Personal Reflections on the Performance Management Group
The Performance Management Group (PMG) met in January. Here I would like to give you some personal reflections on the PMG.
The PMG holds potentially a very challenging role and much power. It has to scrutinise recommendations robustly but it is difficult to make decisions without a broad overview and plenty of information and there is already a large amount to read.
We rely on the skills and knowledge of the two very competent officers to the committee. However there are dangers that too much responsibility is placed on these officers and that the committee may be swayed by their opinions too readily. Challenging proposals can feel awkward when a decision delayed because of lack of information may delay resource allocation.
In January we had only three suggested recipients for some revenue funds and one for capital funding. Whilst it feels OK to target certain organisations or ‘task & finish groups’ we can only suggest groups or projects known to the PMG committee.
I find it hard to suggest voluntary sector recipients, as I do not have a wide enough knowledge outside youth work. As a rep, I would appreciate descriptions of the shape of the voluntary sector and a of list of contacts. We would also like to know of projects that are meeting the aims of the Community Strategy Action Plan.
Though we may occasionally have to make some pragmatic spending decisions, we need a system to distribute funds fairly and quickly on LAA priority areas, without being overwhelmed by lots of applications which don’t fit and waste applicants time.
All this said I felt comfortable with the decisions made at the meeting. You can read my full report of the January meeting here on the VSA website.
