Results Based Accountability

Overview of Results Based Accountability The context of the development of Results Based Accountability in New Zealand An opportunity to reflect on current practice in monitoring, evaluation and reporting A brief introduction to Results Based Accountability (also known as Outcomes Based Accountability (e.g.UK, Australia)

Context for the development of RBA Constrained fiscal environment Government and other funders increasingly focus on outcomes Gathering qualitative as well as quantitative data Value for money in terms of the difference services make for clients High trust contracting

Being accountable means… “being liable to be called to account, to have to give an explanation, to be responsible” (Oxford Dictionary)

Reporting to funders – a burden? Funders, from local authorities to national grant making trusts and Government, need to make sure their money is spent appropriately and efficiently and that the desired outcomes are achieved.

Outcomes in the social services sector 30,700,000 results using BING WHAT? WHY? HOW? WHEN? WHO WITH? WHO WILL DO THE WORK? WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

The process of monitoring and evaluation delivers learning experiences that can help you to develop your organisation and improve your performance. It provides evidence to help your organisation and funders to identify ‘what works’ and ‘why’. What do you consider is good monitoring and reporting practice? What do you think are the common problems faced by organisations when reporting? What would be your two top tips for reporting to funders?

Considering Results Based Accountability (RBA) Mark Friedman, Director, Fiscal Policy Studies Institute, Sante Fe, United States of America Friedman is the author of “Trying Hard is Not Good Enough How to Produce Measurable Improvements for Customers and Communities

Who is listening to Mark Friedman and why? Who? The OECD (3 rd World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy, 2009) Governments and organisations around the world e.g. USA, UK, Israel, Norway, Canada, Chile, Ireland and Australia The New Zealand Government Some providers in NZ social services Why? Mark Friedman developed a RBA framework that provides step-by-step methods that turns data into action. Starting with quality of life conditions (called results), organisations, agencies and cross-agency partnerships identify indicators, produce trend lines, consider best practice, and develop strategies and action plans and budgets that are then implemented, monitored and continuously improved.

RBA Language/Ideas Discipline (M Friedman) Results (or outcomes) are conditions of well-being for children, adults, families and communities (e.g. safe communities, clean environment, socially included families, prosperous economy). Indicators are measures that quantify the achievement of results (e.g. the unemployment rate helps quantify prosperous economy). Performance Measures are measures that tell if a programme, agency or service system is working well. RBA uses three part categorisation scheme for performance measures: How much did we do? (e.g.# served), How well did we do it? (e.g. timely service) Is anyone better off? (e.g. % showing improvement). Turning the curve means the baseline or trend line in the right direction. Strategies are coherent sets of actions that have a reasonable chance of turning the curve.

Summary of performance measures How much did we do? # Customers/Clients served (by characteristic) # Activities (by type of activity) How well did we do it? % Common measures Workload ratio, staff turnover rate, staff morale, percent of staff fully trained, worker safety, unit cost, customer satisfaction: Did we treat you well? % Activity-specific measures Percent of actions, timely and correct, percent clients completing activity, percent of actions meeting standards Is Anyone Better Off? # Skills and knowledge # Attitudes/Opinions # Behavior # Circumstances Is Anyone Better Off? % Skills and knowledge % Attitudes/Opinions Including customer satisfaction: Did we help with your problems? % Behavior % Circumstances

RBA – the potted version Start with ends, work backwards to means. What do we want? How will we recognise it? What will it take to get there? Be clear and disciplined about language. Use plain language, not exclusory jargon. Keep accountability for populations separate from accountability for programmes and agencies. Results are end conditions for populations in a geographic area: children, adults, families and communities. They are the responsibility of partnerships. Use data (indicators and performance measures) to gauge success or failure against a baseline. Use data to drive a disciplined business-like decisions making the process get better. Involve a broad set of partners. Get from talk to action as quickly as possible.

‘Bites’ to take away RBA can provide a way to harness the power of data to produce improvements in the quality of life. RBA can build on work developed using other planning frameworks, so that no one has to start over. RBA is strongest when there is broad and diverse participation.

Dr Annie Weir Director Impact Research NZ PO Box 9591 Newmarket T M