WE ARE. CouncilMARK™ Prospectus 2019 - 2022 councilmark.co.nz < CouncilMARK™ rewards robust decision-making, promotes a more inclusive council culture, improved delivery of essential services and better communication and engagement. > Toby Stevenson Chair, Independent Assessment Board Contacts for further information For background information on the CouncilMARK™ Programme, For further information, please contact: please refer to the CouncilMARK™ website www.councilmark.co.nz. · Dan Henderson, CouncilMARK™ Programme Manager Email: [email protected], Telephone: 04 924 1200 CouncilMARK™ 1> Foreword – our promise p2 2> The programme p5 3> CouncilMARK™ governance p12 4> Registration of interest p16 5> CouncilMARK™ ratings p19 CouncilMARK™ local government excellence programme 1 1> 2 CouncilMARK™ Thank you for reading the CouncilMARK™ programme prospectus for 2019-22 Triennium. This initiative is now into its second triennium and is building on a new era of local government sector performance designed to improve delivery of core infrastructure and services, and deliver value to our communities. Drivers for change Programme driven by councils, for our Perceptions of low performance and reputation identified in communities the 2015 New Zealand Local Government Survey undermine The independent assessment undertaken by a team of confidence in councils. This showed there is low awareness of the independent assessors reflects the unique circumstances facing wide range of services that councils deliver, and subsequently, each council and its communities. Each participating council these services tend to be undervalued. The sector needs to then determines how it responds to the assessment results, act across the board to provide better services and value to including how it engages with its communities on the findings and communities, and make them more aware of what the council what matters locally, and the actions it chooses to take to deliver does for them. essential services and value. Excellent performance from councils means leadership and innovation to support communities and to contribute locally, regionally and nationally. The CouncilMARK™ programme is an Progress towards excellence important part of the change required to improve reputation. I see the CouncilMARK™ programme driving a culture of excellence and continuous improvement in council performance. • The CouncilMARK™ programme establishes what matters to customers, where councils should focus, and how to keep the I encourage councils to register their interest to become a customer experience alive in all council decision- making and participating council in 2019/20. You will have the opportunity operations; to join other councils and together, lead the charge for lifting performance within the sector. The CouncilMARK™ local • CouncilMARK™ involves an independent assessment of a government excellence programme best determines the future council’s performance across four priority areas; of councils to support our communities. That is the change we all want, the highest reward of all. • Each participating council receives an overall CouncilMARK™ rating, a grade for each priority area, and commentary on how they are performing; • CouncilMARK™ rewards robust decision-making, promotes a more inclusive council culture, improved delivery of essential services and better communication. It complements council Toby Stevenson plans and activities, and existing benchmarking initiatives; Chair, Independent Assessment Board • CouncilMARK™ identifies areas for future focus and is not about fault finding. It is voluntary for councils; and • The programme encourages councils to share good practice with each other. CouncilMARK™ aims to provide information on council performance and shared learning will be available to participating councils. CouncilMARK™ local government excellence programme 3 < By joining CouncilMARK™ your council will be linking with other forward- looking councils to share and learn for the benefit of all. > Leadership Endorsements Suzette van Aswegen, Chief Executive, David Ayers, Mayor of Waimakariri John Carter, Mayor of Far North District Mackenzie District Council District Council Council < The Mackenzie District is changing fast < CouncilMARK™ provides extremely < We welcome the CouncilMARK™ initiative due to the exponential growth of tourism. valuable insight that can help councils as it provides independent scrutiny and CouncilMARK gave Council an exceptional with how they operate, what they’re oversight in all that we do. It also provides opportunity to assess its practices and get doing right and what they could put more the benchmark upon which our residents a holistic understanding of the changes effort and resources into. Furthermore, and visitors can judge the quality of our required to provide for this growth. The the programme gives communities the services. CouncilMARK™ has acted as an assessment was professionally conducted same information which provides them important catalyst for change. In essence, by independent assessors who quickly an independent opinion of the work their it has been a springboard for continuous determined the gaps in organisational local council is doing. Councils need to improvement. and governance performance, including consistently demonstrate and improve an understanding of the areas where the their performance. The CouncilMARK™ assessment acted as a organisation was at risk. call to arms in terms of our improvement CouncilMARK™ offers an excellent tool to agenda. Subsequently, we invited LGNZ to CouncilMARK gave Council the mandate communicate and share information about provide us with a shadow assessment, and for much needed change. Council focused how councils can improve performance again this was really helpful. As we look on the areas for improvement that were and value. By joining the CouncilMARK™ forward to our second formal assessment, raised in the report and Council developed local government excellence programme, we have requested that the two day a plan as to how we move the organisation your council will be linking with other visit be extended by an additional day, forward. We look forward to the next forward-looking councils to share and learn and we do this because of the immense CouncilMARK assessment in 2021! > for the benefit of all. > value the assessment offers. In summary CouncilMARK™ has really assisted Far North District Council in its quest for excellence, and I would encourage other councils to invite CouncilMARK™ to help them similarly. > 4 CouncilMARK™ 2> CouncilMARK™ local government excellence programme 5 Introduction What is involved in the CouncilMARK™ local government excellence programme? The CouncilMARK™ programme incorporates an independent, Based on experience gained, refinements were made and have robust and credible system of performance assessment. been applied to the assessment process. LGNZ initially worked with Cameron Partners to develop the As at January 2020, 30 councils are participating in performance assessment system for CouncilMARK™. The system CouncilMARK™, with many more set to register their interest incorporates a set of performance measurement principles, an throughout the 2019-22 triennium. over-arching performance framework and underlying performance indicators that has been tailored for New Zealand councils. CouncilMARK™ is best described as a “system” of performance assessment and continuous improvement that assists councils to The performance system and underlying indicators were consulted deliver top service and value to their communities. The provision on with a number of stakeholders before being used by four pilot and communication of the performance assessment “rating” is not councils in 2016. the end-game, rather the focus is on continuous improvement, and a long-term lift in sector outcomes, performance and reputation. The CouncilMARK™ performance measurement and improvement system: 6 CouncilMARK™ Performance Assessment Framework Preparing for the assessment The CouncilMARK™ performance assessment framework focuses Councils are responsible for adequately preparing for their on four priority areas that were derived from public and business assessment by ensuring that sufficient time is allocated, and feedback in the 2015 New Zealand Local Government Survey. staff and elected members are available for the assessment. The assessors rely on councils supplying them with the data and The system: information required in a timely manner. In terms of financial information, this includes the latest year-end financial data, plus • enables a current state and gap analysis assessment for any (unaudited) financial information that councils have. councils; All participating councils will be provided with guidance on the • provides a grading for each priority area; and level of information that should be made available prior to the assessment, and the key staff and elected members who are • leads to an overall publicly available rating from AAA to C. likely to be interviewed by the assessors. Councils also fill out the The four priority areas for CouncilMARK™ are: Performance Assessment Framework with their own perspective as a basis for discussion with the assessors. 1. Leading locally - Governance, leadership and strategy; New councils preparing for the assessment may also wish to seek 2. Investing money well - Financial decision-making and advice from councils have who completed the first year of the transparency; programme. 3. Delivering what’s important