Managing our Performance

This section provides:

• How we manage the performance of our Operating Company Network Management Contracts (NMCs) and our contract with Intelligent Transport System (ITS) specialists (the Traffic Scotland Infrastructure Contract – TSIC and the Traffic Scotland Operations Contract – TSOC)
• How our performance regime is fully aligned with Transport Scotland’s asset management approach
• The performance measure themes and how they are linked to Asset Management Objectives
• How the performance regime will be continually improved

How We Manage Contract Performance

As a publicly funded organisation, demonstrating value for money in our activities is vital. Our supply chain, including our road maintenance Operating Companies and Intelligent Transport System suppliers, deliver road network and technology maintenance and improvements (see Section ‘Contracts to Maintain Our Assets’ for details). We monitor their performance against levels specified in their contracts.

Our contracts outline clear performance measures, covering a wide range of maintenance and operational delivery activities. The content of the contracts aligns directly with Transport Scotland’s asset management objectives, which are incorporated in them.

Figure 9‑1 illustrates the connection from organisational objectives right through to performance measures, with strategic objectives and priorities connected in the following order:

1. Scottish Government’s Purpose
2. Scottish Governments Strategies and Plans
3. Transport Scotland’s Strategies and Plans
4. Road Asset Management Policy and Strategy

These priorities and objectives then feed through to our performance measures in the order below:

1. Asset Management Objectives
2. Contract Requirements and Specification
3. Performance Measures and Targets

Our Performance Regime

The performance regime incorporated into our contracts is designed to align with our evolving organisational objectives and continue to drive effective delivery. The management of performance is underpinned by three elements of the contract:

Performance Indicator (PI)

A numerical measure of the supplier’s compliance with the contractual requirement, covering the most important areas of the contract, and which often have an associated Payment Adjustment Factor (see below).

Monitoring Indicator (MI)

A numerical measure of service provision which does not have an associated Payment Adjustment Factor.

Payment Adjustment Factor (PAF)

Payments to suppliers may be reduced through PAFs in the event of underperformance against PIs, creating additional incentive to deliver work effectively. Higher adjustment factors are applied to PIs which reflect the most critical areas of the contract.

The contracts include PIs, MIs, and PAFs designed to provide wide coverage of contractual areas and a method for calculating and scaling adjustment factors. The regime is designed to incentivise supply chain behaviours that align to Transport Scotland’s Asset Management Objectives. AMPS (see ‘Systems’) allows for accurate performance measurement by automating the calculation of measures using the relevant active datasets. The data and measures are independently audited before the appropriate payment adjustments are applied to the OC’s payment mechanism. More details of the Performance Measures are given below.

AMPS Note: AMPS enables measurement and monitoring of Performance Indicators, Monitoring Indicators, and our wider business measures.

Our Performance Measures

Our performance and monitoring indicators have been established to cover a wide range of requirements in our contracts, which drive compliance by our supply chain, (refer to ‘Contracts to Maintain Our Assets’ for more information about the contracts).

Each contract incorporates multiple performance and monitoring indicators, the exact number of which may vary over time as contract measures are reviewed and updated, (see ‘Continual Improvement of Our Performance Regime’).

A summary of the themes covered by our performance measures is provided in Table 9-1 below.

Performance reports for our supply chain are produced annually and can be found on the Performance Audit Group website. The performance of our supply chain connects directly to our Asset Management Objectives, which in turn are designed to deliver the National Transport Strategy (NTS2). You can read about Transport Scotland’s performance in our Annual Report which is published on our website annually.

Table 9 1: Performance Indicator and Monitoring Indicator Themes aligned to our contractual objectives

Asset Management Objectives	Performance & Monitoring Indicator Themes
Safety	Safety Critical Defect & Fault Repair Incident Response
Resilient Network	Network and Equipment Availability Weather Forecasting
Sustainable Purpose	Carbon Emissions Material Usage & Recycling
Active and Healthy Communities	Minimising Disruption Winter Maintenance
Condition	Inspections & Maintenance Activities Asset Data

A full breakdown of the PIs, MIs and PAFs can be found in Appendix F. The contracts themselves can be found on the Transport Scotland website.

Continual Improvement of Our Performance Regime

We will continue to evolve our performance regime to reflect the strategic priorities of Transport Scotland and the capabilities of our supply chain. Our contracts incorporate the option to periodically review PIs and MIs in collaboration with our suppliers to allow updates.

As part of the review process, we consider the evolving priorities of Transport Scotland, updated datasets for measuring performance, and elements no longer required for performance management. This review and performance analysis are conducted collaboratively between Transport Scotland and our supply chain.