Information about the project
About the "Municipality Quality in Brief" project
At the beginning of 2007, the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR)
invited the Municipality of Älmhult to take part in a project called "Kommunfullmäktiges kvalitetsredovisning" ("The Quality Assessment of Municipal Councils"), the aim of which is to audit the quality of municipalities. The results of the audit can then be used in dialogue with elected representatives and municipal residents. SALAR initiated the project because of the belief that information found in annual reports was primarily based on legislative and civil servant assessments. Few municipalities present results that summarise important aspects from the citizen's perspective. Additionally, elected representatives have a great need to communicate with municipal residents about the effectiveness of tax revenue usage and the quality of activities.
Älmhult was one of around 40 municipalities that accepted the invitation to take part in the project in 2007. The number of participating municipalities increased to 60 in 2008. Alvesta, Markaryd, Tingsryd and Uppvidinge are the other participating municipalities from Kronoberg County.
The project began in March 2007. There were already a number of different proposals for measures that a group of municipal executive board chairpersons had produced for previous projects, and these measures were divided into the five groups presented below. SALAR provided the descriptions.
Accessibility
A municipality that is easily accessible to citizens and the business community provides for a greater sense of confidence and trust in public services as well as in representatives of these services. An accessible municipality also provides citizens with greater opportunities to take part in and involve themselves in the development of the municipality, as well as to make conscious choices.
Trust
A municipality that works in collaboration with others to achieve a secure community for its residents creates a sense of trust in public organisations. A municipality that ensures fairness and a sense of law and order in its contacts with citizens forms the basis for the legitimacy of public activities.
Participation and information
A municipality that aims to make citizens part of the municipality's work and future reinforces representative democracy. Citizen participation may result in greater knowledge and understanding of the complex activities that go on in the municipality as well as provide elected representatives with a better basis for making decisions.
Cost effectiveness
A cost-effective municipality manages the municipality's resources in a manner that provides the best qualitative value for the available resources based on the perspective of citizens. This means that active responsibility must be taken for financial resources, personnel resources and priorities based on qualitative aspects. A municipality that can demonstrate that it is cost effective creates a sense of legitimacy among citizens.
Social structure
A municipality that actively works to develop a good community to live and work in creates quality of life for its residents. This means that the municipality works and collaborates with other partners to improve its attractiveness as a place to live and stay. The municipality helps develop business, takes responsibility for the environment and creates a healthy community for its citizens.
Municipalities in various networks have reviewed the measures and submitted proposals for modifications. In collaboration with seven other municipalities in southern Sweden, Älmhult produced measures for accessibility. The focus has constantly been on measures showing the level of the municipality's quality based on the perspective of citizens. It was not always possible to produce desired measures for various reasons; the "close enough" principle applied in these instances.
A total of around 30 measures were used to reflect the level of the municipality's quality. Some measures were obtained from public statistics, an example being the equal opportunities index from Statistics Sweden. Other measures were produced from internal and external measures.
For example, the waiting time for obtaining a place in accommodation for older people was measured internally. An external company was engaged to investigate accessibility to the municipality by telephone, e-mail response times, and the reception that people experienced. A review of information on the municipality's website was performed by a student who was engaged by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions to review all of the websites for the municipalities included in the project.
Each municipality presents the results to its residents in a manner they deem appropriate.
SALAR will extend a new invitation to the municipalities to take part in the project in 2009. The ambition is to increase the number of participating municipalities.