Guidance

Local growth programmes monitoring framework

Published 11 January 2024

Introduction

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to set out the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities’ (DLUHC or ‘the Department’) strategy for monitoring programmes which target local growth (referred to as ‘local growth programmes’ throughout this document). This builds on the recently published plan for simplifying funding for local authorities, providing more detail on how DLUHC is implementing the commitments made.

What is monitoring?

Monitoring is the formal reporting and evidencing that projects and outcomes are successfully delivered and milestones met. It helps assist project delivery through, for example, building understanding on progress and can enable improvements to be identified during delivery.

What type of funding is covered by this framework?

This framework applies only to programmes or funds which satisfy both of the following criteria:

• Levelling up programmes which target local growth to some extent (e.g., those which aim to improve economic performance at a sub-national level), and
• A spending or tax incentive programme where DLUHC is accountable (i.e., it does not include other types of interventions such as devolving powers, legislation etc. or those led by other government departments).

It is not appropriate for devolution of powers (i.e., Level 4 Mayoral Combined Authorities or Trailblazers) to be covered by the framework established here since it follows different institutional and funding arrangements. However, many of the principles outlined may be applicable to devolution evaluation undertaken by DLUHC too.  

In addition, housing related programmes are not in scope as there is already a separate housing monitoring and evaluation strategy.

The commitments outlined in this document will not apply to local growth funding or programmes where monitoring systems have been designed already and are in delivery. This is to avoid disruption to already established systems.

Monitoring local growth programmes

This section outlines the importance of monitoring and how the Department will monitor local growth programmes in the future. While monitoring simplification will align requirements, there are times where a one-size-fits-all approach is not desirable. In these instances, we will work with authorities to design bespoke arrangements which may go beyond the commitments set out below.

What is monitoring and why is it important for local growth programmes?

Monitoring is the formal reporting and evidencing that projects and outcomes are successfully delivered and milestones met. This information is important and DLUHC uses it in several ways for local growth programmes. We use monitoring data to:

• Support assurance processes which help us have confidence that the money is being spent on agreed outputs.
• Support us in knowing when to provide payments to places and manage our spending profiles.
• Understand how delivery is progressing against planned targets and whether there are any issues. The information supports us to manage risks and help maximise value for money.
• Inform evaluation activity to help us better understand ‘what works’, ‘what doesn’t work’ and ‘why’, which can support future decision making. This could be done by, for example, collecting contact details to facilitate further engagement, understanding what has been delivered where or through collecting identifiers (for example, company registration or national insurance numbers) to link to public administrative data to create a richer picture. For more detail on local growth evaluation, please see local growth programmes evaluation framework.
• Understand and communicate which places are benefitting and how they are benefitting to key stakeholders. Places will typically report on delivery progress, the outputs (what has been delivered) and the outcomes (the changes that have occurred) that have resulted from DLUHC funding.

Local government organisations may also have their own monitoring processes and purposes for monitoring.

How DLUHC determine what monitoring information to collect for local growth programmes

The information provided through performance monitoring is valuable. However, DLUHC understands that this information can be onerous for both places to collect and submit as well as DLUHC to process and analyse. To ensure we request the right data, we will complete a data burden assessment prior to establishing requirements. We will only request data from places where:

• There is a clear use. We will not request data where we do not have a specific need for each piece of data.
• There is no suitable alternative source. There are increasing opportunities for using alternative sources of information for monitoring with advancements in data.
• The intended benefit of the data outweighs the burden of collecting or analysing it.
• The data obtained would be of sufficient quality for the intended use. If the data is not of sufficient quality, then this would undermine the value in having the data.

Monitoring process

Performance monitoring is an ongoing process with several checkpoints over the delivery period. As set out in the Department’s plan for simplifying funding for local authorities, many places receive multiple funds each with different monitoring requirements which adds unnecessary complexity. To help reduce this complexity, DLUHC local growth programmes will use standard and consistent timescales and systems to collect data from places. For new local growth funding issued by DLUHC we will ask grant recipients to provide:

• (in some situations) A small, light-touch quarterly update of key information on spend and progress. This will be required when there is a need for very timely updates on progress.
• A more detailed 6-monthly report on spend and progress, including (but not limited to) risks, delivery milestones and outputs. In months when this is provided, a quarterly update would not be needed at the same time as they would duplicate.
• Ad-hoc reporting at low frequency or as a one-off submission for some elements, such as outcomes or location of spend, where changes are not expected to occur frequently or at all.

Detailed information on monitoring requirements will be provided by DLUHC for local growth funding and programmes during their initial set up.

DLUHC is working with local places and organisations to build an improved digital funding service which will reduce the administrative burden for organisations accessing departmental funding by streamlining the process for submitting data and information to government. This is already being used by Towns Fund for monitoring and will be rolled out to others.

Where can I find monitoring guidance for a specific programme?

DLUHC publishes monitoring guidance for local growth funds in a central location on gov.uk.

Standardised monitoring indicators

The Department will develop a framework of standardised outputs (what is produced) and outcomes (the early to medium term results) monitoring indicators. Currently there are over 400 output and outcome indicators in use across DLUHC local growth funds, which adds complexity to delivery.

We will develop an indicator framework which will rationalise the number of indicators in use for new funding and programmes. We intend to publish this indicator framework in 2024.

The Department will use the framework to select indicators, ensuring that new indicators are not created when an already suitable indicator exists. The decision on which indicators are selected will be informed through the data burden assessment outlined above. DLUHC will add new indicators to this list where there are gaps and programme specific indicators may be used to supplement standardised indicators where there might be specific demands.