The only purpose of Performance Management is to deliver better quality services to local people.
Performance Management requires us to:
1.
Prioritise and set clear objectives (what we intend to do for local people) and communicate these to the public and our workforce
2.
Track and communicate whether or not they are being achieved
3.
Take action to ensure that we are continuously improving and that objectives are being met in line with expectations.
Additionally, achieving better quality services is dependent on: our workforce being motivated to identify practical ways of improving how we do things.
And…. the way that our employees operate together & with our partners.
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So, the sum total of how our workforce operates is crucial in making performance management effective. The right culture is therefore necessary.
Toward a performance culture – ‘The Stairway to
Heaven’
Which part of the stairway is familiar to you?
Progress
Performance Culture
•
•
•
•
All employees’ empowerment is supported
Widespread management by fact
Plans reflect organisational capability
Continuous improvement achieved
Performance Management
•
Ownership is devolved
•
Objectives better understood
•
Decisions are based on facts
•
Actions changed through use of information
Effective Performance Reporting
•
A joined-up set of strategies, plans and objectives
•
Objectives understood throughout the organisation
•
Clear accountability is established
Systematic Performance Measurement
•
•
•
Single information database established
Key performance information collected efficiently
Efficient reporting of performance information
Disparate Un-coordinated Approach
•
•
Duplicated effort, difficult to consolidate
Time-consuming, irreconcilable, possibly mistrusted information
Time
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1. Prioritising, Setting and Communicating
Objectives:
A key step toward achieving excellence is to establish an integrated way of communicating and implementing objectives throughout the Council – so all of our plans must contain clear objectives and they must be joined - up. (See separate Rough
Guide to the Council Plan).
Ownership and accountability is also essential to ensure that individual officers who are best placed to ensure delivery of objectives have real ownership for doing so.
This can be described best by introducing the concept of the ‘Golden Thread’.
As employees of the Council, we should all recognise the contribution that we are making, as individuals or as team players, toward achieving what we set out to achieve for the people of
Cumbria.
We should be able to connect the ‘Golden Thread’ from the Council Plan objectives, through Service and Team Plan objectives to our own individual objectives.
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In this way, we should have a clear ‘line of sight’ through the following pyramid.
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The Golden Thread
The Golden Thread
Council Plan
Objectives
Cor por ate
Str ate gy


Monitor performance
 Recognise good performance
Improve performance
 Strategy Focused Workforce via employee appraisal and team briefing
 Motivated teams and individuals delivering targeted improvement
The Golden Thread
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2. Tracking and communicating whether or not they are being achieved
Once objectives have been set and are communicated to stakeholders, and everyone involved in meeting them has had a chance to discuss them, good practice includes routinely providing evidence to show that we are achieving our objectives and that our services are continuously improving – so we must use standards, targets & performance measures that will tell us whether we are delivering better quality services.
The table below describes the links between objectives, standards, performance measures & targets that we use to show how we are improving.
Objective What we intend to achieve by our activities
Standard
Target
Performance Measure
How we intend to achieve our objective – a minimum level of service that the public can expect us to provide.
By How Much or How Quickly we expect to achieve the objective
A measure which tells us whether we are improving and have reached our target.
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2 fictional examples…..
Objective
Standard
Performance Measure
Put vulnerable adults and their carers at the centre of our services.
All service users will receive a statement of their care needs and how they will be met
Percentage of people receiving a statement of their care needs and how they will be met
92% by dd/mm/yy Target
Objective
Standard
Performance Measure
Target
Work to meet the needs of different groups and communities.
Achieve the Local Government
Equality Standard
Levels 1 to 5 of the Commission for Racial Equality Standard for
Local Government
Achieve Level three of standard by dd/mm/yy
Using performance measures, standards and targets, to identify achievements and areas for improvement should, over time, become everyone’s day job!
This will allow us to ensure we always provide the best service we can for the people of Cumbria.
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The Council’s key objectives, priorities for improvement, performance measures and targets are published in the Council’s ‘Annual Review &
Best Value Performance Plan’.
In here you will find performance measures and targets related to your area of work. Some are set locally by the Council and some are set by national
Government.
3. Taking action to ensure that we are continuously improving and that objectives are being met in line with expectations.
Performance review is necessary to ensure that continuously improving performance is being delivered in line with our expectations.
Where performance is not up to expectation, we must take action in response to actual performance to make results better than they would otherwise be.
Our performance is actively managed by themed
Performance Groups that are made up of Elected
Members and Officers. There is a Performance
Group for each theme of the Council Plan and each
Directorate leads a Performance Group.
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At least quarterly, each Thematic Performance
Group tracks whether our objectives are being met using standards, targets & performance measures.
Where performance is not on target, then corrective action would be agreed and taken by the
Performance Group to get performance back on track.
The Council has also established a Corporate
Performance Group (CPG) to oversee the Council’s performance. Principally, the role and purpose of the CPG is to manage the Council’s Improvement
Delivery Plan (part of the Council Plan) and ensure each Performance Group is carrying out it’s role of actively managing performance.
Thematic Performance Groups routinely monitor and manage performance against objectives in our plans using both existing national performance measures and local performance measures designed by individual Directorates to track whether we are improving over time.
To support the Performance Groups and CPG in their respective roles, the Council has acquired a
Performance Management System called
‘Performanceplus’(P+).
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In short, P+ is a single Council wide database for storing and reporting performance and risk information in a consistent way using common standards across the Council. It provides a system of performance ‘alerts’ that enable Members and
Officers to focus effort and resources on those areas requiring greatest attention.
Often, the use of performance measures will lead us to conclude that services need to be improved or successes and achievements shared with everyone involved.
The use of performance measures will indicate success and achievement but may also indicate deficiencies in services for a range of reasons eg:

Quality & satisfaction with Services Delivered.

Cost of Services compared with Budget.

Efficiency of services.
Often, this would indicate that a review of a service is likely to identify areas for improvement and better quality services for local people.
So, your ideas for improvement are always welcomed!
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Key Documents:
Performance Management Framework available at http://www.intouch.ccc/bestvalue/pmf.asp
Annual Best Value Performance Plan available at http://www.intouch.ccc/bestvalue/performanceplan.asp
Annual Performance Summary available at http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/bestvalue/default.asp
Service Review Toolkit available at http://www.intouch.ccc/bestvalue/servicereview.asp
A Guide to Performance Measures and Targets available at
Useful External Websites: www.audit-commission.gov.uk
for information on Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA), an assessment & inspection programme carried out by the audit commission to assess overall performance of Councils. for information on ‘Performance Breakthoughs: Improving performance in public sector organisations’. www.idea.gov.uk/knowledge for the Managers’ guide to performance management. for the Performance Management, Measurement and Information
(PMMI) website
Additional Information:
For further general information on Performance Management, including the Council’s approach to Performance Management and/or new
Government initiatives please contact:
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The Performance Team,
Policy and Performance Unit,
Strategy & Performance Directorate,
The Courts,
Carlisle.
Wendy Daley – Performance Officer e-mail: wendy.daley@cumbriacc.gov.uk
tel: 01226 60(6095)
Hazel Waiting – Performance Officer e-mail: hazel.waiting@cumbriacc.gov.uk
tel: 01228 60(7489)
Duncan Mc Queen – Performance Manager e-mail: duncan.mcqueen@cumbriacc.gov.uk
tel: 01228 60(6293)
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