Performance monitoring was not fully operational when the courts opened

1.8 Three months prior to practical completion, the Service should have finalised the basis upon which service standards were to be reviewed and how Consul intended to monitor performance against the contract. This required the Service to detail the key performance indicators and how they would be measured. Consul did not supply a service standard report in advance but the Service set up a "help desk" to monitor performance issues.

1.9 Six months after occupation of the new building, the Service asked its external advisers to examine the extent to which the facilities management services being provided by Consul complied with the contractual requirements. The advisers noted that during the initial months of occupation, the Service had focused on getting the building operational. Because of this, the development of systems and procedures had taken a back seat and considerable effort would be needed to ensure that all contractual obligations were put in place. The advisers reported that certain elements of the performance measurement system were operational. For example, processes were in place to measure the availability of the Courts complex and to report service failures to the Consul Help Desk for input to the payment mechanism to ensure appropriate deductions from the monthly Unitary Service Charge could be made.

1.10 The contract also required Consul to produce self-monitoring reports on the service standards achieved against those established in the output specification. However, Consul had not regularly marked the services as required. There was no method by which the performance standards for day-to-day services in the building could be measured and subsequently there could be no abatement of payments if those standards were not being met (Figure 4) .

1.11 A team in Laganside has been established to consolidate fault logging procedures in conjunction with a fully operational helpdesk. In addition, working in association with Consul's Facilities Management Team, the Service has agreed and developed a series of monitoring reports. Formal plans are now in place to ensure that all service management and contract management requirements are fully engaged. The Service's Resource Management Team have logged every item reported to the helpdesk in the new building, monitored Consul's workplace facilities management performance reports each month and have instigated a full quarterly inspection regime. There have been no significant examples of unavailability or performance issues.

Performance Monitoring as at February 2003

There have as yet been no abatements for service performance - the only deductions to date (just over £1,200) have been for non-availability.

Overall service performance has been in excess of 97 per cent for each month since occupation.

Three services are currently being reported through Consul's Help Desk facility (Management of Services, Service Maintenance and Fabric Maintenance). In addition, a number of services are being managed through the internal Court Service Helpdesk. These include reception, porterage, postroom, reprographics and cleaning.

Other services are not being monitored and automatically receive a score of 100%.

On a number of occasions, the three services being monitored have individually scored less than the acceptable standard (i.e less than 95%).

Because the abatement process is based upon the total demerit marks for all services combined, and because non-monitored services are receiving a score of 100%, the acceptable position for non-monitored services can cancel out an unacceptable standard for the three monitored services.

In February 2003, the three monitored services were unacceptable, all scoring less than 95%. Because service monitoring was not operational for other services, these all scored 100% and the overall performance score was 97.06%. Consequently there was no performance abatement.