Outcomes Workshop Farmleigh 12 th May, 2010

What’s an Outcome ? 1. “Outcomes are events, occurrences or changes in conditions, behaviour or attitudes. Outcomes are not what the programme or organization itself did, but the consequences of what the programme or organization did” (Bouckaert and Van Dooren 2003) 2. “Outcomes are articulated expressions of well-being of a population in a place (Hogan 2001) which provide all agencies with the opportunity to contribute to that outcome with their individual programmes” (CFRC/CAWT 2008) 3. Outcomes as appreciation of the ‘whole child’

What Else ? Outcomes are related to what are known as domains (health, education, civic engagement and so on) which relate to the concept of well being (macro sense) There can be sub-outcomes (being healthy can be physical, mental, emotional) Health - Mental health, emotional health, sexual health, healthy lifestyles Being Safe - Safe from maltreatment, safe from accidental injury, safe from bullying and discrimination, safe from crime and antisocial behaviour, safe from anything else?

Outcomes and Indicators Question: how do we know we are working towards achieving outcomes?  Measures of well being (at the macro level, countrywide);  Measures of outcomes (at the individual or service level) Both have indicators! So, what’s an Indicator? “Indicators are measures which permit organisations to ascertain the degree to which identified outcomes are being achieved; they provide information on the status of a situation or event with a view to improving a situation.”

And….. ? “A measure of behaviour, condition or status that can be tracked over time, across people and/or geographical units.” Indicators – where have they come from? What changes are occurring now in indicator development (Ben Arieh 2006):  Survival to well being (more than basic measuring)  Negative to positive (more than risk and protection)  Well-becoming to well-being (more than ‘little adults);’  Traditional to new domains (more than old conceptualisations of children – agency and activity now play a role)

Whats the Point? At a broad level, indicators are measures which permit all of us to gauge the extent to which outcomes are being achieved. What are the benefits?  Chart and monitor progress;  Enhances knowledge and adds to evidence  Improves planning  Adds to more accurate evaluation  Is action-focused (Northern Ireland indicators)

Sounds easy, but….? Different types of Indicators:  Input  Output  Process  Outcome (which is what we want to concentrate on): How do we measure complex constructs such as health, as being part of society, as being socially included? Who does the defining?

What Helps ….? There are challenges in developing indicators Indicators need to be  Clear (easily understood)  Connect with the outcome  Consistent (meaning and over time) Yet there are challenges here too:  Simply focusing on the indicator  Too many indicators  Fear of developing new indicators & sources of information  Balancing the now and the future (being and becoming)

The Agenda for Children’s Services: A Policy Handbook

The Seven National Outcomes 1. Being healthy both physically and mentally 2. Being supported in active learning 3. Being safe from accidental and intentional harm 4. Being economically secure 5. Being secure in the immediate and wider physical environment 6. Being part of positive networks of family, friends and neighbours 7. Being included and participating in society

Examples of Outcome Indicators The UK – Every Child Matters:  Five Outcomes for Children:  Outcome 4: That Children will make a positive contribution. How is this measured?  Broken down into 4 sub outcomes. One sub outcome is Children will engage in decision making and support the community and environment Measures: % of schools in locality participating in election of school council; % of children engaging in volunteering/voluntary activities

Examples of Outcome Indicators From Northern Ireland’s Our Children and Young People: Our Pledge  Outcome: Children will contribute positively to community and society  Two methods: Outcomes and action-orientated indicators (year on year action plan): Attendance rates at school % of yr olds engaging in youth activities From Victoria, Australia (child and adolescent monitoring system):  Outcomes (35)  E.G. Adequate nutrition:  Indicators: Proportion of infants breastfed Proportion of children who eat their 5-a-day.

Irish Outcomes and Indicators Being healthy both physically and mentally From the Irish set of well being indicators which could relate to being part of society:  % uptake of MMR1 vaccinations at 24 months  Number of children referred to mental health services as a percentage of all children Being secure in the immediate and wider physical environment: Indicator example:  % children reporting to feeling safe in their community  Number of children who report having been bullied as a proportion of all children

Seven National Outcomes 1. Being healthy both physically and mentally 2. Being supported in active learning 3. Being safe from accidental and intentional harm 4. Being economically secure 5. Being secure in the immediate and wider physical environment 6. Being part of positive networks of family, friends and neighbours 7. Being included and participating in society

What indicators towards achieving these outcomes? Pick an Outcome from the seven above:  Break it into sub outcomes if you need to How does this outcome line up with your agency’s expectations of its contribution to improving children’s lives or link to your organisations activities?  E.G. if the outcome is being healthy, an activity is ….. Think about what indicators would feed into measuring progress towards achieving the outcome?  So an indicator of that activity would be ……..but  An indicator of the outcome would be……… Did you experience any challenges in coming up with your outcome indicators?

How do I get information to feed into my outcome indicators? What data is available to me?  Is there local data available  Has someone done an estate survey, a study of the area?  Can the HSE provide you with some data?  Can the CSO provide district level data?  What does the State of the Nation’s Children Report tell me?  What information does Pobal have for my area? Can you generate your own data or mine existing administrative data ?

Questions What helps in understanding and articulating outcomes/indicators? How do you/will you use outcomes to generate a shared agenda for a CSC? Relevance/usefulness of this section of the Toolkit