Performance Management Regime Research Articles

Crime Control and Due Process in Confidence-Building Strategies: A Governmentality Perspective

This article employs a governmentality framework to make sense of approaches to building public confidence, based upon a performance management regime that includes the British Crime Survey and a range of communicative technologies intended to raise public confidence. Whilst there are two discursive threads running throughout that broadly correspond with models of crime control and due process, priority has been afforded at the level of governmental 'talk' to the crime control model. Reflecting upon the strengths and limitations of the governmentality framework, the article questions the likelihood of the crime control discourse being enacted in practice, as well as the appropriateness of such a policy emphasis.

When policy o’erleaps itself: The ‘tragic tale’ of the Integrated Children’s System

Information technology plays a pivotal role in New Labour’s modernization programme. Here we report findings from a 2 year ethnographic study of the impact and origin of one such system, the Integrated Children’s System, which has been deployed in statutory children’s social care. We show how the ICS, by attempting to micro-manage work through a rigid performance management regime, and a centrally prescribed practice model, has disrupted the professional task, engendering a range of unsafe practices and provoking a gathering storm of user resistance. We attribute these paradoxical outcomes to inherent flaws in the design of ICS, which derive from the history of its development and its embodiment of an audit-driven, inspectorial ideology. We conclude with some suggestions for user-centred design and policymaking, which have relevance not only for children’s social care but for the public services in general.

Public health governance: views of key stakeholders

To identify views of key stakeholders on public health governance. Focus groups and interviews. Key national and regional stakeholders in England were invited to participate in focus groups. Three focus groups and four additional interviews were transcribed and a thematic analysis was carried out. Focus groups and interviewees identified points of transition in public health governance including changes in the notion of stewardship, governance across a local public health system and a shift from organizational governance to 'governance of place'. Different governance arrangements and approaches to governance can influence health outcomes through their impact on commissioning strategies, public health practice and performance management regimes. Failure to address these issues will hamper the development of a stewardship role in local organizations and across a local public health system.

The Confiscation Investigation: Investigating the Financial Benefit Made from Crime

The court-ordered confiscation order is the primary means of recovering a defendant's financial benefit from crime. Whilst becoming more prominent within the police service, little is known about the role of the financial investigator and the operational processes which lead to a confiscation order. This paper examines the role of the financial investigators in confiscation proceedings along with their day-to-day tasks, training, status and profile within the police service. It identifies how cases are selected for financial investigation, distinguishing between proactive and reactive referrals. It sets out the powers that financial investigators have to investigate defendants’ financial affairs and the information that they draw on in practice. The paper examines the difficulties in integrating confiscation investigations with mainstream policing activities, highlighting the role of competing targets, the performance management regime and potentially perverse incentives. The paper ends with a call for the development of a proactive rather than reactive asset recovery regime.

'Last One Out, Turn Off the "Blue Lamp"': The Geographical 'Placing' of Police Performance Management

In this article I wish to draw attention to one of the logical if unintended consequences of a performance management framework in the UK: namely plans to close traditional ‘blue lamp’ police stations on grounds of economy and effectiveness. It must be noted from the outset that what is truly remarkable is the lack of academic research that has been conducted on the police station; even in police circles little strategic thought seems to have been paid to the police station. The first section of this article discusses the ironies of a hyper-centralist performance management regime. In the second section, the discussion moves to the ironies associated with the shift to hyper-localist neighbourhood-driven policing. The final section addresses the politically ‘wicked issue’ of closing police stations—a suitable illustration of the contradictions that plague British policing. The critical point that I wish to make is that the Home Office's performance management regime has systematically disassembled the ‘structures of feeling’ and traditions associated with the Dixonian policing model—this includes the asset stripping of multi-functional ‘blue lamp’ police stations. At its most simple, the inability of performance management to encapsulate cultural meanings methodologically means that these aspects of public police work are deemed to be not just irrelevant but an obstacle to reform. As a consequence, public legitimacy is degraded as technical capabilities are enhanced.

Some Puzzles and Paradoxes of the Efficiency Agenda—and a Way Forward

This article is a contribution from a local government practitioner to a more theoretical consideration of the Gershon efficiency agenda. It unpacks the concept of efficiency as it is currently interpreted for local authorities by the government and questions whether this reflects an adequate appreciation of the local government role. After exploring a series of practical difficulties in the measurement of efficiency, the author outlines an alternative approach, better integrated with other elements of the local government performance management regime.

