The importance of community owned Performance Indicators (COPIs): Final Project Report

This document is for the use of:
social sector landlords
other service providers
residents.
We are reporting on simple common sense aims – that service providers
should work with service consumers to:
 identify their most important areas for service improvement
 work with consumers, including frequently ignored groups, to measure
the improvements made.
This document offers a realistic pathway for service providers and
communities to respond to key current policy development. For example, core themes in the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Strong and Prosperous Communities White Paper are giving people more power over their own lives and the decisions that affect them. The White Paper, alongside the introduction of new and reduced baskets of Performance Indicators (PIs), includes a commitment to ensure that residents
have greater influence over the management of housing related services. Local authorities will be required to take steps, where appropriate, to ensure the participation of local citizens in their activities. In doing this authorities will need to give consideration to engaging with “hard to reach”/frequently ignored groups, such as disabled persons. Organisations can, therefore, jump ahead of the agenda by working with communities to devise their own PIs that are implemented, revised and replaced as necessary to direct resources most effectively. These are the Community Owned Performance Indicators (COPIs) that provide the focus of
this report. COPIs are developed by local residents for local residents and link directly to their neighbourhood. They are developed from their perspective and include the views of small or under represented groups. Essentially, COPIs are designed to reflect the needs, aspirations and expectations of the whole
community. This document contains three parts:
Part 1 the report primarily intended for people creating and working on strategies for performance management and/or customer involvement.
Part 2 the toolkit primarily for those whose interests are how to achieve effective customer involvement including with “hard to reach”/frequently ignored groups. This toolkit suggests that community engagement should be seen as a focused activity, where “hard to reach”/frequently ignored groups are directly
approached and asked to research their own communities, resulting in engagement that is largely led by community members themselves. This social action research method has been used by research team members over a 15 year period.
Part 3 the indicative PIs is for those that are interested in how PIs could look at estate or area level and how they could be measured by communities. This part of the document links up the COPIs with existing PIs.