Emerging best practice

Existing guidance outlines formal approaches and processes to establishing, monitoring and evaluating performance. Determining the right measures, and the right number of measures, to include in a contract is important, but needs to form part of a wider process:

Get measures right	Focus on what matters	Time should be invested to produce measures that flow from the strategy that outlines expected outcomes - the key things that matter.
	Proportional	The burden of work required, such as in obtaining information and monitoring, should not outweigh benefits when considering the number of measures and access to robust data.
	Clear	Need advance agreement on the purpose, definition and measurement of each measure.
	Strong evidence base	Evidence gives confidence that targets are achievable.
Review & Update	Where possible amend key performance indicators during a contract lifetime without altering the balance between risk and reward. Indicators that probably should be changed may include those where incentives linked to measures are too small to matter; that are not providing the right incentives; have insufficient information to monitor performance, or where the time needed to monitor performance outweighs the benefits gained. A regular review allows government to consider whether indicators remain relevant.
Use other levers	A well-designed set of performance measures should motivate suppliers but they should be used alongside other methods. See client leadership focuses on what matters and understand suppliers' motivation.