The government's decision to scrap the annual assessment of children's services departments is a welcome step to removing bureaucratic burdens on local authorities. The benefits of increased transparency will only be felt if performance data is made public in an easily understandable format that is useful both to the public and to local authorities themselves in measuring and comparing their performance.
The current format of the annual assessment achieves neither of these aims: the burden of data collection and submission are not matched to the benefits from publishing the data in this form. While there may not be much of a direct cost benefit to ceasing the annual assessment when local authorities will have to publish their own data, local authorities will be better placed to present this information appropriately for their area.
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