OUTCOME BASED ACCOUNTABILITY - Quick guide
This document informs people of the outcome planning process in place for the Torfaen Local Service
Board and provides a quick guide for those carrying out outcome planning using Outcome Based
Accountability (OBA). A detailed Outcome Based Accountability Guide is available.
Who is this guide for?
This guide can be used by anyone in Torfaen who is involved in:
partnership planning and strategies
service / improvement planning
outcome action planning
team planning
operational planning
task and finish groups to tackle performance of
projects/programmes
Population Accountability
Outcome planning process
Torfaen local service board shared outcomes
The Torfaen local service board is responsible for
establishing an outcome planning process and
monitoring the progress made. The overall
process is:
1. Shared outcomes agreed for public services
in Torfaen
2. A range of outcome indicators selected for
use in outcome planning.
3. Sponsors responsible for the outcome
planning process
4. Sponsors establish group to carry out
outcome planning process using OBA and
establish a Report Card for each outcome
indicator
5. Any issues or problems arising to be reported
to the LSB if it cannot be resolved by sponsor
6. Progress made to be reported regularly to the
LSB
1. Torfaen has a healthy population with a good
quality of life
2. People in Torfaen are safe
3. People in Torfaen are educated for life
4. People in Torfaen enjoy a prosperous
economy
5. People in Torfaen live in quality affordable
homes
6. People in Torfaen live in clean, green,
sustainable communities
7. Frail people in Torfaen are happily
independent
These are supported by 3 principles of:
Citizenship, democracy and participation
Reducing inequality
Sustainability
Methodology
OBA involves answering 7 key questions:
1. What is the outcome we want for the people
who live in our community?
2. How would this outcome be experienced if
we could see it?
3. How can we measure these conditions
(outcome indicators)?
4. How are we doing on the most important
measures? (What is the story?)
5. Who are the partners that have a role to play
in doing better?
6. What works in order to do better, including
no-cost and low-cost ideas?
7. What do we propose to do?
Policy Impact Assessment
It is often good practice to apply impact
assessments – for equalities, health, finance and
sustainability. Many organisations have their own
methods for such assessments. However, a
policy impact assessment guide and templates
are available that can be used.
Performance Accountability
Performance Measures
The use of outcome indicators only tells us how
the outcome has changed, it is not known from
this how successful each service or action has
been. OBA provides a useful model for
understanding the performance of services,
projects and activities by asking three broad
questions:
 How much did we do?
 How well did we do it?
 Is anyone better off?
Methodology
Performance can be improved by answering 7
key questions:
Q1. Who are our customers?
Q2. How can we measure if our customers are
better off? (is anyone better off?)
Q3. How can we measure if we are delivering
services well? (how well did we do it?)
Q4. How are we doing on the most important
measures? (what is the story?)
Q5. Who are the partners that have a role to play
in doing better?
Q6. What works in order to do better, including
no-cost and low-cost ideas?
Q7. What do we propose to do?
General Advice
Criteria for choosing outcome indicators and
performance measures
Communication Power
Does the indicator communicate to a broad
range of audiences?
Does it pass the ‘pub’ test?
Proxy Power
Does the indicator say something of central
importance about the outcome?
Does the indicator act as a leader for a
number of others? (if it improves, will other
possible measures improve too?)
Data Power
Is quality data available on a timely basis?
Is it possible to collect the data?
Do we need to develop the data?
Report Cards
Report cards are a way of summarising the
outcome planning process and can be used
for both population and performance
accountability, but it is likely that the format
will depend on which you are doing –
templates are available.
Criteria for deciding activity
Specificity - Is the idea specific enough to be
implemented? Can it actually be done? This is a
threshold question, because it is hard to judge an
action on the other criteria if it is not specific
enough to be implemented. If a suggested action
is not specific, ask if it can be made more specific.
Leverage - How much difference will the
proposed action make on outcomes or indicators?
If a suggested action has low leverage then it
may be better to use resources doing something
else.
Values - Is it consistent with our personal /
organisational / community values? There are
many actions that are specific and high leverage
but not consistent with our values, or the
community values. If this is the case, it is unlikely
that the activity will significantly contribute to the
outcome.
Reach - Is it feasible and affordable? Can it
actually be done and when? No-cost/low-cost
actions should rate highly. Action that requires
significant new resources will rate lower. Actions
where there is a clear lead person or organisation
rate higher. Actions where everyone says it is a
good idea but no one wants to do it will rate
lower.