You asked
Please provide the following information:
(i) Did you use "guided distribution" or "forced distribution" as part of your staff performance management procedures for your most recently completed staff appraisal cycle? Please give the month or months and year (if it was not 2020) in which final markings were given to staff.
(ii) Are you using this method as part of your current or ongoing staff appraisal cycle? Please give the month or months, and year, in which final markings are planned to be given to staff.
(iii) If the answer to (ii) is "yes", do you plan to make this the last performance cycle in which you propose to use this method?
(iv) Did you continue to use forced or guided distribution after the 2016 decision of the Cabinet Office (re-delegating performance management to departments) for at least one performance cycle, and cease to do so in the interim? If so, please give the month and year in which the last forced or guided distribution-based performance markings were given to staff.
(v) Did you immediately abandon this method after the 2016 announcement notwithstanding that an appraisal cycle was already in progress?
(vi) If you no longer use guided or forced distribution, do you still use moderation sessions or meetings?
(vii) If you no longer use guided or forced distribution but still use moderation sessions or meetings, do you use or have regard to "bell curve" expectations in conjunction with such sessions or meetings?
Please make sure your response covers both the main department and any and all supporting public bodies and agencies.
We said
Thank you for your request. Please see the following answers to your request.
(i) Did you use "guided distribution" or "forced distribution" as part of your staff performance management procedures for your most recently completed staff appraisal cycle? Please give the month or months and year (if it was not 2020) in which final markings were given to staff.
We do not utilise performance moderation, or indeed award markings for performance, below Senior Civil Servants (SCS) grades (below SCS is known as delegated grades). As of 2018/19, forced distribution has been removed for the SCS, however performance differentiation is broadly expected to take the shape of a bell curve. Permission was given for final markings to be shared from June 2020 for the performance year 19/20.
(ii) Are you using this method as part of your current or ongoing staff appraisal cycle? Please give the month or months, and year, in which final markings are planned to be given to staff.
We do not utilise performance moderation for our delegated grades. For SCS colleagues, we are currently preparing our approach to the end of year process so have not yet finalised whether there will be an expectation of a bell curve as there was in 19/20. We hope to share final markings for SCS colleagues for the performance year 20/21 in late summer 2021.
(iii) If the answer to (ii) is "yes", do you plan to make this the last performance cycle in which you propose to use this method?
Please see above response.
(iv) Did you continue to use forced or guided distribution after the 2016 decision of the Cabinet Office (re-delegating performance management to departments) for at least one performance cycle, and cease to do so in the interim? If so, please give the month and year in which the last forced or guided distribution-based performance markings were given to staff.
For delegated grades, our current performance management approach (no moderation and therefore no distribution requirements) came into practice 30 May 2018. Guided distribution was utilised for delegated grades prior to this. For SCS colleagues, forced distribution was utilised prior to 2018/19; now differentiation of markings is broadly expected to take the shape of a bell curve.
(v) Did you immediately abandon this method after the 2016 announcement notwithstanding that an appraisal cycle was already in progress?
For both delegated grades and SCS colleagues, guided (delegated) and forced (SCS) distribution continued for a period following 2016. As outlined above, this has now ended for delegated grades, and distribution is no longer forced at SCS grades.
(vi) If you no longer use guided or forced distribution, do you still use moderation sessions or meetings?
We utilise performance moderation for our SCS colleagues. There is no performance moderation for our delegated grades.
(vii) If you no longer use guided or forced distribution but still use moderation sessions or meetings, do you use or have regard to "bell curve" expectations in conjunction with such sessions or meetings?
We do not utilise performance moderation for our delegated grades. For our SCS colleagues, there is no forced distribution at this time; however, performance differentiation is expected to broadly take the shape of a bell curve (with the highest proportion in the 'Achieving' group). As a guide the approximate distribution is expected to be 25% top, 5-10% low and the rest achieving; this may be distributed across the whole of the SCS.