Activity and performance against targets
In setting targets for Animal Health for 2007-08, Defra agreed that these might not be able to be achieved if the Agency had to re-prioritise its efforts to respond to an exotic disease incident or outbreak. To recognise this, the targets set included activities to develop the Agency, and qualitative standards of operational performance to strive towards rather than commitments to volumes of work to be achieved.
In the light of the numerous disease outbreaks in Great Britain in 2007-08, this has proved prescient. Although the Agency needed to reprioritise much of its intended activity to enable it to respond to the disease outbreaks, the Agency did meet most of its qualitative targets in full or in part. In addition, Animal Health continued to develop the processes and systems which enable activity to be reported consistently and accurately and performance to be measured and this continuing improvement has informed discussions with Defra and the devolved administrations on Animal Health’s performance and the effectiveness of the policies being implemented.
The table below summarises Animal Health’s performance in 2007-08 for its key strategic and operational targets. Two targets were superceded by events during the year and were not assessed. The other 23 are described as met, not met or met in part (applied when the major element or elements of a target have been fulfilled). Performance against targets has been audited by and agreed with Defra’s Internal Audit Division.
Strategic
Target Area: leadership and our ability to manage change |
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Target 1: To implement a new operations management structure and keep management capacity under review. |
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Met: A new structure was implemented during the year. |
Target 2: To implement succession planning and talent management schemes. |
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Partially Met: Design and development work was undertaken but progress was delayed as a result of the disease outbreaks and is being carried forward to 2008-09. |
Target 3: Design and development work was undertaken but progress was delayed as a result of the disease outbreaks and is being carried forward to 2008-09. |
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Partially Met: Design and development work was undertaken but progress was delayed as a result of the disease outbreaks and is being carried forward to 2008-09. |
Target Area:professional skills and veterinary capacity |
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Target 4:To implement plans for professional and technical training in specific skill areas. |
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Partially Met: Design and development work was undertaken but progress was delayed as a result of the disease outbreaks and is being carried forward to 2008-09. |
Target 5:To implement the veterinary and technical development pathway. |
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Met: While the disease outbreaks delayed activity, design and development work was undertaken and planned actions are being carried forward to 2008-09. |
Target 6:To implement phase one of the Official Veterinarian Reform Programme, begin pilots in April 2007 and (subject to meeting success criteria) extend pilots in year. |
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Partially Met: Phase one was completed but the extension of pilots was delayed as a result of the disease outbreaks. |
Target Area: transforming delivery capacity |
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Target 7: Complete solution confirmation and design stages of the Business Reform Programme. |
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Partially Met:The solution confirmation phase was completed but a decision to bring forward the module to support disease outbreaks has extended the design timescale. |
Target 8: Complete the design, development, planning and implementation stages of the Contact Management
module and the planning and pre-implementation preparatory stages of the bovine tuberculosis and |
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Partially Met:The Contact Management module was developed in the year and will be implemented in the summer of 2008-09. The bovine tuberculosis and brucella module will now be developed after the module to support disease outbreaks, although as this will also contain a tracings component, it will support bovine tuberculosis work. |
Target Area: maintaining and improving readiness and resilience |
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Target 9: Conduct a rigorous assessment of current response capability, including immediate mobilisation |
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Partially Met:During outbreaks, gaps are addressed when found. Following outbreaks, reviews are undertaken of what has gone well and what could have gone better and action plans are developed accordingly. A more fundamental review of capability built on this learning was begun in the year but had to be postponed on the outbreak of foot and mouth disease. The target is being carried forward to 2008-09. |
Target Area: developing an Operations Strategy |
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Target 10: Develop the organisation’s Operations Strategy by establishing guidance and investigations programmes, documenting the enforcement hierarchy and reviewing enforcement policy and its efficacy. |
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Not Met: Progress was delayed as a result of the disease outbreaks and is being carried forward to 2008-09. |
Target Area: Business Improvement |
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Target 11:Agree and implement collaborative working with the Rural Payments Agency. |
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Met: Substantial and meaningful collaborative working arrangements established. |
Target 12: Collaborate with others to develop the e-portal Whole Farm Approach. |
