NCB Now: Robust measures for payment by results
Friday, March 16, 2012
Following the government's announcement of the national-level measures to be used in ongoing trials, initial research conducted by NCB and the National Foundation for Educational Research - and the first of its kind for children's services - has highlighted the need for robust measures to be used by a payment-by-results (PbR) scheme for children's centres.
PbR is a model of funding where payments are triggered by the delivery of results, often linked to improving outcomes such as reducing child obesity.
The study looked at 27 local authorities testing PbR at a national level between government and local authorities, and at a local level between local authorities and children’s centres. It assessed the type of measures that should be investigated further.
It found that the measures used to trigger PbR need to be focused on improving outcomes for disadvantaged children. Furthermore, measures should be clearly linked to policy objectives and be directly attributable to local authorities, while not creating unintended incentives.
Barbara Hearn OBE, deputy chief executive of NCB said: "We must ensure that learning from the trials informs the development of a fit-for-purpose PbR scheme, which delivers improvements for the most disadvantaged children."
- The report is available at http://bit.ly/wS3l1m
