I was hoping to get a bit of discussion going with this post (but knowing my luck I will probably get no replies).
A few years ago, the government got rid of our performance standards, and most of the BVPIs, leaving with us with just our Right Time and Right Benefit indicators. In April the Right Benefit also disappeared.
The new coalition government seems very keen (based on various ministers quotes, particularly Eric Pickles) on giving LAs power to do what they deem best for the customer, without too much interference.
CAA has ended, and KloE with them. In is uncertain what the future of the Audit Commission will be.
It looks like there is going to a culture change for LAs. Throughout my ten years working for LAs there has always been a target culture, but it looks like this is going.
How do other HBInfo members think this will affect us working in HB?
What local targets do you have at the moment? Do they have a positive impact on the service? Are you planning on keeping them?
Are targets beneficial, or do they have a negative effect on the service? I know some members have used John Seddon ‘Systems Thinking’ type methods to deliver the service, and these do away with targets. How well does this work? What do managers higher up the food-chain think about the lack of targets?
What do team leaders think of targets for their team (e.g. assessment quotas)? Do they help motivate your team? If you don’t have targets, how do you ‘performance manage’?
Is you are an assessor, do you have personal assessment targets? If you do, what do you think of them? Do they encourage behaviours that may not be beneficial to the customer (e.g. making claims unsuccessful to get a target)? If you don’t have a target, are you clear about what is expected of you?
Any comments, views, or ideas about this are very welcome.
.
