Presentation to Financial Capability & Inclusion Advisory Group

The Outcomes Approach and Early Intervention

9th November 2011

Andrew McGuireThe Improvement Service

Structure of Presentation

• Role of IS

• Context and challenges

• Outcomes approach / Prevention / Christie

• Examples of preventative approaches

• Experience of IS/SCR project ‘Embedding Outcomes in Tackling Poverty / Regeneration’

• Next phase of SOAs

• Conclusion

Role of Improvement Service

• IS established c.5 yrs ago

• Independent, non-profit making organisation (COSLA and SOLACE Board members)

• c.25 core staff / c.£1.5m p.a. core budget. Supplemented by specific project funding

• Practical support To Local Authorities / partnerships

• Activities focus on: Improvement support; Exchange of good practice; Facilitation; solutions for common issues; efficiency; e-govt; shared services, PSIF Self-assessment; SOA Guidance and support; Elected Member Training & Dev, etc.

Wider Policy Context and Challenges

• Significant public sector funding gap:

• Less resources available generally

• SFRG estimates c.£3bn gap by 2016/17

• Much of gap due to rising demand (e.g. ageing population)

• L-T financial sustainability depends on ‘taking demand out of system’

• And achieving significantly greater shift to early intervention / prevention

Scottish Block Finance & Demand 2009/10 – 2016/17

0

-6

-9.9-11.8

-10-9 -9

24

68

1012

14

-20

-15

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

20

PSSpend

Demand

The changing shape of Scotland’s population

Initial Focus in Balancing Books

• Controlling and reducing the wage : pay strategy and workforce reduction• Maximising income: tax collection, fees and charges• Tightening eligibility and entitlement criteria: prioritisation and targeting• Driving value out of procurement: share pressure with suppliers and

contractors• Outsourcing of non-competitive provision• Shared services• Driving value out of the asset base: rationalisation; utilisation; co-location etc.

• (Estimated that achieving all of this will still leave c.£1bn shortfall p.a.)

• i.e. It’s not enough just to reduce costs; need to take demand out of system.

Shift to Outcomes Approach

• Key focus on ‘difference made’ (less overt concern with matters of process)

• Evidence-based

• Client-centred

• Whole system / Holistic approach / Better joined-up delivery / More effective partnership working

• Addressing root causes

• Early Intervention & preventative approaches

The reality of outcomes in Scotland

• Evidence of strong inter-relationship between outcome areas (e.g. Health, education, crime and employment outcomes are strongly related to income)

• Outcomes strongly inter-related at neighbourhood level – both positively and negatively (e.g. strong concentrations of multiple deprivation)

• Unlikely that specific outcomes can be changed in isolation

• Most thematic initiatives (health equality, early years, etc) would be focussed on the same communities

• Community outcomes versus thematic outcomes?

• Nat Com. Planning Group estimate – c.40% of public resources spent on dealing with consequences of negative outcomes

Getting what we paid for? - educational attainment

Spending versus attainment

£-

£1,000.00

£2,000.00

£3,000.00

£4,000.00

£5,000.00

£6,000.00

£7,000.00

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%Primary schoolspend per pupil

Secondary schoolspend per pupil

% getting 5 goodgrades includingEnglish & Maths byS4

10

Christie Commission Findings

• “serious shortcomings in the capacity of public services to deliver better outcomes”

• “a cycle of deprivation and low aspiration has been allowed to persist because preventative measures have not been prioritised”

• “the system can be ‘top down’ and unresponsive to the needs of individuals and communities”

• “the system is fragmented, complex and opaque, hampering the joint working between organisations which is essential”

• “unless Scotland embraces a radical, new, collaborative culture throughout our public services, both budgets and provision will buckle under the strain.”

Christie Commission - Recommendations

• acceptance of the need to address ‘failure’ demand

• a whole system and outcome based approach

• local integration of public services - and their funding

• common powers and duties for all public services

• with a presumption in favour of preventative action and tackling inequalities.

Scottish Government Response to Christie

• Partnership – place based integration of services

• People – workforce development & leadership

• Performance – improvement & transparency

• Prevention – tackling persistent inequalities

(Incl. use of 3 Change Funds (early years, re-offending, care for elderly)

£500m+ over 3 years

Some Examples of Preventative Approaches

• Training & Employment Support for Looked After Children

• Financial Capability embedded within Curriculum for Excellence

• Support Services for Independent Living

‘Prevention’ means …

• For local partners it means prioritisation – and knowing & agreeing– what matters? – what works? – what stops?– Understanding where and why failure happens– ensuring decisions on priorities are underpinned by robust evidence, political

priorities, importance to communities, impact on key client groups, costs & benefits, etc.

– More effective partnership working– Better understanding of where and why ‘failure’ is happening– How best to organise services to avoid failure / promote positive outcomes

• (How good is current evidence base in determining these factors?)

Community participation in achieving outcomes

• We can’t deliver outcomes to people

- people are not just passive recipients of services

- they can play major role in actively ‘preventing’ negative outcomes (e.g. diet, debt, truancy)

- they have to want their outcomes – & help deliver them

• We can’t deliver outcomes for people either

- delivering what people want, but without their contribution, can create dependency - & may be unaffordable

- delivering what people don’t want is wasteful

• So we need to work with people to find what works for them

IS / SCR Project – Embedding an Outcomes Approach (1)

• IS / SCR collaboration

• 15 Month pilot project – ended June 2011

• From SOA to operationalising outcomes approach

• From 14 applications, 5 local partnerships selected:-

– Dumfries & Galloway

– Falkirk

– Fife

– Midlothian

– West Lothian

IS / SCR Project – Embedding an Outcomes Approach (2)

• F-T Project Manager + other support levered in

• No single prescriptive model – scope needs of each local partnership

• Focus on practical, hands on support

• Examples of support:-– Understanding of evidence base– Articulation of outcomes / Shared vision / Prioritisation– Performance management / Indicators / Target-setting– Review of structures / interventions (‘what works’?) / joint planning and delivery /

action planning / engagement– Etc.– General ‘challenge’ role

IS / SCR Project – Embedding an Outcomes Approach (3)

• Series of papers / presentations / tools / workshops delivered

• Significant evidence of demand for practical, hands-on support

• Prime focus on generic issues (rather than thematic subject matter)

• Evidence that local partnerships generally are struggling with translation from SOA document to actual delivery (Incl. those considered to be ‘ahead of the curve’)

• Value added by independent, external challenge

• Partnership checklist tool developed via this work now being offered more widely

• IS / SG discussions on potential second phase

Single Outcome Agreements – next phase

• understand and address local concentrations of negative outcomes

• prioritise prevention and manage ‘failure’ demand

• Engagement of local communities

• ensure strong linkage between the evidence, the priorities / outcomes, and the performance targets

• ensure a clear line of sight to supporting plans, budgets and performance management arrangements.

• Consider partners resource deployment vis a vis outcomes

• Development of CPP / SOA ‘Improvement Plans’

Conclusion

• Major challenges across public sector

• Will be further exacerbated by impact of Welfare reform

• Requirement to address public sector funding gap

• Managing down future demand will be essential

• Requires a major step change in achieving shift to greater focus on outcomes / early intervention / prevention

Further information

andrew.mcguire@improvementservice.org.uk

  

http://www.improvementservice.org.uk/embedding-an-outcomes-approach-in-tackling-poverty-community-regeneration/

 

www.improvementservice.org.uk/economicdevelopment