Assessing outcomes

If outcomes matter, how can we measure them and assess progress?…

Public managers have often relied on output measurement (such as the number of police on the street) to define success. They have often justified this by arguing that outcomes are not within their control – and may be far more determined by ‘external’ factors. For example, rising crime rates may be more to do with falling job opportunities, the rising number of males in the "at risk" age group, worsening drug-addiction treatment facilities, etc. However, it is no longer convincing for public services to wash their hands off all responsibility for outcomes. In particular, partnerships are specifically formed in order to tackle outcomes, not simply to provide outputs. Finding some way of assessing their impact on outcomes is therefore essential.

Members of the Governance International team are currently working with the UK government to develop new models for measuring and reporting on outcomes from public services.

Drawing on this work, Governance International can help your organisation to:

• Measure outcomes in both objective and subjective ways

• Develop outcome scorecards for different stakeholder groups

• Relate outcome measures to the levels of satisfaction of users and citizens to public services and public agencies

• Model how different configurations of spend, inputs and outputs can result in different combinations of outcomes at local level

• Model how outcomes in social, economic and environmental dimensions contribute to public value