Memorandum on Home Office Performance
Measurement/Targets
INTRODUCTION
Over the last few years the Home Office has
been changing substantially in its objectives, structure and ways
of working. One key driver of that change has been to focus the
whole Home Office Group (including both the central department
and its agencies, NDPBs and related services) on a small number
of objectives for changes in social behaviour and attitudes and
measuring those rigorously. Our PSA targets define at the top
level those measures of success. Other targets and performance
measures support them.
PSAS
Purpose and objectives
2. The Home Office's purpose is to build
a safe just and tolerant society. This broad statement of intent
is underpinned by five objectives which are set out in the Home
Office Strategic Plan for 2004-08—Confident Communities
in a Secure Britain in terms of the social improvements we
aim to bring about by 2008:
— People are and feel more secure in
their homes and daily lives.
— More offenders are caught, punished
and stop offending and victims are better supported.
— Fewer people's lives are ruined by
drugs and alcohol.
— Migration is managed to benefit the
UK, while preventing abuse of immigration laws and of the asylum
system.
— Citizens, communities and the voluntary
sector are more fully engaged in tackling social problems, and
there is more equality of opportunity and respect for people of
all races and religions.
Targets
3. The PSA targets are the main measures
by which we will judge whether or not we are successful in achieving
these objectives. They are targets for improvement and are widely
drawn and based on the outcomes of both policy and implementation.
Inevitably they do not capture everything the Home Office is responsible
for. Despite the narrowing of the department's boundaries in 2001,
it retains some functions which, while significant in themselves,
sit largely outside the core mission of the Home Office for example
the inspection of animal experiments. More centrally, there are
a some key areas of work whose importance goes beyond their contribution
to the specific targets, like combating terrorism and organised
crime.
4. The PSA targets (see Annex I and II)
are deliberately stated in broad terms and are supplemented by
technical notes which define in great detail the baselines and
the statistical series we are using to measure progress. This
allows Parliament and the general public to hold the department
to account.
Which measures and when?
5. The Home Office chooses performance measures
in line with the principles expressed in the combined HM Treasury,
Cabinet Office, National Audit Office, Audit Commission and Office
for National Statistics publication: "Choosing the right
FABRIC—A Framework For Performance Information".
The principles are that measures should provide information that
is focused, appropriate, balanced, robust, integrated and cost
efficient.
6. The Home Office's 2004 PSA targets build
on the foundation of the 2002 targets. They seek ambitious further
improvements in the main areas of our business, and are based
on experience, evidence and analysis. The SR04 PSA set has been
developed in consultation with a range of stakeholders, including
our key frontline services. Detailed information on the Home Office's
consultation has already been provided to the committee in my
note of 27 August.
How do these contribute to effective scrutiny
of the Home Office?
7. The Home Office reports performance against
our PSA targets annually, in our Autumn Performance Report and
Annual Departmental Report. This allows Parliament and the public
to scrutinise the level of the Home Office's achievement against
our publicly stated targets.
8. The Technical Notes, Autumn Performance
Report and the Home Office Strategic Plan can be found at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/inside/org/pubs/index.html#servdel
STANDARDS
Purpose or goal
9. Standards have been included for the
first time in the SR 2004 Public Service Agreement White Paper
(CM6238).
11. Their purpose is to "ensure that
where previous PSA targets have been met or are about to be met,
performance will continue to be monitored and reported to ensure
that the high levels of performance achieved are maintained"
(2004 Spending Review PSA White Paper (CM6238)).
Which measures and when?
12. The Home Office has two standards in
the PSA White Paper, taking forward the SR02 PSA 2, on police
performance, and PSA 5, on reoffending and escapes. We thought
that the PSA should concentrate on social outcomes and the work
of the police and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS)
contributes towards the outcomes captured by the SR04 PSA targets
1, 2, 3, and 4. However, to reaffirm the Home Office's commitment
to maintaining standards of performance and in the interest of
transparency, the continuing contribution of these two key services
will also be monitored against the standards set out in the White
Paper.
13. The Home Office will continue to measure
the reductions in the rates of reoffending, whilst police performance
will be measured using the Police Performance Assessment Framework
(PPAF). Further details on PPAF can be found below.
How do these contribute to effective scrutiny
of the Home Office?
14. We will, continue to report progress
against our standards, for example through our Annual Departmental
Report.
15. The PSA white paper can be found at:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/spending_review/spend_sr04/psa/spend_sr04_psaindex.cfm
SERVICE DELIVERY
AGREEMENT (SDA) TARGETS
Purpose or goal
16. SDA targets provide a public indication
of how the department is progressing and the action that the department
has taken towards the achievement of their final outcomes (usually
expressed as a PSA target (see above)).
Which measures and when?
17. The measures chosen for the Home Office's
SDA targets provided a further layer of largely process-focused
targets which supported the delivery of the SR00 and SR02 PSA
target set.
How do these contribute to effective scrutiny
of the Home Office?
18. Existing SDA targets will continue to
be reported against until their outturn date. However, the requirement
to set SDA targets was removed by HM Treasury in SR2004. This
reflected:
(i) the principle that it is outcomes that
ultimately matter to the public, and that departments and delivery
agents should, in many cases, be free to decide how they go about
delivering those outcomes rather than requiring the processes
to be set out in SDAs;
(ii) the intention to streamline the number
of government targets in line with the principle of devolving
decision making to local areas where possible.
19. Although it will no longer use SDAs,
the Home Office is committed to rigourous performance management
of all its business. Recent examples of arrangements now in place
include the Police Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF) and
the National Drug Strategy Performance Management Framework (details
below).
