Council Performance Management

 

West Lothian Council has developed an innovative and comprehensive framework (the West Lothian Assessment Model) against which it can assess performance and improvement. This framework is supported by a performance management system which monitors performance indicators, initiatives and risks across all of the Council's service units.

The Report on Progress against the Corporate Plan 2007-11 (Nov 2008) is a summation of how the performance indicators and initiatives in the performance management system support the priorities and aims of the Corporate Plan.

The Publication of Standards of Performance Reports are required of the council under the Local Government Act 1992 and show council service performance across a number of statutory indicators, collected by all Scottish authorities. For comparison purposes the current West Lothian Council indicators are shown against the council's performance in the previous year and the Scottish average.

Specified Performance

A full report on West Lothian Council's Specified Performance Indicators (SPIs) which are required by Audit Scotland from all Scottish authorities, can be found by clicking this link. Access to a scorecard where individual West Lothian Council SPIs can be viewed is available by clicking here (new window). This information is updated by October each year for the previous financial year period.

Full comparative information across Scottish local authorities can be found on Audit Scotland's web site (new window). This information is updated by January each year for the previous financial year period.

Corporate Performance

West Lothian Council delivers in excess of 360 services for the community including the education of children, looking after older people, maintaining roads and parks and strategic planning for the area. The Corporate Performance Scorecard does not attempt to provide detail information on all the services provided. Instead it focuses on the main themes of the Council's Corporate Plan and illustrates the main aspects of the Council's work under each theme.
More detailed information on individual services can be found in the Service Performance section of this page.

Service Performance

For all substantial, public-facing services of the council, information is published below on:

Customer satisfaction with the service - Services are required to consult their customers on the services they receive. These indicators summarise the overall customer satisfaction with the service and more detailed analysis is used to focus improvements on specific aspects of the service.

How we perform against our Service Standards - Service standards describe what the customer in receipt of the service should experience either in terms of customer satisfaction (see above) or measurable aspects such as the time taken. These indicators show the measurable aspects of the service taken from our own management recording systems.

The efficiency of the service - The unit cost is the cost of the provision of one instance of the service or the cost of providing one person with the service. This is a useful comparison, especially with other authorities however the content and quality of services, which appear the same, can vary greatly. The unit cost information is valuable however so that the public can make their own judgement of value for money and efficiency.

The effect the service has in the community - Services exist mainly to encourage something to happen or to prevent something happening, and often both. These measures should illustrate how well the service is achieving its purpose.

Where possible we will provide comparisons with other authorities, especially those of a similar make-up to West Lothian.
    

CUSTOMER SERVICES

EDUCATION

HOUSING and ENVIRONMENT

LEISURE and COMMUNITY

SOCIAL SERVICES

Downloadable documents

Frequently Asked Questions

Click a question to see the answer.

Do Council policies include targets?

Council policies may not include targets as they often describe an approach we are taking in order to achieve an effect. There will however be a performance measure or measures which show how well we are achieving the desired effect and the targets will be reviewed each year

Does the Council check that action plans are followed through?

Our performance management system will contain all the initiatives, performance indicators and risks that make up all the ‘action plans’ of the service units. Progress against these ‘action plans’ is reported and monitored monthly so that progress is ensured.

How are Council policies made?

Every year the Council becomes aware of a range of issues that require new policies and strategies to be produced so as to meet new challenges and improve performance. The Council takes on board the requirements of the Scottish Executive, public concerns, and developments in service delivery in identifying areas of work. Policies follow procedures to make sure that aims are established, that views are taken on board, that changes to services are identified, that specific actions are decided upon and that measures of the success of the policy are produced.

How does the Council know that services are improving?

The West Lothian Assessment Model framework has a section on ‘results’ which looks in detail at how each service is progressing in delivering customer satisfaction, staff engagement, the effect of the service on the environment and social aspects of West Lothian and finally how efficient and how effective the service is at delivering its goals. The information contained in this section is monitored monthly and reviewed annually.