The unbearable meaninglessness of benchmarking

Remember when you were at college and the lecturer threw a complex and unfamiliar term into his presentation, then swiftly moved on as if everyone knew exactly what it meant? Remember how ripples of "What the hell is he on about" circulated the uncomprehending audience?

Well, local government representatives in the UK were forced to relive that same experience earlier this week.

It began with the Audit Commission praising local councils for their 'wonderful' work on reaching the 'Year 2000 benchmark'.

"Benchmark? What benchmark?" The ripples started. Then some brave soul asked what exactly the speaker was talking about. "If you like, I'll explain that to you afterwards, but if we can press on" was the reply.

Cue more rumbling discontent. "Hang on a minute, a lot of us don't know what this benchmarking means," someone else piped up. But the speaker ignored that too, leaving everyone to assume the rather limited definition: above benchmark equals good, below benchmark equals bad. Hmmm, useful.

But more was to come. The Commission proudly announced that out of 430 local authorities in the UK, ten have passed the 'benchmark'. Now forgive me, but where I come from, a 2.3 per cent pass rate does not promote unbridled joy.

Yet worse was to come - of those ten authorities who passed, a representative of at least one said he hadn't a clue what 'passing the benchmark' meant.

So what on earth is going on? We only have 11 months left before the date change the only government body that's helping local councils to fix their problems has ended up confusing them - and there are 420 that are massively behind schedule.

It doesn't take Robin Guenier to tell us we need a remedy, and quick.

For a start, benchmarking in this case is utterly pointless. Harrow Council doesn't need to know how it is doing in relation to Chester. At this late stage, the Audit Commission should promote information sharing and direct help, and stop treating us like irritating students who can't follow the lecture.