Perspective 1: The Chief Executive

As the Council's Chief Executive, there are two fundamental elements to the system which have a huge attraction to me. Firstly, is the simplicity of performance reporting at a corporate level, which as Chief Executive allows me to quickly and easily get a clear perspective as to how the Council is performing against its wide range of indicators and the alignment of these indicators with our key aims and objectives. And, secondly, the fact that the system is designed to ensure wide ownership from staff at all levels.

The Council has been going through a major change management process for the last three years. Which has as its heart our "customers first" philosophy and which seeks to involve individual staff members at all levels in not just the delivery of their specific services, but in an understanding and an ownership of the Council's key aims and objectives, the Executive Priorities and the overall Community Plan. The rolling out of a decentralised Performance Management System, which requires individuals across the organisation as a whole to not just input data, but to have access to the system, provide what I term the golden thread between individual staff action plans all the way up through to the Community Strategy.

It has been hugely encouraging to see the way in which colleagues, in developing their understanding of the system, have come forward with their own ideas as to how this can be used to ultimately provide a far better and more effective customer focus and delivery mechanisms across the Council as a whole within our overall high level aims and aspirations

Derek Stevens, Chief Executive, Rother District Council