Critical perspectives on results-based accountability : practice tensions in small community-based organisations

Within New South Wales, Results-Based Accountability (RBA) has become an ascendant framework for government funding of community-based programs. This paper reports on the outcomes of a participatory action research (PAR) project on the practice of RBA in community-based organisations (CBOs) aimed at developing critical practice. The PAR was deliberately juxtaposed with a simultaneous skills-development training program in RBA. The project involves workers involved in Community Services Grants Programs (CSGP) from local government areas of Greater Western Sydney and is the result of a University-'industry' partnership aimed at facilitating critical engagement with RBA. The findings suggest that workers have important practice concerns about RBA, as well as varying levels of confidence and circumstances that potentially impact on RBA practice and critical engagement with RBA.