Synopsis: Wigan performance management

Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council needed to improve its performance management with the introduction of the new local area agreement (LAA). The council set out to find a suitable performance management system. To create a performance management approach, the council undertook a detailed mapping exercise. This helped to work out the inter-relationships involved. The council hosted a day-long ‘revolving door’ workshop. All parties with an interest in a particular goal were invited to discuss the factors that would contribute to achieving it. Data from this workshop was refined. About 40 key strategies and plans fed into achieving the goals. The causal links between existing strategies, objectives and goals in the community plan, were discussed at individual meetings with the owners of these plans. The mapping exercise revealed that goals and objectives were better understood as a network or web, rather than a hierarchy. The achievement of some goals and objectives linked to the achievement of others. Each goal was aligned to one of the seven thematic partnerships.