Performance analysis 2021/22: Goal four
Goal Four
To provide value for money, making best use of our resources and expertise to deliver services that are attuned to what matters most to voters.
This goal provides a focus to activities that support the organisation and ensure we have the appropriate skilled people, resources, technology, systems and governance. The aim is to deliver services that are efficient, effective and economical.
Key achievements
To support our organisation, we:
- implemented our new accountability arrangements with the Scottish Parliament and Senedd which came into effect on 1 April 2021.
- reviewed and refreshed how we deliver legal services
- carried out an all staff survey and used the results to identify areas for the Senior Leadership Group to prioritise for development in line with our corporate plan. Key initiatives include developing a behavioural charter and redeveloping our learning and development approach.
- completed internal and external consultations on our new Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy, a final version of which is now being produced
- developed a race equality action plan through the Race at Work Taskforce
- completed renovations of our working environment to support more flexible ways of working
- continued to develop our quality assurance approach to help us continuously improve our processes
Performance mesaures
Measure | Performance |
---|---|
Deliver our Ways of Working project to deliver digitally enabled business change to reflect the expectations on a modern employer and ensure the core ICT offering can support those changes. | Completed |
Stakeholder and staff satisfaction with IT tools | Not Met / Ongoing1 |
Work with the Scottish Parliament and Senedd to implement our new accountability arrangements, including a new funding formula and business plans for Scotland and Wales | Completed |
Implement our new People Strategy | Ongoing |
Maintain high staff engagement scores in the annual staff survey and ensure indicators such as staff turnover are at appropriate levels |
Staff engagement score: 67% Staff turnover: 14.2% |
Identify options, costs and benefits of e-procurement and implement a new system accordingly | Completed |
Monitor significant variances on all budgets and, where appropriate, reduce these variances over the five years of our Corporate Plan | Completed |
Deliver a project to examine how well we manage customer enquiries across the whole range of the Commission's work | Completed |
Supporting the organisation
In common with all organisations, the Covid-19 pandemic has transformed the way we work and presented major challenges. Our aim throughout has been to maintain staff wellbeing, so we could continue to deliver without interruption for voters and our electoral stakeholders. Returns to the office, as conditions allowed, were managed with care, balancing staff safety and the benefits of in-person collaboration. Responses to the staff survey that took place in autumn 2021 showed that 94% of respondents felt that the Commission effectively responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, we have learned and documented lessons from our response to the pandemic, and are reviewing our crisis management plans accordingly.
Remote working has highlighted the need for substantial investment in our information technology infrastructure to bring it up to date, support hybrid working and provide an efficient and user-friendly working environment.
This was the first year of direct accountability to, and funding by, the Scottish Parliament and the Senedd, as alongside our longstanding relationship to the UK Parliament. We have worked closely with officials in all three parliaments in order to make a success of these unique arrangements, and have agreed detailed mechanisms to ensure efficiency and transparency.
We have made further progress on equality, diversity and inclusion, although this will remain a key priority as we develop the people strategy to underpin our new corporate plan. Our Race at Work Taskforce continues to ensure that the voices of our black, Asian and minority ethnic staff are heard and provide a force for change. We have consulted on a new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy and enhanced our Equality Impact Assessment process. And we have groups dedicated to supporting staff with bullying and harassment, to supporting those with mental health issues and to promoting dignity and respect at work.
Impact of Covid-19
Where government restrictions required, we have continued to work predominantly from home for much of the year. With the lifting of restrictions we started a phased return to the office that builds on our long-standing use of home-working to develop a hybrid approach. We embraced hybrid working in a way that allows us to balance business need and staff wellbeing. There were no significant additional financial costs to complete this work.
Commitment to EDI
The Commission serves a diverse democracy and is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. We have taken a number of steps during the year to help us deliver on this commitment:
- •We have produced a new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy, on which we consulted during winter 2021-22. We are grateful to those who commented and will publish a final version of the strategy during 2022-23;
- We refreshed our approach to Equality Impact Assessments as part of our ongoing compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty;
- We brought in external consultancy to help us raise our awareness and knowledge of EDI issues, and now have a permanent senior lead;
- We have continued the work of our Race at Work Charter Task Force
Report navigation links
- 1. Staff survey results and network performance show that IT infrastructure performance has not been satisfactory. We have continued to roll out upgrades across infrastructure, devices and applications in this year, however implementation was delayed due to the impact of Covid-19. We shall evaluate in the coming year ↩ Back to content at footnote 1