Things to Think About

CIPMS: KEY MESSAGES Endnote 14

CIPMS is about assuring the best quality service for our people and communities in a way that is continuously improving.

MTCU is among a large number of jurisdictions that have adopted a Continuous Improvement Performance Management System (CIPMS) to measure and manage performance of service delivery.

CIPMS consists of Performance Measurement, Performance Management and Continuous Improvement, using existing tools and building on good practices already in place in the literacy field.

CIPMS will allow agencies to monitor their own achievements while improving the LBS system as a whole.

Implementing a Performance Management system will help agencies build their capacity to work towards providing quality services according to their available resources.

One of CIPMS’s benefits is that it provides us with a common language and the means to communicate results in a consistent manner to stakeholders outside of the literacy field.

LBS agencies will integrate the culture of continuous improvement in the day to day running of their LBS services. To do this, agencies will further build on their current continuous improvement practices.

The current training is part of the CIPMS process started in 2002. This is an ongoing process, following a continuum that takes time.

All streams have a role to play in the development of the CIPMS training and are working collaboratively on this initiative to maintain the coherence of the literacy sector while respecting its diversity.

LEARNER SKILL ATTAINMENT

Learner Skill Attainment (LSA) was identified as one of the new measures of agency performance. It will track learners’ progress towards identified goals on a consistent scale and in meaningful increments that relate to those goals.

Baseline LSA data will start being gathered through pilot projects between September 2007 and March 2008.

The elements of efficiency, effectiveness and client satisfaction were also introduced at this time. The Learner Satisfaction Survey was implemented in April 2003, allowing literacy agencies and MTCU to measure learner satisfaction. The administration of this survey by all LBS-funded agencies also ensures the consistency of data which is extremely important for the purposes of comparison and for corporate reporting. It also provides a tool that can be used at the agency level.

Most recently, in late 2006 and early 2007, MTCU brought together literacy practitioners to form a CIPMS working group. This group examined the overall CIPMS dimensions of client satisfaction, effectiveness and efficiency and developed associated measures and indicators that will inform the final development of MTCU’s CIPMS. Province-wide performance measures and core performance indicators will be an integral component of consistent CIPMS implementation across the province.