The Impact of Performance Contracts on the Children’s Department

Abstract

Performance contract were introduced as part of a broader public sector reforms aimed at improving efficiency and effectiveness in the management of the public service. There is a general agreement within the public service that their introduction has led to some improvement in service delivery as demonstrated by increased accountability, efficiency and delivery of public services as well as a national focus and targeted results. It is however not clear if these benefits have been experienced across all ministries, departments and agencies or whether the improvements have been consistent over the years. While the gains have been made in calculating a culture of competiveness and innovation within the public service, the quantity and quality of service in most ministries, departments and agencies seems to have remained inadequate. People`s satisfaction with the services does not seem to have improved much. This study therefore sought to assess the extent to which PC has an effect on the department of Children`s services. The study focuses on the five statutory children institutions based in Nairobi County namely, Kabete rehabilitation school, Getathuru reception and rehabilitation school, Nairobi children`s remand home, Nairobi rescue centre and Dagoretti rehabilitation school. The area of focus was on vocational skills training, guidance and counseling and reintegration. Three components of PC namely, performance targets, work plans and citizen service delivery charters were used to measure PC. Both primary and secondary data was used for the study while quantitative method was used for data collection. The findings of the study show that performance targets and work plans have significantly contributed to organizational performance in the department of children services. However, it can be argued from the findings that citizen service delivery charters have little or minimal effect in the children’s department.