It is a way of measuring performance or delivery of the council and helps to identify areas for further improvement, concern or risk as well as acknowledging and promoting areas of high performance and success. Where improvements are identified there is then a need to take action to plan and deliver these improvements. An aim of performance management is to help services to achieve better outcomes.
Without reliable, timely and accurate performance management information, it is difficult for members, officers and residents of Wokingham borough to know how the Council is performing, where services can be developed further and whether the Council’s vision priorities are being achieved.
We cannot know how our services or staff are performing, how they can be developed and whether goals are being achieved. When managers need to redirect effort or resources, they must have solid facts on performance at their fingertips.
In addition to the needs for sound performance data, it is also important to ensure information is accessible, timely and meaningful to members of the public and to scrutiny bodies to demonstrate how the Council is delivering services to residents. Theres a growing need for such information to be made open and meaningful to members of the public and to scrutiny bodies. Regular statements on performance are necessary to be answerable to the community and to show our local residents and businesses how their local taxes are being spent.
You can find our annual performance reports and also our more regular performance reports on our website.
The Performance Management Framework and the Golden thread
The Council’s performance management framework is based around the following principles: plan, do, review and revise.
The ‘Golden Thread’ links performance management and strategic planning documents through the organisation. The aim of the Golden Thread is to provide stakeholders with a better understanding of the importance of relating decision making to performance and the Council’s overall vision. The Golden Thread follows the Performance Management Cycle.
There are also strong links between good service planning and effective performance management. Service plans identify the objectives for the Council and its services - stating what we aim to achieve. Performance management provides the mechanisms for how we achieve these ojbectives and for monitoring progress with delivery.
National context
Each local authority has a statutory duty to measure and report performance against the National Indicator Set, the new performance framework introduced by central government in April 2008, on an annual basis.
This new performance framework aims to measure outcomes and delivery of Government priorities by local government and its partners over the next three years. The National Indicator Set is the only set of indicators on which central government will measure local government performance and set targets.
The collection of Performance indicators is a statutory requirement and indicators are set by the ODPM. The results reported have a direct impact on the councils CPA scoring and PSA achievement.
The motivation behind performance indicators is the need for strong performance management systems in local government and a focus on improving public services.
Local context
Performance indicators form a critical element of performance management and can be used to inform service planning, improvements and support service delivery. The Council monitors performance of the national indicator set and locally established indicators on a regular basis in order to continually monitor its performance linked to service delivery.
Other users of performance indicator information are service users, the press and media, central government, inspectors and auditors and other authorities.
