Open Comparisons

Under the heading Open Comparisons (OC), SALAR has in the last few years been making a great effort to increase the access to comparable information on quality, results and costs within the areas of activity for which municipalities, county councils and regions are responsible.

Since 2006, SALAR has published ten Open Comparison-reports within the following areas:

Health care
Elderly care
Comprehensive school
Senior high school
Safety and security
Public health
Business climate
Social services

The aim of Open Comparisons

The aim is to stimulate comparisons and contribute to a greater openness concerning results and costs for the activities that are run by municipalities and county councils. The starting point is that systematic and open comparisons constitute a good way of simulating an increased efficiency and strengthening the control of the activities.

The comparisons serve to spur the ambition to obtain a better result and also show good examples of how to proceed. Publications of comparisons that are open to the public also promote a debate based more on facts and can thus contribute to reinforce the citizens' confidence in the activities.

How we work with Open Comparisons

The OC reports contain a number of relevant measures (indicators) of outcome for the activity concerned. The indicators are reported divided into result (what has the activity achieved) and indicators of resources (what resources have been used in the activity).

The "main point" of the report should be the indicators of the result that measure the citizens' utility from the activity and that are thus linked to the resources used.

Each municipality and county council is ranked according to a number of indicators, from the best value (ranking 1) to the worst value (ranking 290/21). In order to make it more pedagogical, the tables are colored in green, yellow and red.

In the publication Open comparisons – results and costs in Swedish local government the aim and process is described in more detail. The only Open comparison translated to English is the one about health care.