Performance steering of public executive agencies in the UK

Modernizing the public sector through disaggregation and performance contracts has become a core component of New Public Management (NPM) reforms launched by many countries around the world. In fact, the Anglo-Saxon NPM doctrine has spread over the world and fuelled the creation of autonomous and disaggregated agencies managed through performance and contractualisation. In the UK, an interesting model of agencification has been developed. It includes the structure the design of performance systems, and the steering which make the country a valuable source of learning for countries from various politico-administrative backgrounds. This paper aims at drawing lessons from the UK experience in performance steering of agencies through a combination of theoretical insights of the agencification phenomenon and performance steering, and a study of the UK experience from the perspective of steering the performance of agencies by parent Ministries and other actors involved in the performance system.The seven lessons highlighted in this study, inspired by the UK experience, confirm the importance of the Politico-administrative culture as a key element to consider in establishing performance.