Guy Holloway, Head of Corporate Improvement

1
PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT NETWORK MEETING
Performance Management and ImprovementKettering
Borough Councils perspective
Guy Holloway, Head of Corporate Improvement
2
Overview

• Context
• Kettering Basket-case to show-case
• Performance culture
• Performance management
• Top take-away tips

Role in improving services
3
Context

• About Kettering
• Our approach to improvement some caveats
• Drivers of change
• - We want to make things better!
• - White paper (increased performance
  transparency)
• - Tight CSR efficient and effective resource
  management
• - Customer expectations ever increasing
• - Changing emphasis of inspection framework
• - Survival of the fittest!

4
Kettering - Basket Case
Good
Performance
Poor standard of street cleaning (considered high
priority by residents)
Benefits Kettering a standards Authority
monitored by the DWP
Planning lowest quartile in terms of
application turnaround time
One of the worst recycling rates in the Country
People, finance and performance management not
good
Poor audit reports external assessment not good
Poor
Time
2007
2001
5
Kettering - Show Case
Performance of services
Good
Planning upper quartile performance
Benefits DWP commended Ketterings improvement
Recycling one of the highest rate in the Country
Cleanliness of streets in top 10 of the Country
People, finance, performance mgt strengths
Audit reports much better good in CPA
Commended in national awards for improvement (MJ
and LGC)
Performance / Satisfaction
Poor standard of street cleaning (considered high
priority by residents)
Benefits Kettering a standards Authority
monitored by the DWP
Planning lowest quartile in terms of
application turnaround time
One of the worst recycling rates in the Country
People, finance and performance management not
good
Poor audit reports external assessment not good
Poor
Time
2007
2001
6
Approach to improvement

• Performance Culture - One team
• Customer is king!
• Obsession with performance management
• Empowered front-line staff freedom to innovate
• Streamlined decision making processes
• Not scared to be different

7
Performance Culture
Approach
Traditional
Kettering

• STRUCTURE
• BEHAVIOURS
• MANAGEMENT STYLE
• MEMBER OFFICER RELATIONS
• PROBLEMS

• Silo structure
• Territorial
• Controls people
• Them and us
• Whose to blame

One team Open expansive Empowers people A
Partnership Deploy resources to solve problems
8
Customer is king
Joined-up services
Customer Service Centres
Customer Response Centre
Customer
Investing in cultural development
Reality Checks
Mystery shopping
Back to the floor
9
Performance Management
Says what is does on the can! Performance
clinics held weekly Data is linked to priority
areas Pull lever - see result - learn PI's used
as can openers
10
The Performance Clinic
11
Approach in practice
Officer Arena
Member Arena
Weekly performance clinics at management team
meeting
Monthly performance clinics at Cabinet /
management team meetings
Performance information available on demand to
support decision making
Quarterly Key Performance Information reported to
the Monitoring and Audit Committee
Officer Task and Finish Groups focus on key
performance issues
Member Task and Finish Groups focus on key policy
issues
Performance data presented on the intranet,
notice boards and touch screens
12
Comparison of approach
Approach
Traditional
Kettering

• TIMLENESS OF DATA
• ACCURACY OF DATA
• POOR PERFORMANCE
• DATA ANALYSIS
• USE OF TECHNOLOGY

• Data lag
• lt100
• Statistics not comparable
• Crude comparisons
• and measurement
• Collect and distribute

No data lag 100 Drill down to root
cause Supports decision making Clearly present
and bring data alive
13
Key stages of development
Data poor
Data rich
Data intelligent
Data is consistently accurate
Data is inaccurate
Accuracy of data increasing



Lots of performance data reported regularly,
routinely and widely
Use of performance data is focussed on priorities
Little of no use of performance information
except for year end reporting
Performance Outcomes



The organisation is aware of the results of its
activity
The organisation at best may know roughly where
it is
The results of individual decisions are
understood and optimised



Performance shows accelerated improvement
Performance is stable
Performance shows signs of improvement
Time / stage of development
14
Kettering Performance in Priority Areas
Best
Top 25
Median
Bottom 25
Worst
BVPI 78b
BVPI 78a
BVPI 179
BVPI 82a
BVPI 109c
BVPI 109b
BVPI 109a
BVPI 82b
Other planning applications in 8 weeks
Major planning applications in 13 weeks
Percentage of standard searches in 10 working days
Minor planning applications in 8 weeks
Average time for processing changes in
circumstances
Percentage of household waste recycled
Percentage of household waste composted
Average time for processing new claims
15
Empowered front line staff

• Task and Finish Groups
• - Staff work across boundaries to problem solve
• - Its o.k. to make mistakes must learn from
  them
• - Staff free to consider full range of solutions
• - Innovation is encouraged!
• - No reports quick decision

16
Streamlining decision making

• Clear distinction between officer and member
  arena
• The right delegations for officers
• Service heads own the performance of their
  services
• Do not have an internal report culture but
• - Minutes notes - yes
• - Accountability yes
• - Trust control - yes

17
Top Tips

• 1. Must develop an obsession for relevant,
  accurate and timely performance data from the top
  down.
• 2. You need to understand exactly where your
  improvement priorities are and how you are
  progressing against them at any one time.
• 3. Turning performance measurement into
  improvement means doing things differently. It
  will be important to get to the root cause of
  problems and to streamline the decision making
  process
• 4. It is essential that you unlock the full
  potential of front-line staff in order to find
  the capacity to support accelerated improvement?
• 5. You need to challenge the way your
  organisation currently operates - Ask yourself
  are departments limiting your organisations
  potential?