It is being rolled out across the Government Office network as part of the Government
’ s Modernisation agenda and a commitment within the GO Network to continuous improvement. Peer Review is loosely based on the Comprehensive Performance Assessment model that is applied to local authorities. The process was piloted in GO North East in December 2003 and GO-East was reviewed in March 2005.
Roger Poole, Deputy Director, Government Office for the East Midlands, led the External Review Team. The team were asked to focus on the Growth and Regeneration agendas in the region and spent a week at GO-East meeting and seeking views from GO staff and visiting partners and projects in: Peterborough; Luton; Harlow; Great Yarmouth and Norwich.
In addition GO-East prepared a self-assessment of its own performance, provided the team with substantial supporting material including staff and stakeholder surveys. GO-East also commissioned a consultant to carry out a series of focus groups with staff. Examples of the stakeholders the review team spoke to include:
Whitehall departments
East of England Development Agency
East of England Regional Assembly
Local Authorities
Connexions
Local Strategic Partnerships
Economic Development Partnerships
Local Lea
rning and Skills Council
Community Trust
Colleges
Universities
At the end of the week the Review Team presented initial findings to the Board and then subsequently wrote up a full report.
GO-East sees this process as a central part of our commitment to continuous improvement. We are developing an action plan that brings together our response to other feedback (such as the partner survey of November 2004) to produce a coherent plan to improve the way the GO works in the region.
