Resources self-assessment toolkit

This toolkit supports councils to make the best use of their resources and to promote personalisation in a difficult and challenging context.


The resources self-assessment toolkit aims to share ideas about how to get better value for people and taxpayers – pooling evidence about what works. It can be used flexibly. For example:

  • some council officers might just use it for quick reference; for example, to check whether they are aware of recent sources of evidence and guidance
  • some senior management teams might decide to use it as a guide for discussion and reflection (for example, at an away day)
  • many will decide that some but not all elements are useful to them, and/or adapt it for their own purposes.

The toolkit consists of three documents:

  1. Guide to using the self-assessment toolkit
  2. Self-assessment tool
  3. What good looks like

This toolkit was created with partners in 2012. This updated version was published in 2014.