ADD2698 Developing an improved performance reporting system as part of the GLA Governance project

1.1.    The Performance and Governance team are looking to improve the way the GLA reports performance both internally and externally to support long-held aspirations of the Mayor’s Office and to underpin governance of the new Themes. The current reporting system requires intensive manual input and does not provide flexibility to enable managers to drill down into the data. It is planned to replace this system to build more modern dashboards and a wider range of reports for different internal and external audiences. 
1.2.    This decision seeks approval to bring forward some of the longer-term development work in time for the performance reporting at the end of Quarter 1 of financial year 2024-25 in line with the new Themes. The decision will support the commissioning of a fixed period of external expertise to develop a new suite of performance reports to meet user needs and build the back-end data infrastructure required.  This will be in accordance with the GLA Contracts and Funding Code. 
 

2.1.    To make improvements to the GLA’s performance reporting to better manage performance in line with the GLA’s new thematic performance reporting framework.
2.2.    To develop a reporting infrastructure to capture data for each reporting period and make this available more flexibly for performance dashboards to allow users to explore the data they need for evidence-based decision-making to improve GLA performance.
2.3.    To provide a dashboard and a flexible range of internal and external reports for different audiences, including a quarterly report for publication and other reports at different frequencies.
2.4.    To reduce the amount of manual work required for performance reporting.
 

3.1.    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, the Mayor and GLA are subject to the public sector equality duty and must have due regard to the need to: 
•    eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation;
•    advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not:
•    foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not. 
3.2.    The “protected characteristics” are age, disability, gender re-assignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and marriage/ civil partnership status. The duty involves having appropriate regard to these matters as they apply in the circumstances, including having regard to the need to: remove or minimise any disadvantage suffered by those who share or is connected to a protected; take steps to meet the different needs of such people; encourage them to participate in public life or in any other activity where their participation is disproportionately low. This can involve treating people with a protected characteristic more favourably than those without one.
3.3.    There are no specific equalities impacts of the recruitment of two contractors to develop a new performance reporting outputs. Recruitment of the contractors will be done in accordance with GLA equalities guidelines. The new performance framework recognises the importance of “continuing to recognise work on equality, diversity and inclusion as a critical cross-cutting foundation for all of the GLA’s work.” The development of improved performance reports will support this aspect of the framework.
 

4.1.    Improved performance reporting is relevant to all Mayoral Strategies and Priorities. Key risks and issues include the need to define new performance reporting requirements in line with the governance work which is running concurrently and build the new reports in time for Quarter 1 2024-25 (first report needs to be ready after the end of the quarter in July 2024). 
4.2.    There are no consultations or impact assessments required. There are no data protection/GDPR issues (performance reporting does not involve any personal data) or health and safeguarding requirements.
4.3.    No conflicts of interest have been identified for any officers involved in the development of this proposal or drafting or clearance of this decision form.
 

5.1.    The recruitment of the external resource will cost between £30,000 and £50,000. This will come from Finance Improvement budget in 2023-24 and the remainder is available within existing planned resources for 2024-25, subject to final budget approval. 

6.1.    The contractors will be required between February and July 2024 to set up the new reports, including the database to collect data, the dashboards, and structure of pdf reports, in line with reporting requirements as these emerge from the wider governance project.