News Release

Getting the measure of public services performance: UK takes a lead

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Economic & Social Research Council

Government is taking an increasing interest in measuring performance in the public services sector to get value for money and raise standards. However, according to research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, measuring its output and productivity is not straight forward. While metrics using information embedded in prices can be employed in the private sector, this source of information is unavailable in services such as, health and education. Better measurements are needed - the research is part of the lead being taken by the UK to devise more sophisticated practices for the public services.

The project, conducted by Professor Mary O'Mahony of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, was concerned with measuring output and productivity in public services and in examining corresponding international practices.

"Considerable interest is being shown among statistical offices abroad on work being carried out in the UK on public services performance measurement," said Professor Mary O'Mahony. "It's also of relevance to government departments and of interest to the academic community. There's a recognition that Britain's leading the field in this area."

As well as providing an overview of the theoretical approaches and concepts used in performance management and examining alternative measures being made in other countries, the research incorporated common measurement tools to compare education sector performance since 1979 in the UK and USA. It also reviewed changes in performance in the EU health sectors.

With these tools, research showed that the growth rate in the UK's education sector has been significantly higher than the equivalent in the USA in the past 25 years, with the largest differences being seen in the 1990s. It also indicated that there appears to be little relationship in health sectors across the EU, at the macro level, between expenditure on services and the actual medical outcomes. However, at the microeconomic level, the outcomes for some specific diseases did suggest that there were some links between the way health systems are organised and medical outcomes.

"In the private sector benefits to consumers are embedded in market prices, but this information is not available for public services," said Professor Mary O'Mahony. "What's needed is an indication of the marginal contribution services make to eventual outcomes, e.g. impacts on patients' health outcomes, reduction in waiting times and, in education, students' academic success and what they eventually earn."

As a result of the research, Professor O'Mahony considers that a number of implications have emerged:

  • Attribution should be considered in the practical application of measurement methods, i.e. whether outcomes are influenced by extraneous factors, such as lifestyle changes leading to better health status.
  • Future research about public services performance requires data that has not been available up to now, and better ways of measuring outputs are needed - particularly in the health sector.
  • At the micro level it would, for example, be useful to have data that follows patients from first diagnosis to post treatment outcomes, and student record data that track educational attainment and subsequent earnings.

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    FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:
    Professor O'Mahony on 020 7222 7665 or Email: momahony@niesr.ac.uk
    Or Lance Cole, Lesley Lilley or Becky Gammon at ESRC, on 01793 413032/413119/413122

    NOTES FOR EDITORS

    1. The research report 'AIM: Senior/Mid Career Fellowship, Public Services, Metrics for Service Delivery' was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Professor Mary O'Mahony is a senior research fellow at the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, 2 Dean Trench Street, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HE.

    2. Initially, the research made a consideration of measurement methods in the private sector and how these could be translated into measures for public services. It also examined current public services measurement methods and data availability in the UK and how these correspond to measures used abroad. Data on school/college enrolments in two countries (UK/USA) were studied and, using regression methods, quality adjusted output rates were made to estimate the returns to education. In the health sector, a range of macroeconomic indicators were examined to determine if performance related to inputs used and the systems of provision. Also, microeconomic studies that looked at specific diseases were reviewed for links between systems and outcomes.

    3. The ESRC is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It provides independent, high-quality, relevant research to business, the public sector and Government. The ESRC invests more than £93million every year in social science and at any time is supporting some 2,000 researchers in academic institutions and research policy institutes. It also funds postgraduate training within the social sciences to nurture the researchers of tomorrow. More at http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk

    4. ESRC Society Today offers free access to a broad range of social science research and presents it in a way that makes it easy to navigate and saves users valuable time. As well as bringing together all ESRC-funded research (formerly accessible via the Regard website) and key online resources such as the Social Science Information Gateway and the UK Data Archive, non-ESRC resources are included, for example the Office for National Statistics. The portal provides access to early findings and research summaries, as well as full texts and original datasets through integrated search facilities. More at http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk

    5. The ESRC confirms the quality of its funded research by evaluating research projects through a process of peer review. Sometimes the ESRC publishes research before this process is finished so that new findings can immediately inform business, Government, media and other organisations. This research is waiting for final comments from academic peers.


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