The Local Government Business Model (LGBM) defines the elements of public sector service delivery at a local level. The Model comprises a set of controlled lists and relationships between them. These may be viewed as an ontology.

The Model has three parts:

• People and places - the elements that support customer insight so that services can be targeted where they will have most impact
• Organisational scope - the activities and responsibilities of each organisation involved in service delivery, helping us do what we are required to do and remove duplication
• Organisation - the parts of service delivery so we can deliver services most efficiently

The full LGBM is illustrated below and also in this animated PowerPoint presentation.

At the centre of LGBM is the Services list that has been in existence in its current form since 2002, with quarterly updates in response to feedback by local authorities and other organisations.

The three elements of the Model and how they relate to the Service List are described below.

Contents 1 People and places 2 Organisational scope 3 Organisation 4 Credits

People and places

These lists are used to target services at the right citizens in order to achieve better outcomes.

• Life events can determine direct needs for a services, eg a Birth - registering service follows a Becoming a parent life event. Life events also change Circumstances, having an indirect effect on the services from which a citizen might benefit.

• Circumstances are changed by Life events. They imply Needs. For example the Unemployed circumstance results from the Becoming unemployed event and implies a need for Employment (although it is the mix of circumstances that determines the needs for each individual person). Circumstance also defines eligibility for Services. Some circumstances are a direct measure of outcome (eg the number of Smokers per head of population) others influence outcomes. For example reported levels of anti-social behaviour (National Indicator 17) might be influenced by the Age make-up of the population. LGBM is designed to help test such hypotheses. Circumstance is defined for Businesses, People, [1]. Currently circumstances for other types of organisation are not defined.

• Needs are implied by Circumstances and addressed by Services. For example the Employment need is addressed by the Jobs - employment and training initiatives service, amongst others.

• Outcomes define quality of life factors prioritised by strategic plans and measured by national and local indicator. LGBM does not currently hold definitions of outcomes. We are consulting the Department of Communities and Local Government with respect to how they will represent National indicators as linked data. esd-toolkit's National Indicator tree view shows definitions of national indicators, cross-referenced to services which might impact on them.

Organisational scope

• Organisation types define whether their legal status (eg unitary local authority, county council, district council, fire and rescue authority, government department) which indicates the functions they perform and which legal powers and duties are conferred on them. The organisation list is currently under development. It will replace esd-toolkit's Local Government Agency Types List (LGAtL)

• Functions define the purpose of groups of services (eg health, housing, education). The hierarchical list of functions sub-divides into functions which become more precise at lower levels, where they are likely to correspond with generic department names for public sector organisations. Different organisation type perform different, but overlapping, sets of functions (eg county councils, unitary councils and colleges perform an education function). Services are grouped by function. The function list is currently under development. It will replace esd-toolkit's Local Government Department List (LGDL). When an organisation first subscribes to esd-toolkit its "Local Tree" reflects the functional breakdown relevant to its organisation type. The organisation can then restructure and rename the branches in a process called "localising its tree".

• Powers and duties provide an interpretation of the legal powers of each organisation type to provide services (eg local authorities are empowered to Dispose of land). Duties indicate where an organisation type is required to provide a service (eg county and unitary authorities are required to [Secure efficient education], which they do by services including providing Primary schools places)

• Legislation, is published by the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) in machine readable form from address at http://legislation.gov.uk where a unique reference is given to each part of each piece of legislation. Each power and duties is linked by esd-toolkit to the piece of legislation that confers that power or duty. For example the duty to Secure efficient education is conferred by the Education Act 1996 section 13, which is displayed in human readable form in the 'Legislation' tab for each power and duty.

Organisation

• Services are delivered by processes which constitute a sequence of Generic processes. A different sequence applies to cases, management and strategy for each service. For example a Schools clothing grant service case might involve the Provide information, Receive service request, Verify user details and other generic processes. the same generic processes are employed across many different services within each organisation. Recording the processes involved and associated costs allows us to benchmark and identify scope for rationalisation.

• Processes which involve interactions with the citizen or an external organisation correspond with Interaction types for which esd-toolkit's Local Government Interaction List (LGIL) will be included in the model.

• Interactions are conducted via channels (web, telephone, face to face, etc) specified by esd-toolkit's Local Government Channel List (LGChL) will be included in the model. esd-toolkit and other organisations keep information which indicates the propensity of people with different circumstances to use each channel type.

• Services may accessed in web sites via hierarchical menus through which a user can navigate. A generic local authority web site navigation structure is given by the Local Government Navigation List (LGNL) will be included in the model.

• Service records are held within records management systems which are organised according to a Classification scheme. That scheme will be a localised version of the the Record Management Society's (RMS's) Local Government Classification Scheme, currently available at: http://www.esd.org.uk/standards/lgcs/. RMS is updating that scheme for publishing with its records retention system (LGCRS). The scheme defines the document types within each classification and legal requirements for their retention. LGBM will include the classification scheme with document types and links to legislation defining retention. Links will be provided to the LGCRS system where RMS members will be able to view full details of retention requirements as interpreted from the legislation.

Credits

esd-toolkit thanks Aperia Limited, an esd-suppliers company, for their contribution to the LGBM - particularly work on Powers and duties and on Need. Aperia's Circles of Need (r) methodology is based on esd-toolkit lists.