Outcomes Based Accountability

Outcomes based accountability (OBA) is a disciplined way of thinking and taking action that can be used to improve the quality of life in communities and improve the performance of services and agencies.

OBA starts with results and works back to determine a means to achieving the results.  It is a process that gets practitioners, agencies and communities and their partners from talk to action quickly through a series of exercises and use of common language.

In 2006 the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) sponsored a series of interactive lectures across the country with one of the leading exponents of OBA, Professor Mark Friedman from the Institute of Fiscal Policy, Santa Fe, New Mexico, to begin to change the culture of target chasing to one of delivering and demonstrating real outcomes.

Telford & Wrekin Council became interested in this approach during the early stages of its introduction to the UK through the DCSF.  Together with Shropshire Council, we were successful in gaining Beacon Peer Support funding in 2007 to support the implementation and further development of Outcomes Based Accountability across both local authority's children's services and support for other organisations through the West Midlands Regional OBA Network.