The key aim of this research is to qualitatively examine the importance of performance measurement in the public sector. The measurement of performance of firms could mean the difference between success and failure. The study is be split into two different parts, one of which will be taking the form of a case study about a Primary Care Trust in the National Health Service in order to create answers for the author’s questions. The collection of several types of data allows the researcher to undertake a triangulatory approach and explore the differences of opinion. The manipulation of secondary literature and government advisory papers will signify the theory and recommendations; this will be substantiated by the interview data to critically compare, the difference between theory and practice.

The findings suggest similarities with previous authors and academics’ findings; the general opinion was that without measuring performance, a public organisation would disintegrate. Furthermore, performance measurement was found to be more important within the public sector than the private was. There was a major difference of opinion between reality and an academic perspective on whether financial matters were more important than non-financial.The conclusions drawn from this study, suggest that there is ample evidence to assume that there is great importance of performance measurement within the public sector. However, the similarity of importance is of a different nature because the public sector has a completely distinct objective compared to the private sector. The argument of non-financial measures taking precedence over financial measures needs further study, due to the variation of opinions. The private sector is concluded to be obliged to undertaking the measurement of performance, simply because of the overriding objective of the ‘profit measure/maximising shareholder wealth.