Measurement of community outcomes by government
by
Walter Robb
Office of Economic and Statistical Research
Coauthors: Nancy M Spencer

ORAL PRESENTATION Session Theme: Performance Indicators Title: Measurement of Community Outcomes by Government Authors: Mr Walter Robb (presenting), Assistant Government Statistician and Dr Nancy Spencer, Senior Team Leader, Social Statistics Affiliation: Office of Economic and Statistical Research Address: Level 16, 61 Mary Street, Brisbane Q 4000, Australia PO Box 37, Brisbane Albert Street, Brisbane Q 4002, Australia Email: walter.robb@treasury.qld.gov.au or nancy.spencer@treasury.qld.gov.au Web: www.oesr.qld.gov.au or www.statistics.qld.gov.au Queensland is a State of Australia. The Queensland Government is developing a framework for measuring outcomes under its Managing For Outcomes (MFO) strategy, including developing appropriate measures to focus government service delivery across the full spectrum of outcomes that it would wish to achieve for its citizens.

The presentation describes the development of a framework of high level outcomes, outcome indicators, key outcome measures and supporting measures against which the Government can report progress against the Government priorities. It also indicates an approach for coordinating the collation of statistics to expedite reporting against each outcome.

The paper considers the statistical issues of causality, data availability, data quality and the measurement of social outcomes. A comparison with how other countries/states have responded to these challenges is also included.

Date received: March 12, 2002