Simon is helping to identify an important example of non-joined up thinking.
The National Audit Office seems to be operating in a kind of parallel
universe to that of the Statistics Commission. Both organisations are
supposed to be watchdogs, but they seem to be remarkably different in their
effectiveness and in their culture.
The NAO reports to Parliament and, in reporting on corruption of waiting
list statistics, is actually doing what the Statistics Commission is
supposed to be doing. But the Statistics Commission does not report to
anyone in particular and does not publish substantial reports on anything.
The big NAO Report Simon referenced is entitled 'Inappropriate adjustments
to NHS waiting lists'. As a result of the NAO investigations of these
'inappropriate adjustments' a few managers got fired or 'reconfigured'. But
I don't see anyone's position in the GSS being threatened as a result of
investigations by the Statistics Commission. The Commission has not even
dirtied its hands by investigation of matters such as the corruption of
local unemployment statistics or the failure of the LFS and FRS to produce
reasonably accurate statistics for recipients of various state benefits.
A notable feature of the NAO reports is that use of the term 'statistics'
seems to have been edited out. The big Report refers to 'performance
measurement systems and reported data', 'waiting list data', and 'systematic
waiting list data' 'monitoring of data integrity', etc. This use of
language could well have been designed to make it easy for the NAO and the
Statistics Commission to divide their responsibilities. The GSS produce
statistics. But indicators of performance, such as waiting lists, are not
statistics but 'management information'.
Ray Thomas
******************
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 7:05 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Building mistrust in waiting list statistics
http://www.nao.gov.uk/publications/nao_reports/01-02/0102452.p
df - size 398.2kb
http://www.nao.gov.uk/publications/nao_reports/01-02/0102221es.pdf - size
89.7kb
So far as I am aware the ONS and the Statistics Commission have been silent
on the numbers.
Simon
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