WAO highlights performance management weakness

25 Sep 13
More than half of Welsh local authorities have difficulty in accurately measuring their performance due to partial or inaccurate information about services, Wales’ auditor general has said

By Mark Smulian | 26 September 2013

More than half of Welsh local authorities have difficulty in accurately measuring their performance due to partial or inaccurate information about services, Wales’ auditor general has said.

Other problems identified in Huw Vaughan Thomas’ report Local improvement planning and reporting in Wales highlighted the need for many authorities to improve their performance evaluation and reporting. It noted that some did not include comparison and performance measures in their plans and reports, ‘especially where they are not doing so well’.

The Wales Audit Office report also found that Welsh Government guidance is not always sufficiently clear. In particular, performance indicator definitions for homelessness prevention and disabled facilities grant were so poor that ‘their impact, value for money and effectiveness cannot currently be evaluated or compared’.

Matters had, however, improved in terms of councils’ ability to set clear objectives linked to improving outcomes for residents, and their increasing use of public engagement on performance and improvement.

Even in these fields though ‘a number report selectively and others fail to present a clear picture’. 

The report, which covers councils, national parks and fire and rescue authorities, said all these bodies met their legal obligations to plan for, and report on, improvement but did not consistently act on the recommendations of regulators. 

Vaughan Thomas said public bodies ‘need to sharpen up on target setting and recording and measuring their performance’. 

He added: ‘It is also vital that they start painting a clearer and more accurate picture of how they are doing to local people, so that citizens can judge for themselves whether the goals set have been achieved.’

 

 

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