Essex County Council (UK) Using Outcomes-Based Accountability™ to Improve Public Service Delivery

The following article is based on Essex County Council’s “Outcomes Based Accountability” report, available for download here.

Essex County Council (ECC)—one of the largest locally elected councils in England—is utilizing Outcomes-Based Accountability™ (OBA) to improve public service delivery to Essex County’s 1.4 million residents.

The service delivery system in Essex depends upon the collaboration of twelve district councils, five health authorities, two universities, one police service, a fire and rescue service, various government agencies, and volunteer groups. In addition to finding ways to make these groups work together as one unit, ECC’s work has been made increasingly challenging due to a period of financial austerity in England’s public sector, which is only projected to worsen after the election of a new National Government in 2015.

To prepare for these changes, ECC has decided to improve existing service delivery systems and reduce costs by utilizing core principles of the OBA (a.k.a. Results-Based Accountability) framework. In February 2014, ECC adopted a new ‘Outcomes Framework’ for Essex (Strategic Resource Planning Framework), which defined a set of seven outcomes and a series of indicators to track progress and the effectiveness of commissioning decisions. Seven outcomes-based commissioning strategies were developed utilizing ‘Turn the Curve’ methodology. These strategies were published for public and partner review from July 8^th 2014 to September 14^th, 2014.

So far, ECC reports that the Outcomes Framework has helped council members realize a shared political vision and that members can now hold commissioners accountable based on whether their commissioning decisions and activities are making a measurable contribution towards population outcomes. ECC now holds itself accountable for specific performance metrics, understanding that accountability for outcomes and/or indicators does not rest with any single organization. The new framework’s implementation has been supported by an OBA training program, which “has already created a common language and ensured universal methodological understanding.”

The development of the new Outcomes Framework has also encouraged council members and teams to pursue multi-disciplinary perspectives and consider innovative solutions to problems. This may lead to a greater focus on prevention and early intervention rather than expensive corrective approaches. For example, the report states that encouraging positive parenting can lead to improved education, health, and well-being in a child’s later years.

Although ECC has already experienced an improved decision-making process and more unified corporate culture, they assure that there is still work to be done. Specifically, application of ‘Turn the Curve’ exercises indicates that much of the baseline data is difficult to access, not available, or out of date. In response, one of ECC’s ambitious next steps will be to create a data development agenda, with more work needed to fully develop the technical definitions for population indicators.

One final concern is that an administrative change in 2017/2018 could lead to a reconsideration of the new outcomes approach to strategic planning, posing a risk to the continued application of OBA methodology into the next administration. ECC asserts that these political and staff changes necessitate the continued rolling out of OBA staff training.

To learn more about Essex County Council’s ‘Corporate Outcomes Framework’ click here.

To learn more about Outcomes-Based Accountability click here.

To learn more about the OBA work being done in Essex County Council, contact David Burnby at david@davidburnby.co.uk.