Measuring the Public Services
| Date | 01 December 1952 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1952.tb02800.x |
| Author | W. S. Steer |
| Published date | 01 December 1952 |
Measuring the Pubtic Services
By
W.
S.
STEER
Mr.
Steer, Lecturer in Public Administration in the University College
of
the South-West, considers the practicability
of
measuring the adequacy
and
efficienq
of
the Education Service.
T
is curious that there is such
I
general agreement about the need
of more efficient measuring standards
and techniques for the public services,
but that
so
little has been done to
meet the need. This note is a
modest attempt
to
assess some of the
difficulties and limitations of quan-
titative measurements of govern-
mental operations, and to test, in the
light of
a
single British public
service, the validity of measurement
techniques evolved by certain
Americans who have studied the
problem.
Limitations
The most ardent advocate
of
newer and more sensitive measure-
ments of government would have
to
admit that much that ordinary people
expect from government is not
capable of objective evaluation.
It
has often been emphasised that the
public demands more than efficiency.
The public services must not only
be efficient but must also be accept-
able in their content and methods.
+d acceptability involves impon-
derables of attitudes and responses
that are not capable of objective
statistical treatment-but which may
in some circumstances be more
important to the consumer than
efficiency.
It
remains true therefore
that any public service that doesnot
evoke a full measure of public
interest and confidence is failing in
its efforts. The most comprehensive
paper plans and the most efficient
administrative mechanism are defec-
tive if this intangible element of
acceptability is lacking.
Again, there are services such as
public health, education, and housing
in which the results of the outlay
do
not become fully apparent until many
years have elapsed. For example,
it
may be argued that judgment cannot
be made of the result of expenditure
on
public health
until
it
is reflected
in the mortality tables, or of the
result
of
educational expenditure
until the school population have
taken their places in employment and
in
the social and political life of the
country. Hence
it
is important
to
bear in mind that nearly
all
measure-
ments of the public services
are
of
limited value to the extent that they
reflect short-term rather than long-
term effects. Indeed, even the
short-term effects will often
be
more
faithfully reflected
by
taking an
average over a three
or
five-year
period, than by yearly figures.
There is also the problem
of
isolating the factors contributing
to
the results. For instance not
all
the
credit for improved health of the
adult
and
child population
can
be
claimed by the general health
and
school medical services-economic
policy, full employment, housing
policy, social habits and
many
other
factors all play their part.
So
too
in a complex social system, advances
in social welfare are usually shaped
by a number of different agencies
acting together, although one of them
may properly be regarded as being
primarily responsible.
Again due allowance must
be
made for factors outside the control:
of the authority. The most we can
say is that “other things being
equal
”
the high cost in one area
is
due either
to
lavishness or inefficiency,
and that the low cost in another area
is due either to the inadequacy or
efficiency of the service. But it is
315
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