A Systems Approach to a Sector Productivity Intervention in the Social Services: Report on Methodology

Abstract

This short paper documents a systems approach to a sector productivity intervention in the social services. Productivity is contextual, and interventions into such services are complicated by the asymmetric influence of guided competition and professional discourses on service delivery. To address this, Wong and Hiew’s (2019) methodology from the health services was synthesized with capabilities, constraints, costing, and wider operational research (OR) theories. This could have been improved by incorporating throughput accounting to link strategy with financial sustainability. Key principles are also discussed, including the importance of boundary critique in public-plural services, where meaning is intersubjective. Relevant interventions must orient to the right strategic goal of social outcomes/externalities (not financial returns), flow efficiency (not resource efficiency), and informed choices on the flow and throughput units (never, arbitrary costs and lead times).