John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Question 15: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his views on reports that senior civil servants are scared of judging staff and that just nine out of 17,728 civil servants who were assessed were given the lowest rating on a five point scale; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35132/11]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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My Department carried out an extensive review of the effectiveness of the Performance Management and Development System (PMDS) during 2010 and 2011 and I am fully aware that there are serious deficiencies in how the system is being implemented in the Civil Service. My Department has developed a comprehensive approach to the reform of PMDS and is working closely with Civil Service management and unions to deliver this reform. We are committed under the Croke Park Agreement and the Reform Plan to strengthening performance management.

Some of the key criticisms that emerged as part of our review of PMDS include:

· the process is overly bureaucratic with an emphasis on form filling

· there is a lack of consistency and fairness of standards for performance and ratings, with many staff getting a rating of 4 or 5 rating (ie perceived as too many high ratings)

· there is a failure to deal with underperformance

The review of PMDS established that low numbers of staff are being given a rating of 1 or 2 (1% of staff in 2010), in other words, very few staff have their performance rated as not satisfactory. These statistics, taken with other feedback from the review, highlight that underperformance is not being managed effectively. In response, my Department has taken the initiative and is working with HR units to strengthen management capability across the Civil Service. Earlier this year my Department developed guidelines and training material on the 'Management of Underperformance'. Over 100 staff from HR units were trained on the new guidelines and related HR policies such as the disciplinary policy. Departments are now expected to train their own line managers on the management of underperformance.

My Department is currently working with management and unions in the Civil Service to secure agreement on a number of changes to PMDS on a phased basis. As part of Phase 1 of the reform of PMDS, we undertook to :

· streamline PMDS to make it a more useful tool for managing performance

· make managers accountable for the performance management of their staff

· automate the PMDS process.

There has been considerable progress on these goals. Agreement between management and unions was reached last week on a new simplified PMDS form which will streamline the process. Guidelines on the new form have also been agreed. My Department is preparing the roll-out of the new PMDS form to HR units for use during the 2012 PMDS cycle.

Management accountability has also been strengthened. From 2012 onwards a manager should not get a rating above 2 where they do not manage the performance of their staff effectively over the course of the year.

The final step in Phase 1 will be the automation of the new PMDS.

While the initial focus of the reform of PMDS has been on simplifying and streamlining the process, I accept that we need to do more. Phase 2 changes to PMDS will be focused on looking at how the distribution of ratings across Civil Service Departments can be improved and how fairness and consistency across Departments can be strengthened. We will be bringing forward proposals on how to address these issues in 2012.

My Department will continue to review the effectiveness of performance management and work with HR units across the Civil Service to strengthen management capability.