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Getting started

Targeted at senior management and leadership teams, the Transformation and Innovation Exchange self-assessment tool is about understanding where you are on your improvement journey and taking the next steps towards new ways of operating, whether through a series of incremental changes to services, innovative approaches to demand or the invention of new solutions.

A detailed explanation of the model behind the tool, and how to use it, is available in the guide to the Transformation and Innovation Exchange self-assessment tool.

The tool consists of a series of statements about your organisation, related to the key characteristics of an effective council (as identified by our research), to which senior managers and lead councillors are invited to agree or disagree. You can view a copy of the statements here.

The results identify the areas in which your authority is strong, or in which your authority may have potential for further improvement, and directs you to resources to help with that.

In summary, there are four stages to using the tool:

  1. Invite senior managers to complete the tool, giving their own personal view about the authority. You may also choose to involve portfolio holders/lead councillors.
  2. Bring the senior managers together to compare their thoughts and arrive at a single, ‘official’ view about the authority. Input that official view into the tool.
  3. Review the results, to see the areas where your council is strong and, particularly, where it may benefit from further improvement. View resources that may help with that, and compare your authority to others who have completed the self-assessment.
  4. We encourage you to discuss the ‘official’ view agreed by senior managers with the Leader and lead councillors (if they did not take part in the assessment); and then choose whether or not you wish to make public a summary of your self-assessment. The published view should be agreed by the leader and chief executive.

How does your council perform the self-assessment?

Senior managers and lead councillors should simply register or sign in (using their council email address and a password) to use the tool. You may also wish to consult Value for Money or LG Inform reports for objective measures of your council's situation in advance.

A nominated officer identified by you can view the responses of everyone who has been invited to complete the tool, to aid the discussion stage. And once the ‘official’ council view has been agreed, they are responsible for entering that assessment into the tool.

To identify your authority’s nominated officer, please sign in and view their details below.

All senior managers and lead councillors who have registered can see their own assessment alongside the agreed council view; and they can also view the results and see the resources which have been recommended.

The council is free to decide whether and when it will make public a summary of the self-assessment. See the guide for details of what will be published.

How will the data be used?

You need to register and sign in to save your responses, see comparisons and get links to recommended resources.

Your name will be shown alongside your responses to the nominated officer in your council only. This data will not be made public.

If your council chooses to publish the ‘official’ assessment, this will be made public in a summary form. See the guide for an example of what will be visible. The ‘official’ results will be aggregated with those of other authorities, and made visible to users in the form of an average. The LGA will see your assessment whether or not you make it public and may use it to guide its improvement work.

Help and feedback

For help using the self-assessment tool email support@esd.org.uk.

To comment on the content and how results are used, or to give any feedback email transparency@local.gov.uk.