CHYP IN network
Children and Young People in Newcastle
voluntary and community sector network
Outcome Based Accountability introduced
Outcome Based Accountability is an approach to performance improvement which is
used within Newcastle City Council especially Children’s Services and Adult Care
Services. Increasingly there is an expectation that the voluntary and community
sector will also use this approach especially where funded by the City Council.
Traditionally funders ask about numbers, of clients, sessions, products, volunteers.
More recently funders have asked about the quality of these. Outcome Based
Accountability (OBA) means a shift in what is measured, to asking if anyone is better
off, or about distances travelled; that is monitoring the outcomes.
OBA, known as Results Based Accountability in the USA, is a method for
performance improvement developed by Mark Friedman. Mark was very involved in
developing the Every Child Matters outcomes framework. OBA is made up of


Population Accountability, about the well-being of whole populations
Performance Accountability, about the well-being of client groups
How do we know what difference our work has made?
‘Prevention’ outcomes such as reducing teenage pregnancy are often measured over
the whole community or local authority area. The data is useful to justify the work of
the voluntary and community sector, and often informs a multi-agency strategy. But
generally individual projects and local authorities cannot ‘prove’ impact on a
community, especially if the improvement, or outcome, takes many years.
Instead, local authorities, along with partners, can develop circumstantial evidence
that their work has contributed to change. Circumstantial evidence that interventions
have worked on a population level may be demonstrated if these factors are present:




Lots of projects did things that were likely to work
They were timely
The negative trend is changing: in OBA this is called turning the curve
The rate of improvement is better than national figures
When looking at OBA monitoring of individual projects, funders should require
reporting about the outcome-based performance indicators and impact measurement
with the clients that you have direct contact with and on the activities that you do, and
not on population level change (unless that was your target). Performance based
measurement uses evidence such as stories and anecdotes as well as numbers.
Page 1 of 4
Newcastle CVS, October 2011
Outcome Based Accountability introduced
Three tools to measure performance outcomes
1 Summary of performance measures
How much did we do?
Number & characteristic of clients
Number & type of activities
Least useful information in local
authority’s view
How well did we do?
% Common measures
Staff turnover, training, unit cost,
customer satisfaction (Did we treat
you well?)
% Activity specific measures
percent of activities timely and
correct, percent of clients
completing activity, percent of
actions meeting agreed standard
Is anyone better off?
Usually this information is in number and percentage,
e.g. the number and percentage of people who stop taking drugs
Skills/knowledge
% Skills/knowledge
Attitude/opinion
young people have higher aspirations
Behaviour
children ready for school
young people not breaching ASBOs
Circumstances
young people remaining in supported
tenancies
% Attitude/opinion
Did we help you with your
problems?
% Behaviour
% young people attending school
% Circumstances
(Most useful to local authorities)
 After identifying as many measures for your clients and work as
possible, agree the most important 3 or 5 ‘Is anyone better off?’
measures to go in the lower right quarter
 Put it onto a wall chart and track it each week/month/quarter.
Page 2 of 4
Newcastle CVS, updated October 2011
Outcome Based Accountability introduced
A practical example of performance measures:
Newcastle Connexions had a wall chart at Amber Court for its work on its NEET
targets
How much did we do?
How well did we do?
 Staff teams – who, how
many
 What interventions
 Stakeholders: parents,
young people, groups etc
% compliments, complaints
and suggestions
Is anyone better off?
 graph showing declining numbers of the % of young
people who are not in education employment or training
 chart showing numbers and percentage of 16 – 18 year
olds participating in learning
NB this all assumes that you do have target outcomes
2
A suggestion for developing your user feedback and
information about outcomes:
Ask 10% of your users 2 questions each month (amend the
wording as appropriate for your project):
Did we treat you well?
Did we help you with your problems?
Page 3 of 4
Newcastle CVS, updated October 2011
Outcome Based Accountability introduced
3 The 7 Performance Accountability Questions
Set aside the first 15 minutes in staff supervision, or use staff
meetings, team meetings, volunteer meetings or management
committee meetings, for people in pairs to ask these 7 questions:
The 7 Performance Accountability Questions
1. Who are our customers?
2. How can we measure if our customers are better off?
3. How can we measure if we are delivering our services well?
4. How are we doing on the most important of these measures?
5. Who are the partners that have a role to play in doing better?
6. What works to do better, including no-cost and low cost ideas?
7. What do we propose to do?
To find out more

Visit www.resultsaccountability.com and www.raguide.org

“Trying Hard is Not Good Enough” by Mark Friedman is a how to do it book
available from www.trafford.com
 Newcastle City Council is arranging OBA training for the sector in the near
future
Page 4 of 4
Newcastle CVS, updated October 2011