Changing culture and change stories

Culture and behaviour within organisations is as important as the systems and processes that support performance management.  These publications address the issues of organisational culture in the context of performance management, with some showing how organisations have managed to change their culture and delivered tangible improvements.  For an overview of these issues and more see the PMMI Councillors' and Managers' Guides to Performance Management.

Key documents 

Change Here!: Managing Change to Improve Local Public Services
Public services face huge challenges, if they are to deliver the improvements that users expect. The Government’s agenda for change and improvement across central and local government, and in the NHS means that change management one of the key skills needed by leaders of public services.  This report addresses the core challenges that all public sector leaders face in delivering and communicating change.

Making Performance Management Work
Making performance management work provides practical advice on how local authorities can improve the management of their performance. It is based on the learning from over one hundred peer reviews of local authorities and on good practice in a number of authorities that were involved in its preparation.

The Man in the Caravan
During the past year Charles Leadbeater, a leading writer on innovation, entrepreneurship and the knowledge economy, visited 10 of the best councils in England and Wales. His mission was to gather in-depth case studies, which would show how these authorities are tackling the challenge of improving public services - currently a controversial political issue in the Britain.
The results of the study, which was commissioned by the IDeA, form the basis of Leadbeater's new book: The man in the caravan and other stories, published in Summer 2003. The book provides detailed narratives on seven case studies of how local councils have created or improved services to transform the lives of individuals, families or communities.

Performance Breakthroughs
This paper sheds light on the common problems people face into why managing performance can be so difficult and why some of the best attempts at improvement can fail.   It contains a model for managing performance to help assess where your organisation is and what still needs to be done to improve performance management.

Also see the PMMI briefing on changing culture Performance management: A cultural revolution

Other important resources

Corporate Governance: Improvement and trust in local public services

This study describes some of the strengths in current governance arrangements in the public sector and some of the areas that are most in need of attention. Many of these themes have been visited before, but this report brings together elements of Audit Commission and others' work to show how good governance can provide both the means for public services to strengthen themselves and for regulators to ensure that regulation is proportionate to risk.

Changing Gear

The 2001 best value statement from the Audit Commission reviews progress made by councils in implementing the new best value regime. It draws on a wide range of best value evidence to get below the headlines and see what is happening on the ground. It examines how councils can use their experience to build capacity to deliver further improvements, and how inspection and audit need to change to make best value work better.

Patterns for Improvement and other CPA briefings

This Audit Commission report identifies learning from the CPA process to provide learning for councils to enhance corporate effectiveness, including around performance management, and drive service improvement.  This report is accompanied by a range of briefings which draw out specific lessons from the CPA and specifically the corporate assessment process.

The Managing Performance briefing sheds light on the difference effective performance management makes to service quality and is designed to help those who have an interest in how councils can improve their performance management. Officers and councillors, and those working with partner bodies at operational and strategic levels, will find this briefing a useful starting point.

The Setting Priorities and Maintaining Focus briefing is designed to assist those who are interested in how a council can improve its priority setting and maintain its focus. Officers and councillors, and those working with partner bodies at operational and strategic levels, will find this briefing a useful starting point to improve priority setting and focus by building on the key learning points from CPA.