Katherine Kent ESCoE Economic Measurement Webinar 28 Nov 2024

In July 2023 it was announced that Office for National Statistics (ONS) was to lead on a cross government review of Public Services Productivity.
While measuring productivity in the private sector is relatively easy (adding up the company or sector’s output and then dividing it by the number of workers or hours worked), measuring public services productivity is more challenging because there is rarely a direct charge for the service being delivered at the point of use. Quality adjustment of data is necessary to compensate for this. Since the Atkinson Review (2005) ONS have been recognised international leaders in this field but despite this ONS statistics currently only quality adjust around 60% of government services, making the headline metric hard to interpret.
This webinar will provide an overview of the work to date on the highest priority service areas and how the team are partnering with government departments, public service experts and analysts in academia to further develop methodology and data sources to measure productivity. As well as exploring some of the challenging cross cutting measurement issues such as alternatives to cost weighting and adjustments to inputs.
Katherine Kent is Assistant Deputy Director for Public Services Productivity Review at the Office for National Statistics. With over 14 years experience working in economic statistics, Katherine has led on the production of productivity statistics and a programme of associated improvements at the Office for National Statistics.
Chair: Darren Morgan, ESCoE
Discussant: Mairi Spowage, University of Strathclyde