Finding a way through the indicator jungle.

Over the past eight years since LTP was introduced there has been an explosion in the requirements for monitoring and reporting on local transport outcomes between local and central government. The Atkins Review of LTP1 showed that authorities needed greater experience in deciding on what to monitor and the Department for Transport needed to reduce its reporting burdens on local authorities. Some of the key skills crucial to developing an effective monitoring strategy were not available to local authorities and serious doubts about indicators and aspects of monitoring emerged. Somewhere along the way we got lost in an indicator jungle. This paper reports on research undertaken over the last four years on how to assemble and use an indicator framework to provide effective decision-support and to avoid the main criticisms which have been levelled at indicators as a result of the new requirements. The main focus of the work is on what to measure and why. It does not offer any lists of indicators but, rather, describes an enabling methodology so that this can be applied locally to reflect local needs. This is what practitioners told us they wanted. The method, based around causal-chain analysis approaches has already been applied in some authorities within and outside of the project. The paper describes how it has been applied and the benefits associated with it. It concludes with some lessons for local authorities and central government as we look forward to LTP3. In particular it argues for greater local responsibility in determining priorities where these can be coherently argued using this or other similar frameworks.