Monitoring Effectiveness
From GPG
This information has been given by Leeds City Council who have offered to share it with any other managers responsible for the management of Public Rights of Way who may find it of interest.
Quality Management Systems
Some authorities have been awarded the ISO 9000 certificate that shows that an authority has in place a quality management system that has reached a certain standard as defined by the British Standards Institution.
ISO 9000 is an international standard that provides a framework for an effective quality management system. This helps to ensure that there is a consistency and improvement of working practices.
An authority may not include all of its services however, some managers responsible for Public Rights of Way Units who have been actively involved in their authority's quality standard process have found it to be a valuable process to go through.
It has helped identify a number of different processes that occur within the Public Rights of Way Unit and has assisted staff with clear working procedures. Being involved also raises the profile of such a busy and complex unit within an authority.
It also provides a greater understanding of the organisation's process and how this impacts on its customers.
The practical requirements involve the following:
- Determine what the work is that an authority does
- Write it down
- Do it
- Prove that they do it - procedure should be carried out in practice and records maintained.
The Benefits - Why does an authority need quality?
- Gives customers confidence
- Dealing with problems
- Improved communications
- Less waste
- Clearly defined systems
- Keeping existing business
- Bring in new business
- Links with Best Value principles
- Links with Corporate and Departmental Plans
These ISO diagrams include a flow chart which shows the process that the Division went through to implement the ISO 9000 - A Quality System, and a process diagram which shows the core functions within the Public Rights of Way Unit and how they interact with one another.
Another way authorities measure their performance is through benchmarking with other authorities. The following example is from the Eastern Region, supplied by Hertfordshire County Council:
Rights of Way Benchmarking With Other Eastern Region Highway Authorities
The following questions were asked of other highway authorities:
- Revenue per km spent on ROW maintenance excluding staff
- Capital per km spent on ROW excluding staff
- No. of FTE's dedicated to ROW maintenance and protection, including any support staff and KM/officer
- Unit costs to supply and install: a) 6m footbridge b) mow 1m of path and c) a roadside signpost
- Spend of ROW maintenance (revenue and capital), expressed as a percentage of total highway revenue budget, excluding staff
- Primary means of collecting data on condition of ROW, eg BV178 surveys, cyclical bridge inspection
- Primary method of recording the data, eg on paper, GIS, CAMS etc.
The results are shown in this CSS Benchmarking table
The Best Value Performance Indicator (BVPI 178) is used to measure how well local authorities are managing their ROW networks. Local Performance Indicators may also be used
