turning the curve: childrens services and outcomes based accountability

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turning the curve childrens services and
outcomes based accountability
Jacky Tiotto Deputy Director, Government Office
planning and performance support, DfES 16th
April 2007
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for this workshop

• introduction
• challenges and opportunities ahead
• what is inspection telling us?
• changes on the horizon
• what has an outcomes approach got to offer for
  this middle policy term of Every Child Matters?

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are we up for this?

• we must become the change we want to see.
• Mahatma Gandhi

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some of the challenges we have

• it is difficult to describe what making a
  difference looks like or to agree what things
  look like when we have been successful
• we still muddle up population outcomes and
  service effectiveness
• we have learned to be target and indicator
  submissive and sometimes these have become the
  ends rather than the means

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some of the opportunities ahead

• our policy documents refer increasingly to
  outcomes and about doing less better the
  national indicator set
• there is significant cross - government
  commitment to outcomes and asking what difference
  we are making?
• Children and young people are high on the
  political and policy agendas
• there is a new performance assessment framework
  to influence

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what is inspection telling us?

• most data collected describes process change and
  improvement

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• the job description!

agreed!
but there are 25!
these confuse service outcomes with population
outcomes
we chase these and not the outcomes
why these?
encourage perverse behaviour and may not be local
priorities
disjointed!
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changes ahead?

• the outcomes framework will re-launch in the
  Autumn
• the local government white paper with a
  200-strong national indicator set, of which a
  significant number will describe childrens
  services, and those areas of work where the local
  authority is a significant but junior partner
• Local Area Agreements will be reshaped to become
  the delivery contract between a local area and
  central government
• Each will have a set of targets against up to 53
  of the national indicators, with 18 of these the
  DfES statutory targets for attainment and early
  years
• JAR and APA will come to an end in 2009
• Annual Comprehensive Area Assessment, based on
  risk
• Some inspection will continue on a regular basis
  (eg vulnerable children) but for the most part
  will only occur when triggered by the findings
  of the CAA

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so what is it looking like out there?
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lots of structural reform
is anyone better off?
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definitions
RESULT or OUTCOME
A condition of well-being for children, adults,
families or communities
Children born healthy, Children succeeding in
school, Safe communities, Clean Environment,
Prosperous Economy
INDICATOR or BENCHMARK
A measure which helps quantify the achievement of
a result
Rate of low-birthweight babies, Rate of GCSE,
crime rate, air quality index, unemployment rate
PERFORMANCE MEASURE
A measure of how well a program, agency or
service system is working. Three types 1. How
much did we do? 2. How well did we do it? 3. Is
anyone better off?
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IS IT AN OUTCOME, INDICATOR OR PERFORMANCE
MEASURE?
outcome
1. Safe Community 2. Crime Rate 3. Average
Police Dept response time 4. Children are safe
at home 5. of children in need 6. of
children in the child protection register
indicator
perf.measure
outcome
indicator
perf.measure
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means not ends(to improving results) (in
themselves)

• 1. PARTNERSHIP
• 2. SYSTEM REFORM
• 3. SERVICE INTEGRATION
• 4. DEVOLUTION
• 5. JOINT BUDGETS

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Quantity
Quality
how much did we do?
how welldid we do it?
effect effort
is anyone better off? or
skills and knowledge, attitude and opinion,
circumstance and behaviour
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the matter of use

• first purpose is to Improve Performanceas a
  contribution to improving results

2. avoid the Performance Measurement
equals punishment trap ? acknowledge the
experience as real. ? work to create a healthy
organizational environment ? start small. ?
build bottom-up and top-down simultaneously.
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leaking roof/pakistani boys absent from school
(outcomes thinking in everyday life and school!)
Inches of Water/Rate of GSCE passes
experience
Not OK
measure
Turning the Curve
story behind the baseline (causes)
partners
what works
action plan
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turn the curve exercise performance
assessment young people engaged in positive
activities
5 min Starting Points- timekeeper and
reporter- identify a program to work on- two
hats (yours plus partners) 5 min Performance
measure baseline- choose 1 measure to work on
from lower right quadrant- forecast OK or not
OK? 15 min Story behind the baseline -
causes/forces at work(information research
agenda part 1 causes)
10 min What works? (What would it take?) (2
pointers to action) - what could work to do
better? - each partners contribution- no-cost /
low-cost ideas (information research agenda
part 2 what works) 10 min Report Convert
notes to one page

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Programme _______________
Performance Measure (Lay definition)
PerformanceMeasureBaseline
Story behind the baseline
---------------------------
--------------------------- (List as many as
needed)
Partners ---------------------------
--------------------------- (List as many as
needed)
Three Best Ideas What Works 1.
--------------------------- 2.
--------------------------- 3. ---------
No-cost / low-cost/Off the Wall
SharpEdges
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turning the curve for children?

• I want children to smile. If they are smiling,
  they will be relaxed. If they are relaxed , they
  will be confident. If they are confident, they
  will dare to be curious. If they are curious,
  they will grow in understanding.
• Anne Wood Director
• Ragdoll productions

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turning the curve childrens services and
outcomes based accountability
Jacky Tiotto Deputy Director, Government Office
planning and performance support, DfES 16th
April 2007