Amendment 119 seeks to reintroduce provisions to require principal councils to prepare and publish arrangements for the performance management system of the chief executive. There seems to be a lot of confusion around what 'performance management system' means, but it's actually about supporting employees at every level to their mutual and your mutual interest. 

During Stage 2 proceedings, Welsh Government amendments removed the duty on principal councils to make and publish arrangements for managing the performance of the chief executive of the council. The Minister argued that this was because concerns were raised about the potential for the provision to give licence for individual performance and capability matters to be played out in public. And, of course, that would be completely unacceptable. However, this amendment focuses on how the performance management of a chief executive is to be carried out. It makes it clear that performance management systems incorporate, but are not limited to, annual appraisals, and that the performance management system for chief executives must consider other appropriate methods.

Performance management systems are essential to the effective working of any organisation. However, they're only ever truly effective if they incorporate all employees, including their chief executives. This good practice in human resource management is, by definition, conducted in private as part of a continuous process in which appraisals only play a small part at a snapshot in time. Organisations that fail to provide these performance management systems fail to support, motivate and empower their employees by both acknowledging what works well and what they've done well, but also agreeing with them what needs to be done differently and then supporting them to achieve that. This amendment is therefore essential to this Bill's stated intentions, and not to include this would be to the detriment of any employee in any organisation so affected.