What sort of measures did you consider?
The DfE already had 20 measures they were thinking of using. Our job was to look at them from a technical and economic perspective and look at what would work, and then get the local authorities' views about how viable they would be and how practical it would be to collect the data.
From an economic perspective, there was evidence linking outcomes the DfE wants with some of the measures - for example, school readiness. We suggested that the take-up of good quality early education would be a good measure for this. Breastfeeding is also a good measure of children's outcomes in later life.
Although this was technically dependent on services on offer in children's centres, local authorities were adamant that they wanted health measures included.
They thought it would set them back if they were removed. It's up to local authorities to decide which children's centres they use to achieve that - it doesn't mean that every children's centre has to have a breastfeeding clinic, but just enough centres have to.
How did you decide which measures to recommend?
We assessed the evidence for each one. We gave the DfE the pros and cons for each measure and then made recommendations. They have chosen six of the measures we recommended. For example, a measure based on satisfaction with a children's centre seemed a bit woolly, and open to manipulation. Others, like using the two-year-old development check, were a good idea but not practical because the check is not fully developed yet.
What happens next?
Once the measures have been trialled, the next step will be to decide how much funding will be based on the measure and where you set the threshold. This will focus on what level of payment should be linked to what outcome, and whether it will be a reward or penalty. Payment-by-results has never been done in children's services before. I imagine that what the Government will do, will be to make it more like performance management, more of an incentive scheme. The whole idea about working in an outcome-driven and evidence-based way is a really good way of focusing on families that need help, as well as finding out what really works.
