Council Performance

Performance Measures

For a number of years we measured our performance using a set of performance indicators each of which had targets for improvement. There were two main types of indicators: National Indicators (NIs) required by central government and Local Performance Indicators measuring how well specific Council services were performing.

In April 2011 the National Indicator Set was replaced by the ‘Single Data List’.  This data set lists every piece of data that central government requires from councils.  The single data list does not have a role in performance management of local authorities but is a tool with which to keep a check on the amount of data that central government requests from local government.  The single data list is simply a catalogue of all central government’s data.  The National Indicator Set was part of a broader prescriptive local performance framework and consisted of processed indicators rather than pure data.

We have now adopted a new approach which does not use targets as a basis for monitoring. We measure things to learn about how well we are delivering our purpose and what matters to customers and to enable us to understand what we need to do to continuously improve. So first and foremost, measures are about learning. Data needs to be useful and relevant. It needs to help us learn so that we can improve and create a more rounded judgement in the decision making process.

The critical test of a sound operational measure is:

• Helps to understand and improve performance

• Is related to the purpose of the service and what matters to the customer

• It takes an end to end measure of the system

• It shows the extent of variation in performance

• It is visual and in the hands of those who do the work

We refer to these measures as ‘Leading Measures’ because they are the ‘real time’ indicators which tells us what is happening now in the system and help us lead change and improvement. Examples of leading measures are:

• Demand analysis - the type (preventable or value demand) and frequency of customer demand. Value demand is what we are here to do and preventable demand is demand caused by our failure to do something or to do it right.  

• Our ability to deal with requests/demand first time (one stop capability)

• How long a process took from start to finish (end to end time)

In addition to leading measures we also use ‘Lagging Measures’ or rear view indicators because they represent a state of play after the service has been delivered. They quantify the effectiveness or efficiency of service delivery but should not be used to lead change improvements. Examples are:

• Management accounts: revenue and cost (budget monitoring)

• Customer satisfaction and staff morale

• Previous national and local performance indicators