Structure and logic of regulation and governance of quality of health care: was OFSTED a model for the Commission for Health Improvement?

The Labour Government elected in 1997 faced similar problems in health care to those faced by the Conservative Government in schools in the early 1990s. And the policies developed for health care in the late 1990s echoed those that had been implemented for schools. This paper considers one of those common policies, namely the creation of new central inspectorates required to visit all organizations over a four-year period: the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) to inspect the quality of teaching in schools, and the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) to review the implementation of the systems and processes of clinical governance in every organization in the National Health Service (NHS). At its creation, CHI was described as an OFSTED for the NHS. This paper compares these two inspectorates; describes origins of policies and institutions; considers their rhetoric and practices; describes the processes the two organizations used and considers their impacts. It argues that structural differences meant that CHI could never have been an OFSTED for the NHS; relational distance is a key aspect of inspection/regulation; and that the key to effective regulation in the case of the NHS was the relational proximity between CHI and the NHS, with the added weight of a strong performance management regime.

Do targets matter? A comparison of English and Welsh National Health priorities

National priorities and performance management regimes in the National Health Services of England and Wales diverged following devolution, most notably with respect to the use of waiting time targets, which have been progressively strengthened in England but were abandoned in Wales in the immediate post-devolution period. We analyse routine data collected over a six-year period from three English and one Welsh hospital trust close to the English-Welsh border to ascertain whether: (a) there is evidence of differential performance over time that relates to the country where the hospital is located; (b) within each hospital, there is evidence that English and Welsh patients faced different waiting times. Over the period the English hospitals recorded increased levels of activity, undertook proportionately more day case activity, and mortality rates fell. Activity levels remained constant in Wales, the proportion of day case activity fell, proportionately more non-elective patients were admitted, and mortality rates rose. There is partial evidence that English patients faced lower waiting times than their Welsh counterparts and were more likely to be admitted within a target waiting period. The stronger performance management regime operating in England appears to have contributed to higher levels of performance in the English hospitals over the period.

Making sense of the quality maze: perspectives for public and academic libraries

PurposePublic sector policymakers have been preoccupied with quality, performance and impact initiatives, which constrain and define the strategic and operational objectives of public sector bodies. This theoretical article aims to review the quality, performance management and impact assessment regimes that currently impact on public and academic libraries in the UK, and to explore the challenges for managers in finding their path through this quality maze. Much of the literature focuses on individual initiatives, with little reference to the wider quality management context. Also seeks to urge consideration of the cumulative impact of such initiatives, with their different notions of quality, on public sector organisations and their quality management processes.Design/methodology/approachThe article is an opinion piece that offers some conceptual frameworks, based on an analysis of literature, practice and web sites gathered over many years' investigation and observation. The tension between externally‐focused quality assurance and internally‐focused quality enhancement is taken as a point of departure. A further source of complexity is the quality management agendas that impact on library and information services from different levels in the organisation, otherwise described as the quality hierarchy.FindingsA review of the approaches to collecting customer evaluations of service quality, enhancing quality and performance, and the accreditation of quality and performance illustrates the complexity associated with accommodating agendas arising from different contexts, and the competing notions of quality that are embedded in these different approaches.Practical implicationsThe range of different influences on quality management, the sheer complexity and dynamism of the landscape and the management challenges associated with maintaining an appropriate quality management regime for any specific information service, are key messages that emerge from this review. Information managers in different posts experience the quality maze differently. Further research and reflection on practice are necessary.Originality/valueThis paper provides useful information for those managers trying to implement quality, performance and impact assessment regimes.

Can the Current Ministry of Defence Performance Management Regime Cope With Cognitive Effects?

Can the Current Ministry of Defence Performance Management Regime Cope With Cognitive Effects?

External Constraints on Local Service Standards: The Case of Comprehensive Performance Assessment in English Local Government

Central government in the UK has introduced performance management regimes that apply rewards and sanctions to local service providers. These regimes assume that organizational performance is attributable to decisions made by local policy-makers rather than circumstances beyond their control. We test this assumption by developing a statistical model of external constraints on service standards and applying this model to the outcomes of comprehensive performance assessment (CPA) in English local government. The results show that CPA scores were significantly influenced by the characteristics – such as social diversity and economic prosperity – of local populations. Thus ‘poor’ performance is partly attributable to difficult circumstances rather than bad choices.

