils.
Chief Executive Officer of LG Professionals, NSW Annalisa Haskell, says that her organisation has listened to what the sector needed and has delivered a high quality, insightful and effective benchmarking tool for councils in a time of need.
“We are proud to have been able to create, design and deliver holistic and robust information for councils to enhance their ability to deeply understand their overall business performance at a time when this could make the difference to their future decisions.
“This tool was created with direct input from the sector in collaboration with PwC, and allows councils to prepare themselves with more confidence for the upcoming submission to state government.”
At the recent LG Productivity and Sustainability Forum, the Minister for Local Government the Hon. Paul Toole, acknowledged the work done by LG Professionals, NSW to represent the sector’s general interests and also around the reform funding requirements.
“I appreciated the responsiveness of LG Professionals, NSW upon our request for input into the design of the reform funding package.
“This has meant NSW councils are better supported in the change process and more so than some other states may have experienced.
“It’s organisations like this association that provide new innovative approaches to helping councils and professionals that need to be acknowledged, and this recent survey initiative is just another example of thinking outside the box.”
