LEAGUE tables have become a core component of efforts to raise quality standards in many aspects of modern life, especially in public services.
Hospitals, primary care trusts, schools, councils, emergency services, you name a public service in England and there is probably a league table for it somewhere.
Who reads or studies them is another matter, but they certainly exist.
When our political masters landed on league tables as a good way of driving up standards, value for money and quality of service, they were taking a carrot and stick approach to curing a big headache.
The carrot would be the reward offered to the organisation finding itself in the right part of the relevant league table. Those populating the other part of the same table would have the stick to fear.
I've no real idea whether this type of name and shame tactic has worked. What we have seen over successive years, is a range of organisations (normally those having the stick waved above their corporate backsides) cry foul over their rankings and how they are arrived at.
In some cases, these rankings prove to be very emotive, for example, school league tables. In the same way that examination results posted on a classroom wall can spell delight for some and despair for others, so can the publication of a league table, especially when a school already facing many challenges finds itself at the bottom of that list.
How can ranking schools lead to improvements in the way they serve pupils? That’s a thorny debate.
The same thought came to mind yesterday when the sustainable development group Forum for the Future published its latest Sustainable Cities Index.
The index tracks progress of sustainability in Britain's 20 largest cities, ranking them on environmental performance, quality of life and how well they are addressing issues such as climate change and recycling.
So far, so good.
For us here in Liverpool, it's the stick rather than the carrot that is being readied for action.
The city is ranked 19th out of 20 in the index, beating only Hull. Last year we were 20th out of 20, so maybe just a small slice of carrot will come our way. The real pay-back, though, looks like coming via the stick.
* MATT JOHNSON is chairman of Mando Group