Horizontal or Vertical Support: Dilemmas for Patient Advice and Liaison Services in the NHS

Every hospital, mental health, primary care and specialist trust in the English National Health Service (NHS) should have a Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS), to provide information and support to NHS patients with questions or concerns. PALS should also act as a catalyst for service improvement. This article draws on findings from a qualitative study of London PALS. In particular, it focuses on data generated during observation of meetings of PALS staff in each of London’. five Strategic Health Authority (SHA) sectors, over a period of nearly two years. It describes two types of support received by PALS staff horizontal peer support (the sector meetings themselves; other informal and local PALS contacts; the National PALS Development Group) and vertical hierarchical support (the trusts where PALS are based; Strategic Health Authorities; the Department of Health (DoH)). PALS staff appreciated horizontal support more unequivocally than vertical. Both types of support (horizontal and vertical) reflect parallel government agendas. The Government intends the NHS to become a much flatter hierarchy, and in non-hierarchical structures, staff are expected to look to peers for support. However, a centralised performance management regime also requires staff to look upwards for guidance. As ‘boundary spanners’ working between services and service users, PALS staff are at risk of isolation, and need both types of support to be effective

Health management as strategic behaviour

This article presents an analysis of health management based on interviews with senior NHS managers in a number of Hospital Trusts between 2001 and 2003 as a part of an ongoing study to investigate the implementation of the NHS Plan (Secretary of State for Health 2000). The article examines managerial behaviour concerned with two of the most significant reforms under New Labour; first, the changes in relationship between managers and senior clinicians in the NHS; and second, the strategies employed by managers in dealing with the new performance measurement regime. It concludes by suggesting that much that occurs in manager – doctor relations is obscured by the two groups' practices, that there are gendered differences in the behaviours of managers towards clinicians and that game-playing behaviour in relation to the performance management regime is a function of its imposition upon the managers interviewed.

Threshold assessment: Another peculiarity of the english or more McDonaldisation?

Drawing on the author's current ESRC-funded research (The Impact of Performance Threshold Assessment on Teachers' Work), this article focuses on a current policy initiative in England, namely, the establishment of a performance management regime in schools and, in particular the Threshold Assessment. They examine three aspects of these developments. First, the manner in which the policy was initially established and the current situation regarding its development and implementation. Next, drawing upon the research they are undertaking in schools, they consider what the process of Threshold Assessmenthas felt like for various actors within the school context. Finally, they place this particular initiative within a global setting by drawing upon interviews recently undertaken in Australia and connecting these discussions to more general debates around 'globalisation'.We have progressively established a kind of 'Macworld' capitalism, where product choices whether for hamburgers or computers are increasingly homogenized and standardized across all countries, and where systems and tastes are alike controlled and developed in a proprietary mode by large corporations … The scale of markets and competition has decisively escalated in some areas, screening out local solutions and corporations in favour of transnational companies, dominant brands and standardized solutions. Cultural barriers to product acceptance have crumbled even in areas where they once seemed insurmountable. (Dunleavy, 1994, p. 50)

On improvements in the art of engraving on steel

Geographers have long grappled with how their research can positively impact individuals, communities and society. Demonstrating research impact is an increasingly important aspect of academic life internationally. In this paper we argue that agendas for encouraging ‘impact’ would be well-served if impact through teaching was identified and stimulated more explicitly, and if academics better recognised and seized the opportunities that already exist for such impact. We take engagement between health geography and nurse education as an example of how social scientists could demonstrate research impact through inter-disciplinary involvement in the education of health care professionals, and specifically student nurses. We begin by showing how the UK's Research Excellence Framework (widely regarded as the key reference point for research performance management regimes internationally) has tended to produce an undervaluation of impact via education in many disciplines. A comprehensive overview of international scholarship at the intersection between geography and nursing is then presented. Here we trace three ‘waves of enquiry’ that have focused on research interactions before calling for a fourth focused on critical pedagogy. To illustrate the possibilities of this fourth wave, we sketch a case study that outlines how engagement with research around blood donation could help provide a foundation for critical pedagogy that challenges student nurses to practice reflexively, think geographically and act justly. Finally, we call for closer engagement between health geography and nurse education, by encouraging educators to translate, teach, and transfuse ideas and people between health geography and nurse education. In so doing, we argue that work at this interface can be mutually beneficial and demonstrate impact both within and beyond research assessment rubrics. Hence, our ideas are relevant beyond nurse education and geography insofar as this paper serves as an example of how reframing research impact can recover the importance of impact through education.