Performance management

What is Performance Management and Performance Management Framework?

Performance Management is the tool we use to ensure that the council works as effectively as possible, supporting growth in the economy and improving outcomes for our residents and visitors. This is done by planning our activities using data, making reactive changes and tracking our progress. Good performance management focuses on change and improvements. The value of a good performance management framework lies in a dynamic process that provides leaders with information needed to make decisions and encourage change.

This framework sets our approach to business planning, monitoring performance and risk management and ensures activities we carry out are done in support of our vision and to help deliver our corporate priorities. Having a structure in place helps us to ensure alignment of resources, people and finance to our ambitions. It applies to everyone within the Council and demonstrates the approach we will take to performance management.

A strong performance management culture ensures we:

• Can demonstrate quality services and are accountable to the public
• Have an evidence-based approach to designing and delivering our services
• Drive improvements through a culture of support and challenge
• Support our journey of continuous improvement, self-assessment and learning

Our performance management framework is a continual cycle which has the following key elements:

Plan:being clear about what we want to achieve and PLAN how we are going to do it for example, corporate plan and service plans.

Do: make sure we DO what is in the plan.

Review:regularly gather information to REVIEW and report on our performance to show what has gone well or what could have been done better, including benchmarking our performance with others.

Our Corporate Plan

Performance management begins with a clear vision. The corporate plan 2023-27 is our strategic plan that outlines our key priorities and how we intend to meet them. Financial resources are allocated to our priorities through the Medium-Term Financial Strategy and annual Revenue and Capital budgets. Resources provided by other bodies are secured through external funding.

Our vision is to ensure the district is: a safe, vibrant and clean place to live, work and visit

Our focus must be on how we can achieve positive outcomes for our communities - to improve their quality of life and the services we provide for them. When planning, we must ensure we understand the district, our communities and their needs based on a detailed knowledge of key demographic data/customer satisfaction and perceptions.

We must also be aware of available resources, anticipated risks and levels of current performance when setting priorities and developing plans.

The Council’s services are delivered through plans and strategies at all levels. Our corporate plan is the principal means of delivering services on the ground and provides a link between our high-level vision, strategic priorities, service plans and team/individual performance.

Our corporate plan has the following three main priorities:

• Economic growth and regeneration
• Securing financial sustainability for services that local communities value
• Secure housing growth through the local plan

Our vision and priorities are underpinned by our agreed values, which influence the way we work and lie at the heart of everything we do:

• We are Working together
• We are Fair
• We are Dependable
• We put Communities first

Service plans

Each service area produces a service plan. They are operational documents that detail how the corporate plan priorities will be delivered. They are reviewed annually to ensure we are delivering the right services, at the right time, in the right way to the right people. They include a review of major projects, key actions, operational risks, structures, and performance measures. They also align corporate plan priorities to service actions. They contain key objectives that each service area will work on over the coming year and plans outlining how these objectives will be delivered. Service plans provide the framework against which each member of staff’s performance is appraised.

My Development Review

The Council’s staff appraisal system results in actions being set or measures being put in place for members of staff on an individual basis. The reviews demonstrate how each employee contributes both to their team and the organisation as a whole and how everyone has a role to play in achieving our priorities. Objectives should relate to key activities set out in service plans and, in some cases, the corporate plan.

The Golden Thread

The following diagram shows how our corporate plan vision influences everything we do as a council. It is our ‘golden thread’ that ensures our priorities are central to our service delivery, underpinned by our values.

Vision

• A safe, vibrant and clean place to live, work and visit

Priorities

• Economic growth and regeneration
• Securing financial sustainability for services that local communities value
• A clean, safe and green place to live, work and visit

Delivery

• Medium-Term Financial Strategy
• Service plans
• Risk strategy
• Performance reporting
• HR and organisational development strategy
• My Development Reviews

Performance indicators

We have developed a set of performance indicators (PIs) to monitor progress against our priorities. Our indicators are both qualitative (narrative-based) and quantitative (numeric). PIs are the tools of performance measurement that allow us to measure and monitor how well we are progressing towards achieving our goals.

Performance reporting

Performance is monitored at corporate and service area levels. Service managers manage their own team performance in support of our council priorities and these are shared with their teams.

At a corporate level, performance against our corporate plan priorities is reported, every quarter, to the Corporate Leadership Team, Cabinet and Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Every six months, performance relating to complaints and compliments is reported to Audit Committee. These reports contain detailed data on our progress including actions needed to address any areas of poor performance.

We publish an annual report that shows the progress we have made against our priorities every year.

We use dedicated performance management software that helps to provide consistency and better access to information regarding ownership, service activity and measures and to improve monitoring and reporting procedures.

Performance reporting

Roles and responsibilities

Everyone in the council is responsible for performance management and ensuring we deliver our corporate priorities. Our approach relies on us all to take performance management seriously and ensure we make our plans, policies and decisions based on good quality information.

Roles and responsibilities are outlined in the following table: