Performance Management at local level - a Council of Europe perspective of Good Governance

1. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform COUNCIL OF EUROPE Directorate General of Democracy and Political Affairs Directorate of Democratic Institutions Performance Management at local level - a Council of Europe perspective of Good Governance

2. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform Local Government and Quality: from information to action • Collecting information • From information to knowledge • Transforming knowledge into skills • Skills to capacity: Council of Europe approach • Transforming capacity into action

3. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform Information on local government in the Council of Europe • European Committee on Local and Regional Democracy (CDLR): information from central governments • Congress: information from local authorities • Centre of Expertise: information on capacity-building tools and programmes

4. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform Information to knowledge: Council of Europe approach • Committee of Ministers adopts legal instruments: conventions and recommendations • CDLR adopts reports with guidelines and prepares draft CM conventions and recommendations • Congress adopts reports and recommendations • Centre of Expertise identifies and prepares programmes

5. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform Transforming skills into capacity & drive up standards The Centre of Expertise prepares tools & methodologies, supervises their adaptation & implementation, gives them to local ownership: • National Training Strategy • Best Practice Programme • Leadership Benchmark • Performance Management • Local Finance, Public Ethics Benchmarks…

6. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform Performance Management at local level • What is performance management? • Why is performance management helpful? “If you don’t measure results, you can’t tell success from failure If you can’t see success, you can’t reward it If you can’t reward success, you’re probably rewarding failure If you can’t see success, you can’t learn from it If you can’t recognise failure, you can’t correct it If you can demonstrate results, you can win public support What gets measured gets done” Osborne and Gabler (2002) Reinventing Government • Risks • Performance indicators (types, levels, responsibilities, etc.) • Reference points – Benchmarking

7. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform Performance Management in practice • Start from no systematic PM management (look at the CDLR report) • UK experience – lessons learned • PM is not only the use of PIs (PIs ownership) • PM culture • Leadership – condition to effective PM • Norway – LGA creates network • CoE pilot programmes in SEE

8. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform PM in SEE • A bit of history • Leadership based on power, command and control systems • No HR development • No interest of mayors in good staff • No career development structure… • No system to check performance • No culture of PM

9. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform Pilot PM programme in Bulgaria • No system to check performance • We started with: • NAMRB leading, Ministries involved • few themes (LED and Communications) • 6 pilot local authorities • Performance measurement templates (PI/targets) • Establishment of local PM systems

10. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform Performance Management Pack – training tool • Map of the route to achieve good performance management • What is performance management • Why use performance management • Guide to performance management – a simple guide based on the original CoE document and other examples • Communications approach – how to promote the performance management structure

11. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform What are the conditions for effective PM? • Delegation (managers should be given responsibilities so they feel part of the drive up) • Communications (managers need to know what is happening) Delegation and communication - critical aspects of Leadership • Links to different departments / other services

12. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform Key elements in a PM culture (1) • Commitment by the leadership & managers • Willingness to accept bad news, learn from mistakes and take action to address performance problems • Focus on a small number of well-defined priorities and related PIs • Clear link between corporate priorities, performance indicators and targets, service plans and staff appraisal and reward systems

13. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform Key elements in a PM culture (2) • Close tie-up between performance information and key strategic and budget decisions • Clear and effective process for communication • Widespread understanding & ownership of the local authority’s PM system • System of meaningful incentives for managers and staff to achieve targets • Willingness to celebrate personal and team achievement

14. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform Key messages • Wish to drive standards up • PM - one of the way to drive standards up • Certain conditions to PM - leadership change & cultural change

15. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform Directorate of Democratic Institutions DG Democracy and Political Affairs Council of Europe http://www.coe.int/local http://www.loreg.coe.int Sylvia IVANOVA Tel: 00 33 3 90 21 52 93 E-mail: sylvia.ivanova@coe.int

16. Centre of Expertise for Local Government Reform How you would approach PM in this specific culture (refer to presentation)? What kind of leadership is necessary to make performance management work properly?