Day 2

Stay active during the conference and discover some of Oxford's most iconic landmarks by joining us on an easy morning run. We will be starting the run at the Radcliffe Camera, in the very heart of Oxford.

In-person participants will be able to register at the reception of the Blavatnik School of Government building and enjoy tea, coffee and pastries with other in-person attendees and speakers.

Join us for an exploration of a rich tapestry of new and diverse data sources and tools in outcomes-based contracting. We will showcase the power of the GO Lab’s SyROCCo machine learning tool to synthesise high-level ex-post data from an extensive collection of academic and grey literature and how it links to the Impact Bond Dataset offered by INDIGO; we will delve into new outcome data visualisations from Life Chances Projects; and discover groundbreaking approaches to granular data collection at the service-user level.

Prepare for a rich discussion around how these distinct data landscapes intertwine, enabling us to ask unprecedented questions, gain project-level perspectives, redefine success assessment, and unlock transformative learning opportunities in outcomes-based contracting.

Find a recording of the event here.

We recognise that there is so much exciting and meaningful work all of our different speakers and their organisations are doing which can’t be fit into the limited speaking slots.

As such, we are excited to host a new opportunity at the Social Outcomes Conference 2023. Speakers and organisations are invited to share a poster at the conference. This poster will be on display physically in the Inamori Forum at the Blavatnik School and virtually on the SOC23 webpage. We will be displaying posters both virtually and physically so that all attendees, both online and in-person can view the posters.

The potential legacy that a well-designed outcomes partnership can achieve is often articulated in terms of ‘system strengthening’ – positive impacts within a service system beyond the immediate person-level outcome targets of the programme. Most would agree that strengthening system capacity is a goal worth pursuing; but the term is broad, even vague, and can mean a number of different things. There is a need to articulate what those different aspects are, how they interrelate, and why an outcomes-based approach in particular can attend to opportunities for system change. In this session, we will investigate and seek clarity about the relationship between outcomes-based contracting and system strengthening – what it is, how we pursue it, and the evidence by which we assess it. We will connect these questions to the latest learning from practice, to better understand how system-level goals are conceived and pursued in case examples.

Find a recording of the event here.

In this session, Professor Carolyn Heinrich will discuss the challenge of holding public-private partnerships to account with Dame Margaret Hodge.

This public talk is a timely discussion, aimed at helping reconcile collaboration and accountability in a way that can inform better practice.

About the session

The conversation will draw on Dame Margaret’s experiences during her 5 years as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee to explore the challenges of contracting out public services, as well as broader issues of public accountability and its importance to maintaining trust in government. Together with an in-person and online audience, they will consider how advances in the state of the art of public sector contracting might help or hinder accountability, and ultimately how we can ensure public-private partnerships better deliver for the citizens they serve.

Public-private partnerships are an inevitable part of 21st century public services. But if they are to maintain the trust of the citizens they serve, we need to ensure they deliver what they are supposed to, and are held to account when they do not. Recent years have seen the best and worst of collaboration between governments and partners in the private and not-for-profit sectors. Our response to COVID-19 saw public healthcare systems  pull together with private companies and universities to rapidly develop and deploy a life-saving vaccination programme, aided by civil society in reaching and supporting the most marginalised and vulnerable members of society.  

But it also saw great failures. The emergency acquisition of personal protective equipment (PPE – a significant amount of which was unusable) bypassed procurement procedures, leaving serious concerns about probity and value-for-money. These challenges are not new, nor are they unique to the COVID response. From buying aircraft carriers and armoured vehicles to probation services and employment support, Governments’ efforts to deliver complex goods and services have often failed (Hodge, 2016). Ultimately, these failures mean that taxpayers’ money is wasted, citizens are left underserved, and the public’s trust in government is undermined. 

Increasingly, there is a recognition amongst scholars and practitioners that for the most complex public services – such as those supporting people experiencing homelessness to find stable accommodation, or people with mental health conditions into jobs – our traditional approach to public contracting often doesn’t work. We need a more flexible, collaborative approach which can facilitate joint problem solving and adaptation to meet the needs of service users and society. However, this more “relational” approach also raises questions for public accountability. If the deliverables of a contract change over time, what precisely ought we hold partnerships to account for? If responsibility is shared between the members of a partnership, who do we hold to account?  

About Dame Margaret Hodge

Dame Margaret has been the Labour Member of Parliament for Barking and the heart of Dagenham since 1994. She has held several government positions in the last Labour government, holding portfolios across education, work and pensions, business and culture. In 2010 she became the first woman elected Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, serving until 2015.

Find a recording of the event here.

A celebratory ending and closing remarks with moments of community, insights, and connection. Join us for drinks, nibbles, music, and reflections for this final celebration in our beautiful venue.