Performance improvement and turnaround

Performance, resource and market conditions for social care organisations have become particularly tough in the last few years. The focus on meeting targets and achieving efficiencies is biting and the labour market for children's and adults' services has become more challenging.

Regulatory frameworks are getting stricter. Commissioners are having to be more disciplined in terms of outcomes and value for money.

Most organisations will at some point need to make radical changes to some of their services to bring them in line with new performance requirements.

Performance improvement

The public's expectations of services are rising. At the same time, the performance of individuals, teams and units is increasingly under the spotlight. Cordis Bright has extensive experience of helping organisations deliver performance improvement through a range of means including:

• Front line practise changes
• More focused and disciplined commissioning and procurement
• Developing strategies to concentrate on priorities and shift resources to them
• Change management and modernising services
• Recording, measuring and presenting practice better

What is performance turnaround?

Performance turnaround is different from performance improvement. It addresses the need for one or both of the following:

• Radical change, e.g. to bring a service in line with new financial constraints, stakeholder expectations, or statutory requirements
• A decision about service continuation, for example in response to changes in market requirements or the nature of competition

In some cases, performance turnaround work is triggered by an external inspection or quality assessment. In others, there is no involvement by outside agencies and the work forms part of an organisation's own business streamlining exercise.

What we do

The work involved in a performance turnaround exercise will vary according to the needs of individual organisations. It could include:

• Collaborative development of practical solutions
• Management coaching and mentoring
• Advice and implementation of best practice
• Assessment of service survival
• Divestment and exit strategies where appropriate