Performance management
Why do we manage performance?
Having clear targets makes it easier to hold organisations accountable.
We manage our performance using performance indicators (PIs), Service Plans and our Corporate Plan, and by ensuring we complete the tasks we have committed to, within the given time. This enables us to monitor our performance in an effective and transparent way.
Performance management is partly about monitoring performance indicators but importantly, the framework also monitors strategies, service development tasks and recommendations, and action plans from our internal reviews and external inspections.
Our Performance Management Framework (include a link to Performance Framework doc when uploaded) mainly concentrates on our Corporate Plan which is our business plan. In this we state our targets for the future.
Our Corporate Plan is supported by Service Plans. These are used by Service Managers as part of the day-to-day management of our services. The Service Plans are directly linked to our Strategic Plan.
Service plans set out what the service aims to develop over the coming year and the performance targets it strives to meet. Individual service plans are owned by the managers of the services.
Evaluation processes
Our Corporate Client and Governance Team provides the first level of monitoring, which examines the data and information provided.
Performance is managed at a number of levels:
- Council - responsible for setting overall priorities and the budget,
- Executive - receives regular progress reports about performance against our Corporate Plan priorities and milestones, delivery of Key Performance Indicators against targets and how well we are mitigating / controlling our strategic risks,
- Scrutiny - Councillors meet as required to undertake scrutiny reviews as identified,
- Performance Clinics – held quarterly with individual Heads of Service with performance challenged by Corporate Leadership Team and Head of Policy and Commissioning
- Directors - regularly review performance overall,
- Heads of Service - responsible for all performance matters in their Service
How performance information is collected
Staff in our Corporate Client and Governance Team gather performance information from all of our different service areas.
They support the production of the presentations for the Performance Clinics and produce the quarterly monitoring reports for Executive.
We use a performance management software system to collect all this information. This makes the links between our corporate objectives, strategies and plans, and performance indicators even stronger. This system is called Pentana (Ideagen).