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Like prisoners released into the open after years of captivity, councils may find the comfort zone of the inspection regime a difficult habit to break. But with the Audit Commission heading to the history books, councils need to ask themselves what performance monitoring system, if any, they should now pursue. There are some councils which will argue, with justification, that they are perfectly capable of managing their own performance without the need of external help. There are others which will put forward the same argument without any justification at all. And there is the majority which accepts that sector-led regulation and improvement is a sensible alternative both to statutory inspection and to none. The idea that the electorate can decide alone whether its local council is operating on all cylinders is fanciful, as is the belief that voting councillors out every few years is the best method of keeping tabs on poor performance. The Local Government Group's draft document to council leaders now puts forward ideas for how such a sector-led regime might operate. At the core needs to be a robust benchmarking system so that the public can measure how their own council compares with others. Transparency in itself is not sufficient, since reams of figures and tables are often gobbleygook to the average voter. What is important is what they mean. Sector-led regulation can always be open to accusations of stitch-ups. The LGG might consider, therefore, how such information can be analysed and stored by an independent body. Self-assessment has had mixed results. Too often, over-optimistic self-assessments have been damned by Audit Commission inspections. Peer reviews, however, have been a sector-led success. Those with long memories will recall that when the CPA was being set up, the IDeA was asked whether peer reviews might form part of the new CPA. Wisely, the IDeA turned down the offer. Peer reviews, drawing on experienced officers and members, should now be the backbone of a new sector-led regime. But what matters above all is that sector self-regulation is seen as robust and objective. If it becomes a damp squib, the pressure will be on for a return to statutory inspection. Michael Burton, Editor, The MJ

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WHITEHALL

What next for regulation?

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