KEY PERFORMANCE
INDICATORS (KPI)
Purpose or goal
20. While the PSAs set the top level targets
for the Home Office as a whole, the component businesses also
use a number of intermediate measures of performance, often known
as KPIs. They range from measures of speed of recruitment for
HR teams to measures of drug treatment and skills teaching for
prisoners. They are often used to report against processes that
contribute towards the achievement of the key departmental outcomes
set out in the PSA targets.
Which measures and when?
21. The selection of the measures will depend
on the functions concerned and management priorities in that part
of the business. Details on the measures employed in the PPAF
and in the National Drugs Performance Management Framework (both
of which employ KPIs) are given below.
How do these contribute to effective scrutiny
of the Home Office?
22. Some KPIs have explicit target levels
set, and performance against these is used to hold services to
account publicly; for example, performance against the target
levels set for some IND KPIs are published in national statistics;
and police performance will be monitored using PPAF. KPIs are
used for internal performance management purposes and performance
against them is not routinely published.
POLICE PERFORMANCE
ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK
(PPAF)
23. PPAF has been put together after extensive
consultation with the police service and other interested stakeholders.
It measures performance across the range of policing responsibilities.
It focuses on force and BCU performance and is also used to measure
performance on crime across crime and disorder partnerships. PPAF
is also the basis of a consistent approach to activity-based costing.
26. More information about PPAF can be found
at: http://www.policereform.gov.uk/psu/ppaf.html and http://uk.sitestat.com/homeoffice/policereform/s?docs.ppaf_faq_june04&ns_type=pdf&ns_url=%5Bhttp:
//www.policereform.gov.uk/docs/ppaf_faq_june04.pdf%5D
NATIONAL DRUG
STRATEGY PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
27. The National Drug Strategy Performance
Management Framework was developed following extensive consultation
with local and regional stakeholders. The aims of the framework
are:
— to focus on outcomes rather than
processes;
— to reduce bureaucratic burdens;
— to strengthen and simplify the levers
for driving delivery;
— to provide an objective and transparent
basis for identification of excellent and less effective performance,
so that support and intervention can be targeted.
28. More information on the Performance
Management Framework can be found at: http://www.drugs.gov.uk/WorkPages/CoreDocuments/PerformanceManagementFramework
11 October 2004
Annex I
SPENDING REVIEW 2002 PUBLIC SERVICE AGREEMENT
(PSA) TARGETS
1. Reduce crime and the fear of crime; improve
performance overall, including by reducing the gap between the
highest crime Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership areas and
the best comparable areas; and reduce:
— vehicle crime by 30 % from 1998-99
to 2004;
— domestic burglary by 25 % from 1998-99
to 2005;
— robbery in the 10 Street Crime Initiative
areas by 14% from 1999-2000 to 2005; and maintain that level.
2. Improve the performance of all police
forces, and significantly reduce the performance gap between the
best and worst performing forces; and significantly increase the
proportion of time spent on frontline duties.
3. Improve the delivery of justice by increasing
the number of crimes for which an offender is brought to justice
to 1.2 million by 2005-06; with an improvement in all CJS areas,
a greater increase in the worst performing areas and a reduction
in the proportion of ineffective trials.
4. Improve the level of public confidence
in the Criminal Justice System, including increasing that of minority
ethnic communities, and increasing year on year the satisfaction
of victims and witnesses, whilst respecting the rights of defendants.
5. Protect the public and reduce reoffending
by 5%:
— for both adults sentenced to imprisonment
and adults sentenced to community sentences; and
— maintain the current low rate of
prisoner escapes, including Category A escapes.
6. Reduce the harm caused by drugs by:
— reducing the use of Class A drugs
and the frequent use of any illicit drug among all young people
under the age of 25, especially by the most vulnerable young people;
and
— reduce drug related crime, including
as measured by the proportion of offenders testing positive at
arrest
7. Focus the asylum system on those genuinely
fleeing persecution by taking speedy, high quality decisions and
reducing significantly unfounded asylum claims, including by:
— fast turnaround of manifestly unfounded
cases;
— ensuring by 2004 that 75% of substantive
asylum applications are decided within two months; and that a
proportion (to be determined) including final appeal, are decided
within six months; and
— enforcing the immigration laws more
effectively by removing a greater proportion of failed asylum-seekers.
8. Increase voluntary and community sector
activity, including increasing community participation, by 5%
by 2006.
9. Bring about measurable improvements in
race equality and community cohesion across a range of performance
indicators, as part of the government's objectives on equality
and social inclusion.
10. Increase value for money from the Criminal
Justice System, and the rest of the Home Office, by 3%; and ensure
annual efficiency gains by the police of at least 2%.
Annex II
SPENDING REVIEW 2004 PUBLIC SERVICE AGREEMENT
(PSA) TARGETS
1. Reduce crime by 15%, and further in high
crime areas, by 2007-08.
2. Reassure the public, reducing the fear
of crime and anti-social behaviour, and building confidence in
the criminal justice system without compromising fairness.
3. Improve the delivery of justice by increasing
the number of crimes for which an offender is brought to justice
to 1.25 million by 2007-08.
4. Reduce the harm caused by illegal drugs
including substantially increasing the number of drug misusing
offenders entering treatment through the criminal justice system.
5. Reduce unfounded asylum claims as part
of a wider strategy to tackle abuse of the immigration laws and
promote controlled legal migration.
6. Increase voluntary and community engagement,
especially amongst those at risk of social exclusion.
7. Reduce race inequalities and build community
cohesion.
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