Did you catch our first report to parliament for this financial year, Rehabilitating and reintegrating prisoners (Report 1: 2026–27)?
We examined how effectively Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) plans for and facilitates the rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners while they are in custody.
While our audit focused on the correctional system, its findings offer broader lessons for public sector entities on using data to inform decision-making. Whether delivering frontline services, administering programs, or planning future investments, below we summarise 3 key takeaways from our audit.
1. Use data to understand demand and target services
Good decisions start with good information.
Collecting and analysing data can help entities better understand the needs, characteristics, and circumstances of the people who use their services. They can use this information to identify where demand is greatest, target services to those most in need, and allocate resources where they can have the greatest impact. It can also enable entities to forecast future demand and inform longer-term workforce and resource planning.
Our audit highlighted the importance of assessing prisoners’ risks and needs to inform rehabilitation and reintegration support. Gaps in the department’s data limited its ability to understand different prisoner cohorts, determine whether it had the right programs and services, and assess how effectively case management was operating.
This underscores the importance of identifying the information necessary to plan and deliver services, establish clear responsibilities for collecting data, and maintain appropriate controls over data quality. Without reliable and complete data, entities may rely on assumptions, historical practices, or local circumstances when making decisions.
2. Define a clear service delivery model
Successful service delivery requires clear planning from the outset.
A well-defined service delivery model promotes consistency in decision-making and helps ensure people can access services according to their assessed needs. It provides a basis for entities to determine the resources, responsibilities, and delivery arrangements necessary for effectively implementing services.
Our audit found that the department had developed strategies and a case management framework, but had not translated them into a consistent service delivery model across the correctional system. This meant access could depend more on a prisoner’s location and circumstances than on their assessed risks and needs.
Clearly defining how services will operate before implementation enables entities to define who it is for, what support it will provide, and how it will operate. Documenting these elements creates a shared understanding for staff and stakeholders and establishes clear expectations for service users.
3. Balance measures of activity, efficiency, and outcomes
No single measure can provide a complete picture of performance. Activity, efficiency, and outcomes measures each provide different insights and, together, enable entities to more clearly understand performance, track progress, and assess results.
In our audits, we often find that entities are better at identifying measures of activity and output than measures that demonstrate whether those activities are achieving their intended outcomes. As a result, performance reporting can provide a picture of what has been done, without clearly showing whether it has made a difference.
While outcome measures can be difficult to develop and may take time to assess, they are essential for understanding whether intended outcomes are being achieved.
Regular monitoring against a balanced set of meaningful measures helps leaders and decision-makers understand what is working, what is not, and where improvements are needed. Strong performance monitoring supports accountability, drives continuous improvement, and supports informed decisions about future priorities and service delivery. Without a balanced view of performance, entities may be unable to demonstrate whether their services and programs are delivering value and achieving intended outcomes.
We share further advice on the benefits of performance monitoring and practical steps for establishing effective measures in our blogs: What gets measured, gets managed and The challenge of performance monitoring and reporting.
Read our full report for more detail on our audit: Rehabilitating and reintegrating prisoners (Report 1: 2026–27).
Keep an eye out for our upcoming report on using data to improve road safety, where we will share our latest learnings on using data to support and inform effective decision making.
We have a number of important audits currently underway, see what we have planned in our Forward work plan 2026–29.
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