Archived decisions

Driving Success: Hampshire County Council's Performance Management Framework

1. The County Council is focussed on building on its already high base to ensure that the right improvement infrastructure is in place to drive forward innovation, value for money and improved community outcomes. To maintain its excellent progress, the County Council seeks to move further beyond simply corporate performance monitoring to stronger and more proactive performance management. In the context of the changing national performance framework, with a shift from BVPIs¹ to the NIS² and CAA³ replacing CPA⁴ , and with the County Council facing financial, demographic and public expectation challenges, there has never been a greater need for the organisation's corporate planning and management to be effective and robust.

2. On 24 November 2008, the Cabinet considered a report /decisions/decisions-docs/081124-cabine-R1116184725 setting out the revised corporate Performance Management Framework and the new Corporate Improvement Plan. These build upon good practice already present across departments.

3. The new framework has four key underpinning principles, namely: simplicity, honesty, concentrating on the critical issues that matter most locally and doing something about performance and improvement when action is required. The roles of the Leader and Cabinet are central to the whole framework and in providing leadership and oversight in relation to the underpinning principles. These principles are complementary and mutually reinforcing and are supported by the following, agreed by Cabinet:-

· Each Chief Officer, with their Executive Member, will be responsible for managing performance and improvement in their departments


· The Chief Executive, with the Head of Improvement, will be responsible for advising the Leader and Cabinet on the Council's overall performance and improvement and for identifying ongoing areas of concern


· Corporate Management Team (CMT) will act as a `clearing house' on performance reporting


· The Leader and Cabinet will set the overall ambition for the Council

4. The Corporate Performance and Efficiency Group (CPEG) is also central to the revised, agreed framework proposed to Cabinet. CPEG, on behalf of Cabinet and CMT, will manage strategic performance across the authority and ensure that issues of concern are being adequately addressed. The Corporate Improvement Plan contains the key corporate improvement areas for the Council; the Chief Officer self-assessment provides an overview of departmental performance and focuses on any key issues; the Corporate Dashboard provides an at-a-glance overview of the Council's performance from a range of sources; and the Menu of Supportive Interventions sets out a range of action options to address and provide collective support to an area for improvement. These key improvement areas will provide further context for managing performance and driving improvement. In future, internal, or departmental, performance reporting will be expected to focus on areas prioritised by the Council and of importance to the local community.

5. Statutory performance reporting and assessment requirements, including the new National Indicator Set, are intended to be a by-product of the Council's corporate performance management framework and not its sole focus. However, the service managers who have been identified as having corporate responsibility for each of the 196 indicators will all be expected to manage performance, data quality and where, appropriate, relationships with partner organisations to ensure that the drive for continuous improvement is maintained and areas of concern or disempowerment are escalated.

6. All of the County Council's departments undertake a multitude of activities and services which contribute to the priorities contained within the Council's Corporate Strategy. The Corporate Improvement Plan, which replaces the existing Corporate Business Plan, is a three year plan from 2008-2011 focussing on the corporate key areas for improvement with an emphasis on clear targets and accountabilities. The Plan reflects known areas of interest and local political priorities.

7. Cabinet emphasised the value and importance that they placed upon the contribution that the County Council's Select Committees could make in respect of performance information and improvement and accordingly, the Cabinet wished Select Committees to be formally recognised as having a role in improving performance. Cabinet also expressed the importance of the County Council being aware of the environmental implications of its decisions and of the need to undertake efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.

Key:

¹ Best Value Performance Indicators.

² National Indicator Set.

³ Comprehensive Area Assessment.

⁴ Comprehensive Performance Assessment.