Performance indicator development is the key to providing
national information on the efficiency and effectiveness of
disability services, according to a report released today by the
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
The report, Integrating Indicators: Theory and Practice in
the Disability Services Field, is a joint project of the AIHW
and the National Disability Administrators.
AIHW Director, Dr Richard Madden, said that the partnership with
the disability administrators ensured that information collected
would be practical, useful and relevant to current policy.
'Government and non-government agencies are becoming
increasingly interested not only in the amount of money used in
providing services, but in how effective the services are.
'To put it more technically, in addition to interest in inputs
and processes, there is a great deal of interest in the
relationships between costs and service outputs, and the extent to
which these outputs translate to outcomes for people.'
'It is, of course, very difficult to directly measure concepts
such as outputs and outcomes.
'So, we have to look for things we can measure that indicate how
much service is provided, the resources that went into providing
it, and the difference the service or output made to the recipient.
Hence the term "indicators".'
'For outputs, we might look at numbers of clients and hours of
support provided, to name only two of many possibilities. For
outcomes, we might try to measure changes in participation in the
labourforce, changes in social participation, and measures of
client satisfaction with services.'
The Integrating Indicators report also argues that better
performance information is needed to service the increasing shift
from block grants to consumer- and output-based funding models and
reporting requirements.
Other information contained in the report includes:
- Issues behind the increasing trend to performance
measurement.
- How concepts such as 'input', 'output', 'outcome', 'efficiency'
and 'effectiveness' are understood and used in the Australian
disability services field.
- A critical review of the current use and development of
performance indicators in the disability services field.
- Suggestions on how disability services performance indicator
development could proceed.
19 October 2000
Further information: Nicola Fortune, AIHW, tel.
02 6244 1185.
For media copies of the report: Publications Officer,
tel. 02 6244 1032.
Availability: Check the AIHW Publications
Catalogue for availability.