The brief

Hertsmere Borough Council’s 5 leisure facilities are managed by a trust Hertsmere Leisure. The trust is a successful operator and has managed the facilities since 2002. The Council required as part of its negotiations with the trust about a longer term contractual arrangement advice relating to Performance Management approach for the new arrangement.

Hertsmere Leisure provided management information to the Council on a quarterly basis. This information whilst useful was more concerned with inputs and was a traditional set of performance indicators.

Our Approach

Strategic Leisure developed a new framework based on outputs and outcomes and linked to the delivery of a set of agreed corporate priorities. This framework includes a ‘balanced scorecard’ which provides a more rounded set of indicators (including CPA indicators) for both the Council and the trust. Specific tasks in developing the performance management framework included;

• Agreeing with the Council a set of corporate aims, objectives and target outcomes
• Discussing joint outcomes with other stakeholders e.g. PCT, Education Department etc
• Facilitating discussions with the trust to ascertain their objectives and targets and the means of data capture
• Incorporation of current best practice
• Production a new set of performance measures, benchmarks and appropriate targets
• Development of a process for future monitoring and review

Project Outcomes

The result has realised the following outcomes;

• A performance management framework based on
  • Council priorities
  • CPA Indicators
  • Hertsmere Leisure Trust priorities
• A Balanced Scorecard which can be directly linked to the most common computerised point of sale information management systems
• A framework which focuses the service on customer needs and expectations
• A framework based on best practice
• A framework shared by the Council and its partner