Jersey Performance Framework

Background

Jersey is one of a small number of jurisdictions that have enshrined into law a requirement to consider sustainable well-being in Government decision making.

Under Article 9 (6) of the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2019 (the 2019 Law), the Council of Ministers is required to take account of the medium-term and long-term sustainability of the States’ finances and the outlook for the economy in Jersey in preparing Government Plans.

In addition, under Article 9 (9) of the 2019 Law, the Council of Ministers must take into account the sustainable well-being (including the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being) of the inhabitants of Jersey over successive generations in preparing the Government Plan.  It is also required to set out in the Government Plan how the proposals in the Plan take that sustainable well-being into account.

As a consequence of the 2019 Law, sustainable well-being should be central to considerations underpinning the way in which the Government plans, makes decisions and designs public services in Jersey.

In order to measure progress against long-term well-being indicators, the States of Jersey established the Jersey Performance Framework.  The Jersey Performance Framework combines:

• a set of Island Outcome Indicators that measure the progress that Jersey is making towards achieving sustainable well-being. These indicators focus on long-term progress rather than short-term intervention; and
• a set of Service Performance Measures that are short-term indicators showing how well the Government is currently performing.The Government is currently refreshing and refining the content and presentation of the Island Outcome Indicators.  An updated set of Island Outcome Indicators is due to be launched in the summer of 2024.

  Service Performance Measures are defined in Government Delivery Plans and are reported on a quarterly basis where quarterly data is available.

Scope

The review will evaluate the extent to which sustainable well-being and Island Outcome Indicators feature in frameworks used for providing advice to support effective decision making within the Government of Jersey.

In doing so, the review will describe the progress made to date by the States of Jersey in implementing the relevant Articles of the 2019 Law.  It will identify good practices in Jersey, compare practices in Jersey to other jurisdictions and make recommendations to develop practices in the future.

The review will compare practices in Jersey to approaches being adopted in other jurisdictions, including New Zealand, Scotland and Wales.   The review will take account of proportionality in proposing recommendations for improvement to be adopted in Jersey.

The review will set out the approaches being adopted to integrate sustainable well-being into the Government of Jersey (in other words, Government Departments) in order to identify recommendations for improvement.

The review will also identify how sustainable well-being considerations could be applied to advice and decision making frameworks and structures in other States of Jersey entities.

In carrying out the fieldwork, a sample of activities, programmes and projects across a sample of Government Departments will be reviewed.

The review will also consider the work being undertaken to refresh and refine the content and presentation of the Island Outcome Indicators.  The review will not however include an audit of the Island Outcome Indicators or the Service Performance Measures