What is performance?

Once a partnership has got to the delivery stage of the cycle, following analysis and planning, it can feel as if they have reached ‘the end of the road’. But if they don’t know what the delivery is achieving – including where and for whom – it can just end up as activity, rather than a means to the end of achieving outcomes.

So performance is about reviewing how effectively a partnership is delivering against its outcomes, and working with them to manage their performance so they can deliver more effectively. It involves gathering and analysing data on impact from the delivery stage to see what is working, and why, and what needs to be improved. Performance management is in itself a cycle – an ongoing and structured process of assessment, learning and improvement.

Why is performance useful to my work?

This GO performance assessment and management role is set within the broader annual performance cycle which has the Comrehensive Area Assessment (CAA) at its core. There are specific points in the performance management cycle at which we ‘formally’ intervene, such as LAA annual reviews, but throughout we have a role in working closely with local partners to gather intelligence, build relationships and spot problems – so that we can provide an accurate and timely assessment of performance.
Performance management of localities also relates to the performance management of GOs in terms of regional performance on Public Servcie Agreements (PSAs). If your region is not performing well on a particular PSA you will need to know where the problem is so it can be tackled in the relevant localities.

What is my role in helping partners to do it well?

The GO role has shifted in recent years, away from performance monitoring i.e. measuring inputs and outputs, and toward performance management i.e. taking a broader view of performance against outcomes and more actively helping partners to improve. We still have a monitoring role, but we’re now expected to do more.

Evidence about the effectiveness of local performance management arrangements will be an important part of the CAA assessment. We will be expected to feed intelligence into the Audit Commission, and help local partners respond to the assessments by further improving their performance.

Core tasks

The first core task is to gather the data and intelligence you need to make an accurate and up-to-date judgement on whether they are doing what they said they would do – and whether this means they are reaching the target(s).

On the back of that information, the second core task is to suggest tools and techniques which can help the partnership better understand, manage and improve its performance, including managing key risks to delivery. This Handbook highlights a range of tools which have been developed to help public sector managers to effectively monitor and manage performance.

1. What do we mean by performance?
2. What are the core tools, techniques and templates I need to know about?
3. What are the key steps in assessing performance?
4. What are the key elements of effective performance management?
5. How can I quickly assess an area's performance against its agreed outcomes?
6. Do performance issues change at different spatial levels?
7. What pitfalls do I need to be aware of?
8. Moving from performance back to analysis - what needs to be done?
9. How can I undertake a simple local evaluation of a project or programme?

How do I check that a partnership has the right performance monitoring system in place? 
How can I help to instil a ‘culture of performance management’?
What are the trigger points for challenging performance?
What approaches can I use to challenge under-performance?
What should a self-assessment look like?
How do I assess future performance?

A wide range of tools have been developed to support central government Departments, GOs, local authorities and other practitioners to monitor and manage performance.

This section explains when and why you might want to use some of the most relevant tools and sources of information.

The Places Analysis Tool can be used to measure performance of national indicator data to monitor trends in a specific locality, including those indicators which have been targeted in Local Area Agreements.

The LAA Target Analysis Tool should be used to download how a particular area or collection of areas is performing against each of the indicators in the National Indicator Set.

The Data Interchange Hub provides an online data store on areas’ performance against national indicators, including LAA priorities which are captured in LAA Monitoring Reports for each area.

From April 2009, a Data Interchange Hub Analytical Tool will also be available. This will be an online resource, enabling GO users to perform a range of analytical tasks to hep assess performance.

A balanced scorecard should be used to capture and display performance data against a number of success criteria, so that you can get a rounded picture of how a partnership is doing. The balanced scorecard is a very flexible tool, and can be used in a wide range of different contexts.

A traffic light or Red-Amber-Green (RAG) rating should be used to assess and display the different aspects of a partnership’s performance against a simple RAG rating.

The Performance Measurement, Management and Information (PMMI) Resource Pack, developed by IDeA, should be used a library of resources including case studies and checklists to different performance monitoring and management systems.

One of the elements of the PMMI Resource Pack is the Review of Performance Improvement Models and Tools. This provides a very useful summary of different performance management tools, worked examples of how to apply them, and the circumstances in which they are most appropriate.

The Review is geared toward local authority practitioners, so you can use it to guide local partners through their options.

The final tool is OPMS, which you should use to report on progress against your GO’s corporate objectives. OPMS should help you by highlighting problems with sponsor departments’ key performance indicators.

As with the other elements of the delivery cycle, the specific performance questions which you will ask of a particular area will be shaped by the local context and your own intelligence.

As a framework, however, a partnership which is getting its performance right should be able to give you a convincing answer to the following questions:

• Do you have a robust system for gathering and analysing data on its performance against each outcome – and can you show how you are using it?
• How have you integrated or aligned different local performance management systems, so that partners are working together on shared outcomes and have a common view of performance?
• What partnership-wide governance arrangements do you have in place to manage the performance across the different outcomes – including re-allocating resources?
• Can all partners point to a clear and transparent set of performance rewards and sanctions?
• What is your system for learning lessons on performance, so that there is constant review and improvement?