3. Performance against PSA targets
This chapter gives an assessment of progress against each outstanding PSA target. It is structured around the SR2004 targets which came into effect in April 2005 and is set out in six parts:
- Part 1: Targets related to children (PSA 1, 2 and 3).
- Part 2: Targets related to employment and safety in the workplace (PSA 4 and 5).
- Part 3: Targets related to retirement (PSA 6 and 7).
- Part 4: Target related to disabled people (PSA 8).
- Part 5: Targets related to the quality of service (PSA 9 and 10).
- Part 6: Efficiency and outstanding targets not rolled forward from previous Spending Reviews.
21. Where the SR2004 target takes forward an aim which was part of SR2002, an assessment of the latest position against the SR2002 target based on latest outturn data, is also provided. A summary table of all performance assessments is included at Figure 1.
Measuring performance against targets
22. In order that judgements on final outturn against all PSA targets can be made on a consistent and comparable basis, the Department uses the terms set out below to describe performance.
Ongoing targets
| Term | Usage |
|---|---|
| Met early | There is no possibility of subsequent slippage during the lifetime of the target. |
| Ahead | Progress is exceeding plans and expectations. |
| On course | Progress in line with plans and expectations. |
| Slippage | Progress is slower than expected, for example, by reference to criteria set out in a target’s Technical Note. |
| Not yet assessed | New target for which data is not yet available. |
Other targets
| Term | Usage |
|---|---|
| Met | Target achieved by the target date. |
| Met-ongoing | For older open-ended targets where the target level has been met and little would be achieved by continuing to report the same information indefinitely. |
| Partly met | Target has two or more distinct elements, and some – but not all – have been achieved by the target date. |
| Not met | Target was not met or met late. |
Figure 1 Summary of performance towards all PSA targets
Link to long description for Figure 1: Summary of performance towards all PSA targets [D]
| SR2004 targets | |
|---|---|
| 1a. | Halve the number of children in relative low-income households between 1998–99 and 2010–11, on the way to eradicating child poverty by 2020 including – current status: not yet assessed |
| 1b. | Reducing the proportion of children living in workless households by five per cent between spring 2005 and spring 2008 – current status: not yet assessed |
| 1c. | Increasing the proportion of parents with care on Income Support and income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance who receive maintenance for their children to 65 per cent by March 2008 – current status: slippage |
| Children in relative low income households element of target joint with HM Treasury. | |
| 2 | Improve children’s communication, social and emotional development so that, by 2008, 50 per cent of children reach a good level of development at the end of the Foundation Stage and reduce inequalities between the level of development achieved by children in the 20 per cent most disadvantaged areas and the rest of England – current status: not yet assessed |
| Joint Target with Department for Education and Skills through the Sure Start Unit. | |
| 3. | As a contribution to reducing the proportion of children living in households where no one is working, by 2008: |
| 3a. | Increase the stock of Ofsted-registered childcare by ten per cent – current status: met early |
| 3b. | Increase the take up of formal childcare by lower income working families by 50 per cent – current status: not yet assessed |
| 3c. | Introduce, by April 2005, a successful light touch childcare approval scheme – current status: on course |
| Joint target with Department for Education and Skills through the Sure Start Unit | |
| 4. | As part of the wider objective of full employment in every region, over the three years to spring 2008, and taking account of the economic cycle: |
| 4a. | Demonstrate progress on increasing the employment rate – current status: on course |
| Increase the employment rate of disadvantaged groups and significantly reduce the difference between the employment rates of the disadvantaged groups and the overall rate. | |
| 4b. | Lone parents– current status: not yet assessed |
| 4c. | Ethnic minorities – current status: not yet assessed |
| 4d. | People aged 50 and over– current status: not yet assessed |
| 4e. | Those with the lowest qualifications – current status: on course |
| 4f. | Those living in the local authority wards with the poorest initial labour market position – current status: not yet assessed |
| Element 4a is joint target with HM Treasury. | |
| 5. | By 2008 improve health and safety outcomes in Great Britain through progressive improvement in the control of risks from the workplace – current status: not yet assessed |
| 6. | By 2008, be paying Pension Credit to at least 3.2 million pensioner households, while maintaining a focus on the most disadvantaged by ensuring that at least 2.2 million of these households are in receipt of the guarantee element – current status: slippage |
