Payment by results

In normal business, staff who have performed well get a bonus or something at the end of the year; the English civil service use this as an excuse to award each other bonuses every year "to attract talent from the private sector", so far so bad.

They have an interesting variant on this in Wales:

The lowest-ranked secondary schools in Wales have been promised more funding to improve standards.

Schools in the bottom two bands of a performance-grading system will receive £10,000. In return they must submit action plans with targets on improvement, says Education Minister Leighton Andrews.

Secondary schools have been placed into one of five bands based on GCSE exam performance and pupil attendance. The money will be available to schools in bands four and five, which are subject to action plans setting out how they intend to improve....

So if you are in it for the cash (is that £10,000 per pupil, which is way too much, or per school, which is such a tiny amount as makes no difference anyway?) then your optimum position is somewhere in the top half of Band Four, you get the money but none of the real hassle, which will hopefully be directed at the schools performing even worse than yours. Or maybe the authorities will focus their attention on the upper half of Band Four, in which case you quietly drop down the bottom half of Band Four etc.

Oh yes, in case there was any doubt:

... The Welsh government denies that banding is a return to league tables, which were scrapped in 2001. In a speech in Cardiff, Mr Andrews said banding had already proved valuable by showing which schools need extra support.