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Not assessable: Defra deferred work on this programme in the year. |
Target 13: To engage actively in the development of policy with policy customers. |
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Met: The new operations management structure has increased Animal Health’s capacity and capability to engage in policy development. |
Target Area: quality assurance |
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Target 14: Develop and implement quality assurance arrangements for report casework and bovine tuberculosis testing. |
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Partially Met: Progress was made regarding quality assurance arrangements for bovine tuberculosis but was delayed regarding report casework as a result of the disease outbreaks. This is being carried forward to 2008-09. |
| Target 15: Pilot the development of private practice quality assurance schemes in the Official Veterinarians Reform Programme. | |
Met: Service delivery standards based on the RCVS Tier 1 Practice Standards have been agreed with the British Veterinary Association. |
Target area: implementing the animal health and welfare strategy for Great Britain |
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Target 16: We will review and refresh working relationships with local authorities. |
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Partially Met:Animal Health and local authority representatives worked together to update the existing framework agreement in the year and although progress was made, work was not completed as a result of the disease outbreaks. It is envisaged that an updated agreement could be agreed with local authorities in 2008-09. |
Operational
Target Area: bovine tuberculosis |
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Target 17: To ensure that at least 97% of blood samples submitted in the year for gamma-interferon tests are of a satisfactory condition. |
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Met: 98.2% of samples were satisfactorily submitted. |
Target 18: Ensure that blood samples are collected for no less than 95% of herds or animals for which application of |
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Partially Met:For the year as a whole, blood samples were collected from 85.7% of herds, (though this percentage had increased by the year-end), and from 97.2% of animals which had given inconclusive readings to the traditional skin test. |
Target 19: Ensure that 65% of ‘at risk’ bovine tuberculosis herds are traced and tested within nine weeks of |
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Met. This target relates to the disease’s possible spread. Despite a 15% increase in tracing volumes in
the year, 80.4% of ‘at risk’ herds were traced and tested within nine weeks of confirmation of the original test result. |
Target 20: Issue movement restrictions on 98% of ‘high-risk’ herds within two working days of confirming an |
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Partially Met. Movement restrictions were issued on 98.1% of herds within two working days when
reactors were found by testing. When suspected infected animals were found at slaughterhouses however, movement restrictions for the year as a whole were issued within two working days on 94.2% of herds. Working with colleagues in the Meat Hygiene Service, the Agency reviewed and revised the processes involved and in the last three months of the year these cases also met the target. |
Target area: exotic disease outbreaks — readiness and resilience |
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Target 21:Enhance emergency preparedness by planning and delivering a large-scale exercise on classical swine fever by the end of March 2008 involving Animal Health, Defra, the devolved administrations, industry and operational partners. Plan, prepare and deliver a programme of local exotic disease exercises in Animal Health Offices, involving operational partners. |
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Not assessed. Both the large-scale exercise and the programme of local exercises were cancelled with ministerial agreement on the actual outbreaks of notifiable disease. |
Target 22: Undertake an assessment of the readiness and resilience of the organisation’s corporate centre through the application of the emergency readiness management assurance scheme. |
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Met. Having initially focused on the readiness and resilience of Animal Health Offices, the corporate centre’s readiness and resilience was assessed given the part it plays in supporting the Agency’s emergency response. The results indicated a year-on-year improvement in the level of preparation. |
Target 23: Develop and implement plans for professional and technical training to support those tasks critical to operational readiness and resilience. |
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Met. Training for disease outbreaks was provided both by specific programmes and by on-the-job training during outbreaks. |
Target area: animal health and welfare strategy for Great Britain |
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Target 24: Building on the 2006-07 objectives, strengthen engagement with the Government Office regions and key regional stakeholders in England to facilitate the development of preliminary regional action plans to implement the animal health and welfare strategy for Great Britain. |
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Met. Regional profiles to deliver the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy were completed with each Government Office region. |
Target area: finance and efficiency |
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Target 25: Continue to work with policy colleagues to implement the cumulative £4.2m Gershon efficiency savings agreed with Defra for the 2004 Comprehensive Spending Review period. |
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Met. Quantifiable efficiencies of £7.9m were achieved. |
This information is available as part of the Annual Report, which can be found on our publication pages