Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Mandate all departments to collect data on underperforming staff, management, and outcomes
Conclusion
Departments do not collect enough data on staff underperformance to know if it is being managed effectively. Some departments do not routinely collect data on the number of staff who are underperforming in their organisations, and most do not monitor what happens to staff who are identified as underperforming. Without these metrics, departments cannot accurately tell whether performance is being effectively managed, and underperformance identified and addressed. If government is to achieve its ambition of a smaller, more highly skilled civil service, it will become increasingly important for departments to understand and manage underperformance. The Cabinet Office is focusing on improving the capacity of line managers within departments to deal with issues locally, which it sees as fundamental to raising performance levels. But it accepts that it could improve performance reporting, particularly as better departmental data will be needed to understand how effectively line managers are tackling underperformance. Civil service workforce: Recruitment, pay and performance management 7 Recommendation 5: By the time of its Treasury Minute response, the Cabinet Office should mandate all departments to collect data on the number of underperforming staff, how underperformance is being managed, and the outcomes for underperforming individuals. 8 Civil service workforce: Recruitment, pay and performance management 1 Civil service staffing and recruitment
Government Response Summary
The government commits to designing a tool by Summer 2024 to centrally collate performance management data from departments for 2023-24 and onwards. This will help understand and manage underperformance, with the Cabinet Office also reviewing data collection for Senior Civil Servants.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. delegated to departments. The Civil Service Performance Management Framework provides a blueprint for departments to develop policies and processes for managing employee performance. It includes eight elements: • leaders are accountable for effective performance management in their department; • assessing delivery of employee work objectives and their behaviours; • developing and coaching employees to perform effectively; • differentiating performance; • ensuring that underperformance and poor performance is monitored and addressed; • capturing diversity and inclusion data, to ensure there are no negative impacts of the systems on protected groups; • ensuring that comparable professional standards are applied across organisations; and • there is coordination and consistency between departments’ processes. To better understand the extent of underperformance and poor performance, and how it is being managed, the Cabinet Office is designing a tool to collate performance management data for 2023-24, and thereafter, for analysis centrally. The tool will be ready in Summer 2024. The Cabinet Office will work with departments to maximise the use of pre- existing policy tools to address poor performance, or design new ones, if necessary. For the SCS, the performance and poor performance policies are set centrally, to be managed and implemented by departments. The Cabinet Office is reviewing how many departments record the number of underperforming SCS, and resulting actions, and will consider whether further guidance on collecting this data, or additional reporting requirements, should be included in the policies for the next performance year.