Performance measurement and the use of performance information

Decisions about what to prioritise and how to improve should be based on sound information.  These publications address the questions about how to measure performance and how to use that information for better decision making and accountability.

For an overview of these issues and more see the PMMI Councillors' and Managers' Guides to Performance Management.

Performance measurement – key resources

Framework for performance information – HM Treasury archive
This publication outlines the need for a good system of performance information to be focused, appropriate, balanced, robust, integrated and cost effective.

Public service performance resources – HM Treasury website

The Library of Local Performance Indicators
This website holds sets of performance indicators ready to use covering a range of services and cross-cutting areas such as arts, biodiversity, education, social services and quality of life performance indicators. The library is a joint endeavour by the Audit Commission and the IDeA and has not only PIs but a range of other resources and links for the measurement of performance and use of performance information.

On Target: The Practice of Performance Indicators
This paper sets out the key lessons in the use and development of performance indicators and is based on the depth and breadth of Audit Commission experience of developing and using PIs. It is aimed at helping managers and practitioners in local government, the NHS and central government to develop their own set of balanced and focused indicators. It describes ways to ensure that PIs are robust and well framed.

Using performance information – key resources

Acting on Facts: Using Performance Measurement to Improve Local Authority Services
Performance measurement helps authorities run and improve services. If you don't know how good or bad you are you can't identify the scope for improvement. The authorities that make good use of performance measurement have resolved a number of organisational issues. In particular, they have established performance management as a key day-to-day management activity. But while some authorities are making good progress in using both national and local performance indicators to drive improvement, others have encountered difficulties and concentrated on merely collecting performance information rather than acting on it. These authorities could benefit by learning from those that are doing well to ensure that they move from mere compliance to driving improvement.

Other useful publications

PMMI Performance Management literature review carried out by academics at Cranfield University has more detailed analysis of existing performance management publications, including a strong emphasis on performance measurement and use of information.

Change Here! – on the Audit Commission website
A guide to managing change for local chief executives and their teams, based on the Audit Commission's experience of working with local bodies as they improve services for users and overcome barriers to change.

Changing Gear - Best Value statement, 2001 – on the Audit Commission website
A review of 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.

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.

Benchmarking for Best Value (PDF, 32 pages, 310KB)
Understanding how your performance stacks up against the performance of others can highlight areas for improvement and help with understanding performance in context. The 'Join The Club' publication aims to help authorities get the best out of benchmarking for Best Value by, providing an easily accessible toolkit on how to benchmark for Best Value and signposting users to other resources that can help maximise the opportunities that can flow from effective and appropriate benchmarking exercises.

Made to Measure: Best Value and EFQM
This publication shares the experience of local authorities that have used EFQM or the Excellence Model to secure Best Value improvements. For many local authorities the Excellence Model seemed to offer a number of benefits. It offered the opportunity to adopt a whole-organisation approach and a formula for consistent performance assessment, planning and review and continuous improvement, with a focus on outcomes. The self-assessment approach offered an opportunity to engage staff in the process of review and designing improvements. Usage of the Excellence Model across public and private sectors would also enable authorities to use comparators beyond local government. This publication has a number of case studies and also reflects the experiences of a range of private and public sector practitioners.

Making Best Value Work: A practical guide to managing successful best value reviews
The publication also shows how to make the links between overall vision, strategy and implementation, and identifies the corporate and inter agency processes outside of Best Value that are critical to the success of performance reviews.

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.

Mapping approaches to integrating PIs across LSPs
This Office for Public Management paper is based on brief research in nine case study LSPs, chosen on the basis that they each had a reputation for having made considerable progress in, or adopting an innovative approach to, the selection, development and use of shared cross-sectoral indicators. The report gives an overview of approaches to performance management and the use of PIs in the case study partnerships; details of each case study are given in separate annexes.

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.