Performance Tracker 

This project will expand the analysis of the Institute for Government’s annual Performance Tracker.  

Why is this important?

Performance Tracker has, over the last six years, provided influential and authoritative analysis. The annual reports examine the extent to which key public services are meeting the needs of people across the country and future pressures and spending choices facing the government. Performance Tracker currently covers multiple areas: 

• hospitals, general practice, adult social care, children’s social care, neighbourhood services, and schools in England; 
• and police, prisons, and criminal courts in England and Wales.  

What does it involve?

Performance Tracker will be jointly funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the Institute for Government’s core funding from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. Nuffield’s funding will enable Performance Tracker to provide more responsive analysis which looks at the correlations between funding levels, service provision, and user outcomes. Where possible, this will include analysis of geographic variations to better understand the drivers of national trends.  

Some of the questions covered will include: 

• What demand is there for key public services and how is that expected to change? 
• Are public services meeting the population’s needs? How has this changed over time and why? 
• How does the performance of specific services affect others? 
• How does where you live affect access to and quality of public services? 
• Will government plans for spending and changes to service delivery address existing problems and meet future needs? 
• What impact would alternative spending options have? 

How will it make a difference?  

In addition to the main annual report there will be multiple shorter reports covering a variety of topics. These short reports will use the Performance Tracker data to rapidly respond to live policy debates, dig deeper into the drivers of trends identified in the annual reports, or assess the performance of an additional public service.  

The Institute for Government will also undertake rolling policy analysis and literature reviews and hold meetings with key stakeholders to ensure the reports are comprehensive, responsive, focused, and impactful.  

Performance Tracker’s aim is to provide impartial evidence which improves the quality of government decisions on public services and spending, in order to improve outcomes for people across the country.