You will by now have seen Stephen Lovegrove’s announcement of MoD’s intention to change its approach to managing staff performance. Prospect welcomes this move, as huge numbers of members have reported to Prospect that the performance management system has been damaging to morale and has undermined trust between managers and staff.

The details of a new system for performance appraisal are still subject to consultation with the trade unions. There are some positive key principles in the statement – an end to relative assessment and quotas, narrative feedback replacing numeric evaluation, assessment by line managers and regard to functional competencies. Prospect regards these as a good starting point and looks forward to developing them during consultation.

Prospect negotiators will be arguing for a positive approach that embodies good work practice and safeguards members against discrimination or other unfair treatment.

Appraisal for the current year (to April 2017) will be on the existing performance management system and Prospect’s guidance to members can be found on our MoD web pages.