Mark was angry and the more he read the angrier he got. "This is what I said, this is what I told people, I said they weren't interested in finding me a job just hitting their targets and getting their money". Mark was reading about 4Ae. He had been unemployed for months eventually finding part time work through a friend of a friend.4Ae had forced him to do a totally unsuitable work placement and tried to push him into work as a care assistant with threats of withdrawing his benefits .After he told them he had a job and wasn't signing on any more they kept ring him up. Now he realised this wasn't his case worker expressing an interest in his welfare but submitting returns to claim 4Ae s fees. He was outraged to learn that they were able to claim for his continued employment. In fact they stood to make more money out of him than he was going to earn in 12 months part time work!

Jane worked in hospital administration. She blew the whistle on waiting list figures. She exposed the ways her department got round the 18 week waiting list target. The target was for 90% of patients to be seen within 18 weeks. Good practise would dictate that those who had waited longer would be a priority but she was told to give priority to those who were coming up to 18 weeks. The patients who had exceeded the 18 weeks no longer counted. Of course this meant lying to them about why they were still waiting. The most telling part of this story is that when she raised her concerns with her manager he said that all the other departments and every hospital used this and other manoeuvres to get round the system. The implication being they would be at a disadvantage if they didn't follow the rest.

The relevant government departments could introduce tighter contracts, smarter targets and more monitoring but it wouldn't change the nature of the game, people would still have an incentive to find ways round the system.

Both these examples should make us question the whole sale adoption of a performance management culture for public services. In the case of 4Ae is payment by results the best way to use of public money to help people into work? Are waiting list targets the best way of prioritising patients?

Is fiddling the figures the inevitable consequence of payment by results, over ambitious target setting and micro management? Is the performance management culture with its emphases on measuring success, management by targets and naming and shamming the best way to run hospitals, schools and social services?

Blair McPherson author of UnLearning Management- short stories on modern management published by Russell House http://www.blairmcpherson.co.uk/