Review of Data Systems Underpining DfES SR2004 PSA Targets
01 March 2006
Public Service Agreements (PSA) Targets have been in existence since 1998 and are agreed by the Department for Education and Skills as part of the Spending Review process. NFER's Statistics Research and Analysis Group was commissioned by the Department's Head of Profession for Statistics to review the data systems underpinning each of the Department's PSA targets. This work was concurrent with a review by the National Audit Office (NAO) who assigned 'traffic lights' to each data system to indicate its fitness for purpose, in terms of measuring progress towards a given target.
NFER produced two reports (available on the DCSF website):
- a comprehensive review of data systems, based on a compilation of work carried out by the Department's statisticians and officers from the NAO
- because the above review produced a large number of data systems rated 'amber', a further brief report was commissioned into the details of these 'amber' ratings and how these data systems could be converted to 'green'.