FCO BOARD OBJECTIVES AND PERFORMANCE
SURVEY
Letter to the Chairman of the Committee
from the Permanent Under Secretary of State,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, dated
16 June 2006
Dear Chairman,
Last financial year, the FCO Board for the first
time set itself clear and published objectives. These are divided
into five areas: corporate leadership, strategy, delivery, resource
management, and learning and development/diversity, and are underpinned
by 15 objectives and 52 measurable indicators of success.
At the end of the financial year, we measured
our performance against these objectives through a Board Assessment
analysing our delivery of these objectives, through assessments
made by business leads, self-analysis and a Board performance
survey sent to a random selection of staff across the FCO.
I attach the main findings from both the objectives
review and the performance survey. You will see that the overall
picture shows a steady improvement in all areas, particularly
when compared with last year, and that this improvement is recognised
by the Board and by staff. However, there are still clear areas
for development, notably continuing difficulties with resource
management, which we shall want to make a focus for this financial
year.
As part of the Board's commitment to openness
with staff, these objectives and the progress we have made against
them are all published on FCONet (our intranet). I was particularly
heartened by the clear message from the staff sampling that they
see value in the Board holding itself accountable to staff in
this manner.
I am sending these documents to the Committee
as continuing proof of our commitment to share information with
you in which I know you to be interested. I understand that the
Committee prefers to publish as much of the information we send
it as possible, but, as you will see, this is an internal assessment
which we have deliberately made sufficiently frank to be operationally
useful, and which is not intended for wider publication. I should
be grateful if the Committee would take this into account when
considering how to handle it.
Yours sincerely,
Sir Michael Jay KCMG
Permanent Under Secretary of State
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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