Wednesday, 18 March 2009

LA Gobbledegook Exposed.

The Local Government Association has published a list of 200 jargon terms that councils should avoid.

Scroll down for the full list 

I've used the first 30+ in a memo, in the order the Times provided below. I got bored and decided to watch Taggart (without subtitles), as it was more stimulating. Maybe someone with a longer attention span could use all 200 and blog the result? 

Across-the-piece this LA has Actioned for Advocate Agencies who have an Ambassador who is Area based and Area focused.

Autonomous Baseline decisions have provided Beacon Benchmarking and established Best Practice via Blue sky thinking.
Achieved from Bottom-Up decision processes and CAA's with a Can do culture and Capabilities.
Capacity and Capacity building has been Cascading down and while this should be Cautiously welcome, the Challenge Champion, who enables Citizen empowerment for the Client in Cohesive communities is still needed to encourage Cohesiveness and Collaboration. 

Commissioning Community engagement in an effort to Compact Conditionality and Consensual Contestability in a Contextual scenario will further enhance Core developments and forward the Core Message enwrapping the Core principles and Core Value of Coterminosity. 
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Here is the full list of 200 words which the Local Government Association says should not be used by councils: 

Across-the-piece 

Actioned 

Advocate 


Agencies 

Ambassador 

Area based 

Area focused 

Autonomous 

Baseline 

Beacon 

Benchmarking 

Best Practice 

Blue sky thinking 

Bottom-Up 

CAAs 

Can do culture 

Capabilities 

Capacity 

Capacity building 

Cascading 

Cautiously welcome 

Challenge 

Champion 

Citizen empowerment 

Client 

Cohesive communities 

Cohesiveness 

Collaboration 

Commissioning 

Community engagement 

Compact 

Conditionality 

Consensual 

Contestability 

Contextual 

Core developments 

Core Message 

Core principles 

Core Value 

Coterminosity 

Coterminous 

Cross-cutting 

Cross-fertilisation 

Customer 

Democratic legitimacy 

Democratic mandate 

Dialogue 

Direction of travel 

Distorts spending priorities 

Double devolution 

Downstream 

Early Win 

Edge-fit 

Embedded 

Empowerment 

Enabler 

Engagement 

Engaging users 

Enhance 

Evidence Base 

Exemplar 

External challenge 

Facilitate 

Fast-Track 

Flex 

Flexibilities and Freedoms 

Framework 

Fulcrum 

Functionality 

Funding streams 

Gateway review 

Going forward 

Good practice 

Governance 

Guidelines 

Holistic 

Holistic governance 

Horizon scanning 

Improvement levers 

Incentivising 

Income streams 

Indicators 

Initiative 

Innovative capacity 

Inspectorates 

Interdepartmental 

Interface 

Iteration 

Joined up 

Joint working 

LAAs 

Level playing field 

Lever 

Leverage 

Localities 

Lowlights 

MAAs 

Mainstreaming 

Management capacity 

Meaningful consultation 

Meaningful dialogue 

Mechanisms 

Menu of Options 

Multi-agency 

Multidisciplinary 

Municipalities 

Network model 

Normalising 

Outcomes 

Outcomes 

Output 

Outsourced 

Overarching 

Paradigm 

Parameter 

Participatory 

Partnership working 

Partnerships 

Pathfinder 

Peer challenge 

Performance Network 

Place shaping 

Pooled budgets 

Pooled resources 

Pooled risk 

Populace 

Potentialities 

Practitioners 

Predictors of Beaconicity 

Preventative services 

Prioritization 

Priority 

Proactive 

Process driven 

Procure 

Procurement 

Promulgate 

Proportionality 

Protocol 

Provider vehicles 

Quantum 

Quick hit 

Quick win 

Rationalisation 

Rebaselining 

Reconfigured 

Resource allocation 

Revenue Streams 

Risk based 

Robust 

Scaled-back 

Scoping 

Sector wise 

Seedbed 

Self-aggrandizement 

Service users 

Shared priority 

Shell developments 

Signpost 

Single conversations 

Single point of contact 

Situational 

Slippage 

Social contracts 

Social exclusion 

Spatial 

Stakeholder 

Step change 

Strategic 

Strategic priorities 

Streamlined 

Sub-regional 

Subsidiarity 

Sustainable 

Sustainable communities 

Symposium ?? 

Synergies 

Systematics 

Taxonomy 

Tested for Soundness 

Thematic 

Thinking outside of the box 

Third sector 

Toolkit 

Top-down 

Trajectory 

Tranche 

Transactional 

Transformational 

Transparency 

Upstream 

Upward trend 

Utilise 

Value-added 

Vision ? 

Visionary 

Welcome 

Wellbeing 

Worklessness





7 comments:

  1. Ken whit ye mean aboot Taggart, extremely weird accents.
    Something like mockney; psuedoweegie?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've never been able to decide if it's a deliberate piss take or not. It reminds me of Dick van Dyke in Moary Porpins! (BTW, the subtiles crack was aimed at that Labour party bod who needed to show how much of a gent he was to Hateful Hattie last week.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oldrightie, Local Authorities have been refused the franchise on Global. It's a trademark of Gordon Brown(Global)Soluyshins Inc.

    ReplyDelete
  4. They forgot 'outreach' too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I just re-read your thirty word piece and it looks just like some of the nu-speak tripe that comes through our doors and onto our desks.
    Just use the correct words and phrases plus the odd joiny up word to link them together and, hey presto you have a Righteous pamphlet which says nothing but proves the authors Righteous credentials.

    Our challenge must be to return all such rubbish and demand they reproduce it in English.

    ReplyDelete
  6. That is exactly what it is. A say nothing pamphlet.
    Back in the eighties, a colleague and I wrote all our service reports using words that we had made up. We did this for a week and no-one said a word. We knew they had read them, they had even discussed them, but not one manager dared to admit that they hadn't a clue what the reports meant. It was a classic example of the Emperor's New Clothes sydrome.

    ReplyDelete

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