Reporting on Performance

94

24/01/2022

FOI

1.     How do you report performance to residents? 2.     Do you have a Performance Management Handbook*?
3.     What budget do you have allocated towards your performance management* initiatives per annum?

4.     How many hours are spent on performance management* reporting each month?

5.     Which applications or systems do you use to manage Performance Management*?

6.     Do you report departmental performance separately or in a different way?

7.     Do you benchmark or baseline your authority's performance with other similar authorities?

8.     Can you evidence improvements to your services based on historical performance management* reporting?

Definitions:
Performance management*: Performance Management is about the practical ways that a council can improve what it does and, more importantly, what it delivers, in terms of good quality services that meet the needs of local people. Performance management is acting in response to actual performance to make outcomes for users and the public better than they would otherwise be.

Performance Management Handbook*: A Performance Management Handbook sets out what a council does to; plan activity, monitor, report and improve performance, in relation to the services they deliver, and linked to the aims and objectives of the corporate plan.

If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under the Section 16 obligations of the Act, as to how I can refine my request.

If you can identify any ways that my request could be refined, I would be grateful for any further advice and assistance.

1. With a combination of online publication of info, council/committee performance reports publicly published and via a Council information bulletin sent to households 3 times per year.

2.     The existing Framework is being reviewed and updated to ensure more effective performance management practices across the organisation that are better aligned to our strategic direction.

3.     Unfortunately Scottish Borders Council do not hold the information you have requested. Therefore we give notice under s17 of FOI(S)A 2002 and declare that the information is not held.
A recent exercise was undertaken to identify all staff across SBC with a performance role. The results are unusable as yet and another attempt will be made at this. Over and above this, Performance Management is everyone's responsibility and we have been at pains to avoid this being seen as the domain of an individual or team.

4.     Unfortunately Scottish Borders Council do not hold the information you have requested. Therefore we give notice under s17 of FOI(S)A 2002 and declare that the information is not held.
As part of current Review of Performance and ongoing consideration of corporate structures, this information will need to be explored as part of identifying a clear picture of what we currently do.

5.     Primarily Microsoft Office based tools and Covalent as our corporate performance system. However, every single system used by every service across the council is used for source data to feed these corporate performance systems. If you have a specific interest in one or more specific areas of the council we can tailor a response around the interfaces, methods and techniques used in a particular area.

6.     There is a corporate report presented to Council. However, there are different approaches used in different services/departments depending on statutory requirements, historic demands and individual service relevant focus.

7.     Yes – the Local Government Benchmarking Framework is used

8.     Historical comparisons are made to gauge trends and improvements. It's impossible to say whether improvements are directly as a result of reporting but it allows services to focus on areas of concern. SBC certainly uses Performance information as a mechanism to drive a focus on improvement.

Reporting on Performance - Freedom of information requests