The Wairoa District Council is pleased to announce it has been selected as a Foundation Council for the recently announced local government New Zealand standards programme.

Chief Executive Fergus Power said “We are thrilled to be selected as one of the founding councils for this standards programme. We are excited by what the programme offers and the chance to share the results with our community.”

“On becoming a Foundation Member of Local Government New Zealand’s new standards programme, Wairoa District Council was now amongst the most active Councils in New Zealand in relation to participation in performance measurement and excellence programmes, having already signed up for the Australasian PricewaterhouseCoopers Local Government Management and Operational Effectiveness Survey, along with the GoShift building control initiative.”

“Our team is not afraid to step forward and be scrutinised in relation to performance excellence - that is what we live and breathe. There is always room for improvement and we aim to take the results from appraisal systems such as the LGNZ Standards Programme and forge ahead with continuous improvement.”

“I’m very proud of the team at Wairoa District Council. They have a deep love for this community and their passion and desire to always do better shines through in their participation in excellence programmes such as this”, he said.

The local government standards system will demonstrate and improve the value and services of councils by measuring qualitative and quantitative indicators across leadership, finance, service delivery and community engagement. Local Government New Zealand has selected 21 Foundation Councils to lead out the programme in 2016. Results will be published in 2017.

Through the programme participating councils will be assessed every three years, given a standard from A to C, and the results publicised. Councils will discuss results with communities and use the assessments to plan improvements.

LGNZ President Lawrence Yule said the system was being set up to give communities a clear and independent picture of how well their council was performing in serving the community.

“This will provide for communities a thorough and trusted standard for council performance. They will now know that their council meets an A, B, or C standard,” he said.

“For councils this will help them improve to deliver top value for communities. They will now know how they perform in dozens of services, and where the community wants improvement.”

The excellence programme been developed in response to the 2015 New Zealand Local Government Survey, which showed there is an opportunity to lift and demonstrate the service and value councils deliver to their communities.

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For more information:

Kitea Tipuna
Communications Strategist
Wairoa District Council
(06) 838 7309

31 October 2018

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