Citizen‘s Charter

Workshop I Objectives and performance indicators

Getting started - Defining quality

Exercise 1: How would you define ‘quality of service’?

• What is YOUR definition of ‘quality of service’?
• Is this the definition that other people in your organisation have, too?

Conceptualisations of quality

• ‘Conformance to specification’ - engineering and contract management (Deming)
• ‘Fitness for purpose’ – meeting corporate and social objectives - systems analysis (Juran)
• ‘Meeting or exceeding customer expectations’ - consumer psychology (PZB) .
• Bringing about a passionate emotional involvement between the customer and the service – social psychology (Pirsig)

Exercise 2: How many definitions of ‘quality of service‘ are used in your agency?

• Is there ONE official definition of service quality in your agency?
• OR is there NO definition of ‘quality of service’ in your agency?
• OR are there SEVERAL definitions of ‘quality of service’ in your agency?

Summary

• If there is no definition, there is no language for discussing quality.
• If there are too many definitions, there is only confusion when quality is discussed.
• It is best to agree a single definition in the organisation, and discuss how to assess it and how to assure it, then to implement these plans … and then to move to a different definition some time later, if desired.

“What gets measured gets managed” - Measuring quality

Purposes of Performance Management

• Control
• Strategic direction, ‘shaping’, ‘steering’
• Hands-off empowerment
• Learning and continuous improvement

Definitions in performance management

• Objectives (aims, goals):
  general aspirations
• Performance indicators (performance measures):
  variables which tell us how close we have come to reaching our objectives
• Targets
  a specific value of a PI to be reached by a specific date

First step: Establish a clear hierarchy of objectives
Example 1: Hierarchy of objectives for safety

• To increase the public’s feeling of community safety
  • To deter crime
    • To prevent crime
    • To detect crime
    • To provide high visibility policing
  • To increase public’s knowledge of actual levels of crime
    • To use Neighbourhood Watch Groups
    • To use media
    • To use community reps to inform people

Group exercise 3: Define a hierarchy of goals

• Start with your definition of quality as used in the first exercise – what does it suggest is your overall aim for the service?
• Think about which other objectives you need to achieve to make this overall aim a reality (write these actions on post-it notes)
• Order these post-it notes into a hierarchy of objectives

AND …?

“To reduce the occurrence of coronary heart disease and to reduce associated deaths and ill health and to improve the treatment and rehabilitation of those suffering from it”.

Objectives are more important than targets

• NHS waiting list targets!
• Filling projects with easy-to-reach members of ‘hard-to-reach’ groups!
• Getting the numbers through the door by giving people a ‘quick dose’ rather than a real experience, e.g. in musical performance, theatre performance, craft workshops.

And finally …