Results based accountability

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The department has adopted Results Based Accountability (RBA) to measure improvements in outcomes for children and their families.

RBA is a simple, common sense process which communities and agencies can use to improve the lives of children, families and the community as a whole.

It is an approach that emphasises the achievement of results of services from the perspective of the child and their family.

Key features

Population and performance accountability

Accountability starts with a crucial distinction between:

results for whole populations (such as all children, all citizens)
results for the customers or clients of a particular program, agency or service system.

The distinction in results links to a distinction in accountabilities. View the sections below to find out more.

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Performance accountability

Performance accountability can be assigned to the managers who run the various programs, agencies or service systems.

Organisations and programs can only be held accountable for the customers/clients they work with.

For organisations and programs, the performance measures focus on whether clients are better off as a result of your services. These performance measures also look at the quality and efficiency of these services.

Performance result/outcome: a condition of wellbeing for families, children and communities that you provide a service to.

Performance measure: a measure of how well a program, organisation or funded service is achieving their desired performance result/outcome e.g. increased parents/carers engagement with their child/children.

3 types of performance measures

RBA asks 3 simple questions to establish performance measures.

How much did we do?
How well did we do it?
Is anyone better off?

From talk to action

The following set of questions provides a guide for establishing performance accountability.

Who are our clients? (Purpose, customers/client group)
How can we measure if our clients are better off? (Customer/client results)
How can we measure if we are delivering services well? (Quality measures)
How are we doing on the most important of these measures? (Headline measures – baseline data and story)
Who are the partners that have a role to play in doing better? (Partners)
What works to do better, including low-cost and no-cost? (Research/evidence)
What do we propose to do? (Action plan)

Population accountability

Population accountability cannot be assigned to any one individual, organisation or level of government. The whole community, public and private sectors must share responsibility for achieving results.

Population accountability is about improving the quality of life for a whole population that is defined by geography and/or characteristics e.g. 'all Queensland children' or 'families with children from birth to 8 years of age in Cairns'.

Population result/outcome: a condition of wellbeing for families, children and communities in a geographical area e.g. all Queensland children are happy, healthy and successful.

Note: The terms 'result' or 'outcome' are interchangeable.

Population indicator: is a measure of how well we are achieving our desired Population Result e.g. 'levels of vulnerability of children measured through the Australian Early Childhood Development Census (AEDC)' could be used as a measure to indicate whether we are achieving our condition of wellbeing for children to be happy, healthy and successful.

No single agency or organisation can achieve a condition of wellbeing for a whole population on their own. It takes the unique contributions of a range of community partners who have a part to play in moving their community closer to achieving a result like 'children are happy, healthy and successful'. This may include government agencies, community support, schools, parents, early childhood development services and businesses.

From talk to action

The following set of questions provides a guide for establishing a population accountability scenario.

What are the quality of life conditions we want for the children and families who live in our community? (Population, purpose and results)
What would these conditions look like if we could see them? (Experience)
How can we measure these conditions? (Population indicators)
How are we doing on the most important of these measures? (Headline measures – baseline data and story)
Who are the partners that have a role to play in doing better? (Partners)
What works to do better including no-cost and low-cost ideas? (Research/evidence)
What do we propose to do? (Action plan)

The answers to these questions can be represented in a 1 page summary. Mark Friedman's book Trying Hard Is Not Good Enough provides a template for this summary on page 46.

A common language

The diversity and multi-disciplinary nature of organisations and staff delivering early years services means some commonly used terms may mean different things to different people.

To remedy this, RBA uses plain language and common sense methods that everyone can understand.

For more information, view the glossary of terms.

From ends to means

RBA starts with the ends and works backwards, step by step, towards the means.

The first step is to identify the desired result e.g. conditions of well-being for children, families and the community as a whole.

The second step is to work out how these results can be achieved.

This approach can be used to support strategic planning, continuous improvement, program development and performance.

Results and indicators are about the ends (results) we want for children and families.

Strategies and performance measures are about the means to get there.

The difference between indicators and performance measures

The key differences are about the scale and or size of the group that data relates to, for instance:

indicators are about the ends (high level results) we want for children and families
performance measures are about the means to get there (strategies, actions, activities). How did the program/service make a difference for families and their children involved?

Linking population and performance accountabilities

The performance of programs and services contribute to the achievement of results for the population.

The linkage

Organisations or funded services are responsible for what they do for/with their clients. In turn, these client results contribute to the achievement of population results. However, achievement of the population result is the collective responsibility of all organisations, government and other community and business partners operating in a geographic area like Queensland or a specific neighbourhood or town.

The linkage between population and customer results in relation to an early years service is outlined in the example below.

Population accountability

Result: All children are ready for school.

Indicator: Percent of children on track according to Australian Early Development Census (AEDC).

Performance accountability

Child focused activities and groups: How much? e.g. number of children participating.
How well? e.g. percent of parent/carers satisfied with the service.

Client results/outcomes: Is anyone better off? e.g. number of parents/carers who report that their child is benefiting from participation.

Performance measures

Performance measures comprise 3 questions.

How much did we do?

Clients: e.g. number of children accessing the service
Activities: e.g. number of playgroups, number of parenting programs

How well did we do it?

Common quality measures: e.g. satisfaction, attendance rates, completion
Activity-specific quality measures: e.g. percentage of staff trained/qualified, percentage of clients satisfied

Is anyone better off?

Number and percentage changes in: skills/knowledge, attitude/opinion, behaviour, circumstance

Acknowledgement

The RBA and trade are concepts used by the department that are derived from the books Trying Hard is Not Good Enough and Turning Curves: An Accountability Companion Reader by Mark Friedman.

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Early years services funding

Results based accountability

Key features

Population and performance accountability

Performance accountability

3 types of performance measures

From talk to action

Population accountability

From talk to action

A common language

From ends to means

The difference between indicators and performance measures

Linking population and performance accountabilities

The linkage

Population accountability

Performance accountability

Performance measures

Acknowledgement

Contact us

Early years services funding

Results based accountability

Key features

Population and performance accountability

Performance accountability

3 types of performance measures

From talk to action

Population accountability

From talk to action

A common language

From ends to means

The difference between indicators and performance measures

Linking population and performance accountabilities

The linkage

Population accountability

Performance accountability

Performance measures

Acknowledgement

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