Public Accounts Committee launches Performance Management follow up Review
4 April 2023
Today, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) launched a review of Performance Management across Government, with a particular focus on the processes in place for senior officials and how Government measures and reports on its objectives.
The previous Public Accounts Committee (PAC) undertook a review of Performance Management across the Government during late 2021, with a report being presented to the States Assembly on 8th March 2022. The report presented an overview of the recent changes to the Government structure as part of the One Gov reforms and assessed how new performance management processes within Government and non-ministerial departments had been embedded and applied.
In total, the previous PAC made 30 recommendations within its report across the areas examined, and subsequently the Government accepted 29 of those in full and one in part and provided detailed action plans in respect of how they would be implemented. A recommendation made by the previous PAC to its successor was that progress on the implementation of the recommendations arising from this report should continue to be tracked.
The current PAC have therefore launched a new review, which will seek to address the following key issues:
1. Gaining assurances over the implementation of recommendations arising from the previous PAC's report as well as any recommendations previously made by the Comptroller and Auditor General linked to performance management.
2. Understanding how the performance of the Chief Executive and Chief Officers is measured, monitored and reported on effectively, and how improvements to the performance management process and culture will be embedded and applied to all Government of Jersey employees.
3. Understanding and clarifying how the performance management tools and culture across the organisation are linked to Ministerial and Departmental objectives to ensure a 'golden thread' for reporting the success of stated objectives.
The Review will comprise of Public Hearings and private briefings with key officers, as well as calls for evidence from stakeholders. A comprehensive report detailing its findings and recommendations in relation to the Government's efforts to improve performance will be presented to the States Assembly.
Deputy Lyndsay Feltham, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said "We hope that this review will allow us to build upon the important work carried out by the previous PAC, to ensure we better understand how performance management processes within Government and non-ministerial departments have been applied. A robust system of performance management is key to holding government accountable and encouraging better performance, streamlining and culture across departments and employees."
