Have they got targets for how well they are meeting their targets?

The Mid Devon Star reports "PERFORMANCE at Mid Devon District Council is improving, a new report shows. Figures going before members of the authority's executive committee on Thursday show 58 out of 80 'best value performance indicators' are on target, above target, or well above target.The remaining 22 are below or well below target. The report states that over the last 12 months, 37 of the indicators have improved. It adds: "Of concern are those below target showing no improvement."

This means that only 72% of their BVPIs are on or above target. Surely they should be aiming for 90 or 95%!? And it means that 28% of their performance indicators are below target. And that only 46% have shown improvement.

The article goes on to report on one of those above target "The percentage of council tax collected - 98.5% against a target of 98%. Next year's target is 97%". So next year's target has reduced from this year's. So that's a relief.

You can bet your bottom dollar that lots and lots of management time is being wasted playing the performance against targets game, as opposed to examining how council services get delivered and actually working on real improvement.

You can read the full article at http://www.middevonstar.co.uk/display.var.2256782.0.council_performance_improving.php