How to measure wellbeing in outcomes-based commissioning?

Abstract

Outcomes-based commissioning has been gaining ground for several years now. Criticism of outcomes-based commissioning usually concerns measuring. However, valid and reliable outcome measures are difficult to find. This study is a case study of the procurement made in the years of 2013 and 2014 in the city of Tampere, Finland. Data were collected in 2015 from the tendering documents and by interviewing 5 civil servants and 8 service providers who all took part in the procurement, and in 2016 from a workshop. Measuring outcomes can be cumbersome, especially when verifying a connection between services and outcomes. However, using surrogates for wellbeing alongside conventional quality and achievement indicators can allow practitioners to establish whether the values held by the public are embedded in the public value created by a new service model. The paper suggests a new framework for use in tracking the migration of values into value.