Performance management is embedded in the public sector psyche and underpins the Government's reforms. Why then is delivery of public services still patchy, why do voters feel that the Government needs to do significantly better, and why do many public servants harbour a sense of frustration about their role?

To explore better performance management strategies, the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and the National School of Government invited some 50 senior people, mainly government outsiders, on to several panels. Three of these (one of which I chaired) published their findings in Doing the Business: Managing Performance in the Public Sector - An External Perspective.

Our research found that, despite the political desire for change, good practice is still uneven and a performance management culture is by no means prevalent. Doubtless the same can be said for many private sector organisations, but in the public sector there are no real market mechanisms that drive and motivate improvement or weed out underperformers; whereas the public sector is challenged by the complexity of delivering to a multitude of stakeholders, satisfying political imperatives and so on.

Efforts to implement appropriate structures place too little emphasis on the leadership and cultural dimension of change. There is a strong cultural challenge in the public sector about the degree to which organisations strive for high performance. Performance management is often seen as a process to be followed, rather than a defining culture. There can be a fear of innovation because the culture does not encourage experimentation and decision-making can focus on the short-term, often for political reasons.

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In central government in particular, another snag is lack of transparency. Certainly, capability reviews are in place and a degree of progress can be seen. But it can still be a struggle to extract meaningful information on a government department's performance and it's rare to see information about board activity on central government websites. Where data is available, its use and its impact can be blunted by the fact that financial and non-financial information is not well aligned; and there is little understanding of how inputs link to key activities and, most importantly, outcomes.

A genuine shift in culture can be achieved only by opening up organisations to external review. This needs to be driven by departmental leadership teams - political and operational. Increasing public access to performance information may be a significant challenge to the status quo, but it is also critical to public service reform and political accountability.

To galvanise this process, the management of data must improve. No organisation can sustain high performance without good information. Often public sector leaders are overwhelmed with data in their management reports, without any attempt to pull out key messages. Concise and clear presentation of information is essential if performance management is to bite.

One example of good practice is the British Library's annual report for 2005-06. Entitled simply Connecting, it demonstrates vividly how the library's collections are made accessible to new audiences, setting out the strategic plan for the next three years using eye-catching graphics, pull-outs and quotes. A model for us all.

Charles Tilley is chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants