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Created by Richard Morton Created on 10/11/2010 13:57:00 Page 1 of 2 RESULTS BASED ACCOUNTABILITY™ BRIEFING NOTE RICHARD MORTON PARTNERSHIP SUPPORT UNIT WELSH LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION What is Results Based Accountability™? Results Based Accountability™ (RBA™) – sometimes called Outcome Based Accountability – is a common sense approach to using outcome based thinking to help improve the well being of populations and the performance of services. RBA™ was developed by Mark Friedman and is set out in full in his book Trying Hard Is Not Good Enough. In Wales and the UK RBA™ is being used by a growing number of public and voluntary organisations and partnerships to help inform partnership and service planning, commissioning and performance management. Population Accountability or Performance Accountability? Central to the RBA™ approach is the recognition of two different sorts of accountability which are often confused. RBA™ argues that unless the differences and interconnections between these two types of accountability are understood and respected it is difficult to do either well. Population Accountability is the collaborative responsibility for improving the conditions of well-being of populations or sub-populations regardless of whether individuals access particular services. This is the kind of responsibility held by Children and Young People’s Partnerships and Local Service Boards but Population Accountability can also be taken by less formal groups such as community partnerships. Performance Accountability is the specific responsibility of projects, programmes, services or service systems for their service users being better off as a result of the intervention. Performance Accountability applies where there is a defined “customer” in receipt of a specified service or services.
