Commissioning by outcomes is always right, public money should be focused on what we want to achieve – people in work, off drugs, no longer offending (as argued recently on this Blog). But measuring outcomes is difficult which is why, in the past, we have mainly settled for counting activity – the number of sessions delivered, action plans completed etc. instead. Measuring outcomes is particularly difficult in ‘payment by results’ schemes, where it is especially important to investors who carry the financial risk in Social Impact Bonds and other new ways of funding. Most PbR initiatives are large-scale programmes developing innovative approaches which are to be measured against ‘comparator cohorts’ in areas where the programme doesn’t exist. There is a great deal of protracted negotiation between government, providers and the financial middle men (such as Social Finance) to get a

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