04 November 2005
No single measure of public sector productivity will ever capture the complex relationship between investment in services and the results achieved, the Office for National Statistics has admitted.
The ONS sounded its warning as it revealed on November 1 that, using current measurement methods, productivity in the state education sector has been falling by 1% a year on average since 1995. That is despite sustained increases in education funding, reaching £42bn in 2004.
Similar trends in health have meant that measurement of public sector productivity has become a political hot potato.
'No single estimate of productivity can ever tell the complete story on the relationship between inputs, outputs and outcomes,' the ONS said. '[We] must stress the difficulties associated with the measurement of productivity.'
The statistics body is proposing a range of alternative methodologies for measuring education productivity to replace the current version, which is based on the number of pupils taught.
These models try to capture the quality of teaching, for example by factoring in attainment at GCSE. The ONS is floating the possibility of taking earnings growth into account when measuring productivity, to reflect the link between education and salary.
Using these alternatives would have produced productivity figures for 2004 ranging from a 2% decline to a 2% increase.
But the ONS will make changes only after extensive reviews show that any alternative will be an improvement.
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