| 7. | Improve working age individuals’ awareness of their retirement provision such that by 2007-08: |
| 7a. | 15.4 million individuals are regularly issued a pension forecast – current status: on course |
| 7b. | 60,000 successful pension traces are undertaken a year – current status: not yet assessed |
| 8. | In the three years to March 2008: |
| 8a. | further improve the rights of disabled people and remove barriers to their participation in society, working with other government departments, including through increasing awareness of the rights of disabled people – current status: slippage |
| 8b and c | increase the employment rate of disabled people, and significantly reduce the difference between their employment rate and the overall rate, taking account of the economic cycle – current status: not yet assessed |
| 9. | Improve Housing Benefit administration by: |
| 9a. | reducing the average time taken to process a Housing Benefit claim to no more than 48 days nationally and across the bottom 15 per cent of local authorities to no more than 55 days, by March 2008 – current status: on course |
| 9b. | increasing the number of cases in the deregulated private rented sector in receipt of Local Housing Allowance to 740,000 by 2008 – current status: not yet assessed |
| 9c. | increasing the number of cases in receipt of the Local Housing Allowance where the rent is paid directly to the claimant to 470,000 by 2008 – current status: not yet assessed |
| 10. | Reduce overpayments from fraud and error in: |
| 10a. | Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance – current status: not yet assessed |
| 10b. | Housing Benefit – current status: slippage |
| SR2002 targets | |
|---|---|
| 1. | Reduce the number of children in low-income households by at least a quarter by 2004, as a contribution towards the broader target of halving child poverty by 2010 and eradicating it by 2020 – current status: not met – final assessment Joint target with HM Treasury. |
| 2. | Double the proportion of parents with care on Income Support and income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance who receive maintenance for their children to 60 per cent by March 2006 – current status: not met – final assessment |
| 3. | Demonstrate progress by spring 2006 on increasing the employment rate and reducing the unemployment rate over the economic cycle – current status: on course Joint target with HM Treasury. |
| 4. | Over the three years to spring 2006, increase the employment rates of disadvantaged areas and groups, taking account of the economic cycle and significantly reduce the difference between their employment rates and the overall rate. |
| 4a. | Lone parents – current status: ahead |
| 4b. | Ethnic minorities – current status: on course |
| 4c. | People aged 50 and over – current status: on course |
| 4d. | Those with the lowest qualifications – current status: on course |
| 4e. | Those living in the local authority wards with the poorest initial labour market position – current status: on course |
| Ethnic minorities element joint with Department of Trade and Industry. | |
| 5. | Reduce the proportion of children in households with no one in work over the 3 years from spring 2003 to spring 2006 by 6.5 per cent – current status: slippage |
| 6. | By 2006, be paying Pension Credit to at least 3 million pensioner households – current status: not met – final assessment |
| 7a. | In the three years to 2006, increase the employment rate of people with disabilities, taking account of the economic cycle, and significantly reduce the difference between their employment rate and the overall rate – current status: on course |
| 7b. | Work to improve the rights of disabled people and to remove barriers to their participation in society – current status: met – final assessment |
| 8. | Make significant progress towards modernising welfare delivery so that by 2005, 85 per cent of customers have their benefit paid into their bank accounts. – current status: met early – final assessment |
| 9. | Improve delivery of Department for Work and Pensions’ services by setting published annual targets for each major business addressing accuracy, unit costs and customer service, becoming progressively more demanding over the three-year period. |
| 9a. | The Pension Service – current status: not yet assessed for 2005–06 |
| 9b. | Child Support Agency – current status: not yet assessed for 2005–06 |
| 9c. | Jobcentre Plus – current status: not yet assessed for 2005–06 |
| Disability and Carers Service 7 – current status: not yet assessed for 2005–06 | |
| 10. | Reduce losses from fraud and error for people of working age: |
| 10a. | In Income Support and Jobseeker’s Allowance, with a 33 per cent reduction by March 2004 and 50 per cent by 2006 – current status: on course |
| 10b. | In Housing Benefit, with a 25 per cent reduction by 2006 – current status: slippage |
| Outstanding Comprehensive Spending Review 1998 target |
|---|
| Promote policies consistent with a change in the ratio of spending on pensions by the state to spending on pensions by the private sector from around 60:40 in 1998 to 50:50 by 2025 and to 40:60 in 50 years’ time – current assessment: ongoing |