SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 We intend this guide to assist councils, working with key strategic partners, to evaluate how well they manage and improve the performance of social work services. It should also assist councils to evaluate their performance in partnerships.
1.2 We have designed the guide for use in all sectors of social work. It is not prescriptive - it is for councils to decide whether and how to use the material. However, the guide contains key questions to ask when evaluating performance management and improvement of social work services.
1.3 We have produced this guide because performance management has been a prominent issue in inspection reports and findings. One of our main findings was that many councils lack effective systems for managing social work performance, and need to develop more structured approaches. Councils also expressed an interest in receiving more detailed guidance on performance management.
1.4 To prepare this guide we have used performance management material produced by a number of other agencies. Much of this is about performance management at a corporate level in public services. We have tried as far as possible to customise it to social work services and settings. Appendix 1 contains a list of these references. We also refer to councils' equalities duties at relevant points in the guide.
1.5 We consulted six councils on the production of the guide and several others gave us comments on drafts. We also received assistance from the Improvement Service.
1.6 In the overview section, we set out what we mean by performance management, describe the main activities involved, give some general guidance and identify features of good practice.
1.7 The guide provides resources to examine performance management in depth. We suggest four themes for evaluation, and within each of these, essential features and prompts for the types of questions you may want to ask to explore each theme. We also give illustrations of very good and weak performance for each theme. These are examples rather than a checklist, and have been drawn from the findings of inspections.
1.8 You should read this guide in conjunction with SWIA's Guide to Supported Self-Evaluation: Building Excellent Social Work Services. SWIA published this in February 2009, and it is available at www.swia.gov.uk . The model encompasses all areas of social work performance. As far as possible, we avoid repeating guidance given in the main guide, but concentrate in more detail on the approaches and skills you will need to take a closer look at managing and improving performance and delivering continuous improvement.
1.9 You will find a diagram of the SWIA performance improvement model on the next page.
1.10 SWIA is producing separate guides on commissioning and leadership. Parts of these will be relevant when you are evaluating your management of performance. The guides will be available at www.swia.gov.uk .
PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT MODEL ( PIM)
