Performance Management
Harlow Council manages and monitors its performance as part of
its performance framework. We collate, monitor and
publish performance against a range of statutory Best Value
performance Indicators (BVPI's). These are audited
by the independent assessing body called The Audit
Commission. (see link to the right)
The Council also uses other ways within its performance
framework to monitor its performance.
A summary of our performance against our priorities and BVPI's
is
published annually in the Annual Performance Plan in
early summer. . (This link
will take you to the Annual Performance Plans page)
- Quarterly Performance Report
Harlow Council produce a Quarterly Performance report to monitor
its
Statutory Best Value Performance Indicators and Local
indicators. (A link will be available here soon )
Each Service in Harlow manages, monitors and collates its
Performance indicator data to feed into the Quartely Performance
Report.
- Comprehensive Performance Assessment
The Audit Commission also undertake inspections of Councils
and other
authorities called Comprehensive Performance Assessment.
(CPA
inspections).
CPA inspections examine how well the council delivers its
services as well as looking at its finances, how strong its
leadership is and the standard of its services. Results are awarded
as a grade from the following 5 categories.
- Poor
- Weak
- Fair
- Good
- Excellent
Harlow has recently (July 07) undergone
this inspection and the results have just been
released in November 2007.
The Council has been awarded the grade of a
'Good' Council.
View a copy of the Audit
Commission Press release
- Other Audit Commission Inspections
The Audit Commission also undertakes inspections on an
ad- hoc
basis such as Best Value Inspections for particular services
and
inspections on
the Councils Use of Resources. Inspections carried out at
Harlow by the Audit Commisssion usually result in a
final report. These
reports are available on the Audit Commission
web site (please use the
link on the right)
- Local Area Agreements. (LAA)
I
A Local Area Agreement (LAA) is an agreement between central
and
local government to deliver performance improvement across a number
of
shared targets.
LAA’s aim is to simplify government grants by pooling or
aligning funding linked to those targets. LAA’s also aim to achieve
stretch performance and will give a reward grant if targets are hit
across the four blocks of :
- Children and young people
- Safer and stronger communities
- Healthier communities and older people
- Economic development
The development of the Local Area Agreement has given Harlow
2020 -the local strategic partnership - the opportunity to
reconsider funding streams and performance.
In partnership, but led by the Council it has developed a
Harlow based Local Area Agreement. The Harlow LAA details our local
LAA performance position and enables us to ensure we retain control
and understanding locally of our commitments to performance
improvement through the LAA.
Partners have found this approach useful in that it makes the
targets relevant and focuses realistic local partnership activity
on the LAA. The Harlow 2020 ‘bottom up’ response to the Local Area
Agreement (LAA) has been presented to the
Essex LAA Steering Group and is now being used as best practice
by other District Council’s in Essex and beyond.