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15 Years of describing, measuring, and monitoring outcomes in social care – have we got it right yet?

Alumni Virtual Workshop 29th June 2023

In June, the outcomes workshop was attended by 17 members of the IPC Commissioning Certificate Alumni Network. They heard about the experience of working with outcomes from Philip Provenzano, Assistant Director and Mick Mellors, IPC Visiting Knowledge Transfer Fellow.

The small break-out discussions asked participants to offer their advice on introducing and maintaining an outcome focused approach to supporting people to achieve their outcomes. The groups provided advice and insights which included:

  • Don’t try and measure everything - talk to service users about what’s important to them and focus on this
  • Don’t be overly specific when identifying outcomes, doing so risks them becoming outputs
  • Have realistic outcomes within realistic timeframes
  • Have a lean monitoring framework with a mix of outputs and outcomes – as highlighted today. You need to know if processes and outputs are leading in the right direction
  • Get your business intelligence right and understand what you are gathering
  • Have an equal power balance and make all accountable for positive measurable outcomes which include quantitative and qualitative measures

For more information on how IPC can support your organisation to develop or introduce an outcome-focused approach to the design, commissioning or the monitoring of support and services, please contact Philip Provenzano, Assistant Director, IPC.