Better Public Services

The Government has done a quarterly update on the BPS targets:

• participation in Early Childhood Education has increased from 94.7 per cent to 96.1 per cent
• the proportion of immunised 8-month olds has increased from 84 per cent to 92.9 per cent
• there has been a 14 per cent decrease in people being hospitalised for the first time with rheumatic fever
• the trend in the number of children and young people experiencing substantiated physical abuse has flattened, after previously being on an upward trajectory
• the proportion of 18-year olds who achieve a NCEA Level 2 qualification has increased from 74.3 per cent to about 81.1 per cent
• the proportion of 25 to 34 year olds with a qualification at Level 4 or above has increased from 51.4 per cent to 54.2 per cent
• total crime, violent crime and youth crime have dropped 17.6 per cent, 9.1 per cent and 37.3 per cent respectively
• the rate of reoffending has dropped 9.6 per cent
• there has been a net reduction of 16 percent in business effort when dealing with government agencies
• 45.8 per cent of government service transactions are now completed digitally, up from 30.4 per cent in 2012.

Good to see most of these heading in the right directions.

BPS targets were a bit of a revolution for Government, as they focused on outcomes, not outputs or incomes. Anyone can say we’ll spend this much money, but it is a lot braver to commit to an actual change in outcomes.

Heading into the next election, what I’d like to see from parties is not just a list of policies, but their own set of say 10 BPS targets which they are willing to be judged against.