Bridging the accountability gap - Audit Commission

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Governing partnerships | Governing partnerships for better accountability
Case study 6
Aylesbury Vale District Council
Aylesbury Vale District Council is developing performance management across its
partnerships. Regular progress reporting of partnerships takes place, including
through the member with portfolio responsibility for partnerships, annual updates
from elected members on outside bodies and progress reporting on specific
partnerships through to Cabinet. The Council’s performance appraisal system also
identifies where an individual’s work relates to partnership working and sets specific
targets.
Source: Audit Commission, March 2004
95 But other partnerships still find performance management difficult. Common weaknesses
include:
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weak alignment between partnership and corporate plans, targets and delivery; poor
links and coordination between partnerships and between umbrella partnerships and
their sub-groups; lack of formal arrangements for partnership representatives to report
back on partnership activity;
a lack of monitoring or evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of partnerships;
limited use of impact or outcome measures; inadequate use of SMART action plans,
targets and indicators; progress monitoring and reporting tends to focus on input and
activity targets rather than outcomes;
a lack of monitoring or evaluation of the contribution of partner organisations; limited
opportunities or willingness to challenge the performance of partners or give feedback
on their performance in partnerships; and
underdeveloped arrangements for the scrutiny of partnerships by corporate
processes.
96 Many partnerships have incompatible or inadequate systems for generating the
information needed to establish baselines, milestones and targets and to track progress.
Slippage against partnership plan targets is difficult to manage and it is hard to share
good practice across partnerships and across partner organisations.