Performance management
Case reference FOI2022/00092
Published 8 February 2022
Request
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from your authority. Please may you provide me with information on how your authority reports on its performance. Please provide written responses below each of the questions listed below (definitions have also been included below the questions):
1. How do you report performance to residents?
2. Do you have a Performance Management Handbook*?
3. What budget do you have allocated towards your performance management* initiatives per annum?
4. How many hours are spent on performance management* reporting each month?
5. Which applications or systems do you use to manage Performance Management*?
6. Do you report departmental performance separately or in a different way?
7. Do you benchmark or baseline your authority's performance with other similar authorities?
8. Can you evidence improvements to your services based on historical performance management* reporting?
Definitions: Performance management*: Performance Management is about the practical ways that a council can improve what it does and, more importantly, what it delivers, in terms of good quality services that meet the needs of local people. Performance management is acting in response to actual performance to make outcomes for users and the public better than they would otherwise be.
Performance Management Handbook*: A Performance Management Handbook sets out what a council does to; plan activity, monitor, report and improve performance, in relation to the services they deliver, and linked to the aims and objectives of the corporate plan.
Response
1. How do you report performance to residents?
Performance is reported quarterly through Cabinet. A copy of the Quarter 2 report can be found on the cabinet agenda here.
2. Do you have a Performance Management Handbook*?
The council has a performance management framework which sets out our approach to managing performance. The council's 4 year priorities are set out in the County Plan, and the Delivery Plan details the work planned to progress these ambitions in the year. The county plan and delivery plan are the basis for quarterly reporting.
3. What budget do you have allocated towards your performance management* initiatives per annum?
The council's budget on Performance Management Team is only based on staffing, who support: the co-ordination and production of numerous outputs across all directorates, as well as corporate reporting through to cabinet etc., support services with risk management, development of reporting scripts over council databases using SQL to extract data to develop, dashboard development, system development support for the configuration of the councils' mosaic database and an intelligence unit focused on making sense of various data sets. The budget is £855k.
4. How many hours are spent on performance management* reporting each month?
The team structure above equates to approximately 3200 hours per month (based on 73 hours per week).
5. Which applications or systems do you use to manage Performance Management*?
For most outputs the council typically uses Microsoft Office products, Excel, Word and Powerpoint. The council has recently started using PowerBI for the presentation of some datasets - the use of this will expand. For the creation of some datasets from the Mosaic database, SSRS and SSMS are also used.
6. Do you report departmental performance separately or in a different way?
Directorates focus on their operational performance information as well as their delivery of key transformation work through the delivery plan.
7. Do you benchmark or baseline your authority's performance with other similar authorities?
Services and directorates will benchmark data where it is available.
8. Can you evidence improvements to your services based on historical performance management* reporting?
There are examples across the council where focus on performance has led to operational improvements - ultimately a better service being delivered by services. For example, the council developed a new pathway in adult social care and used various measures to monitor the effectiveness of this pathway and practice within it. This ultimately resulted in improved metrics relating to customer satisfaction, service user numbers and measures of value for money.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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