Improving outcomes and the lives of the citizens of Dundee is the focus for the Council. We want to know if we are delivering our services efficiently and effectively, and councillors and citizens need information which allows them to scrutinise our performance.
The Council’s Performance Management Framework was updated and approved by the Policy and Resources Committee in March 2021. This framework supports continuous improvement and measures delivery of the Council’s Vision, Priorities and Outcomes.
The Council sets challenging targets and measures performance against this for a wide range of services. The new framework establishes a programme of each service developing then reporting on its own service plan to the relevant committee. This is supported by our performance management system which analyses data, tracks progress and summarises actions for improvement.
Regular reporting at City Partnership, Council and Service level keeps our key stakeholders, including our communities, elected members and partners, up to date on our performance. This is key to ensuring informed judgements are made about our services, to support effective decision making and to challenge performance.
Reports on progress towards meeting the key priorities will be presented to the Council twice per year. The performance management framework sets out how the Council Leadership Team will manage and monitor performance in relation to each plan.
Benchmarking is also used to compare the Council’s performance with other organisations to support the improvement journey. The Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) provides performance data for all 32 local authorities in Scotland and is now in its twelfth year. It therefore provides valuable trend-based insights as well as robust comparisons. It provides a comparison of 101 performance indicators across all strategic service areas. For most of the services covered by the framework there is a measure of efficiency/productivity (cost per output), service outcome and customer satisfaction.
Comparing performance through benchmarking supports change, innovation and improvement within the Council by learning how better performing councils achieve their results. The latest data available highlights that of the 101 indicators, we are ranked number one among the four main cities for low percentage gap between literacy and numeracy attainment for least and most deprived pupils, early years provision graded good, road maintenance, satisfaction with street cleaning and assisting unemployed people into work from employability programmes.
It also highlights that we are currently improving or maintaining performance on 55% of the LGBF indicators and are in the top half of our family groups for 48% of our indicators. The Council publishes all its performance and benchmarking data on its website – Dundee Performs
