With the pressures from Ofsted, our new director of children’s services and the council’s corporate performance management people, I’m getting fed up. This is not the job I signed up for. What can I do about it?
Like it or not, there is a link between performance data and the quality of the work you do. Knowing how well you are doing tells you where your strengths are and what to build on. Knowing what isn’t going well points to the improvements you need to make. We do this is to avoid another Victoria Climbié or Peter Connelly.
The data should be part of everyday professional discourse between you and your colleagues. It should be natural to talk about it in a way that invites suggestions for improvement.
If you think you should be “left alone” to do what you want, you have missed the point and may well be in the wrong job. As a DCS, I would talk you through this so you can welcome the performance discussion. If you are not interested or prepared to do it, check out another job you might enjoy more and make way for someone who does want to do better.
Answered by Peter Lewis, a freelance providing interim local authority children’s services leadership, and a former DCS in Haringey
Email questions, marked “Experts”, to cypnow@markallengroup.com
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