A FaCSIA perspective on community indicators Tony Carmichael Community Strategy Branch Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaCSIA) FaCSIA Strategic Framework ‘Improving the lives of Australians by helping to build the capacity and wellbeing of individuals, families and communities’ A FaCSIA Perspective on Community Indicators FaCSIA Priority Business Results 1. Measurable improvement in program compliance, efficiency and impact 2. Improve access to child care, especially for working parents 3. Measurable improvement in outcomes for Indigenous people from mainstream and targeted programs 4. Implement the government’s child support reforms A FaCSIA Perspective on Community Indicators FaCSIA Priority Business Results 5. Successfully establish strategic interventions in a range of Indigenous communities, in partnership with state and territory governments 6. Measurable improvement of the impact in communities of our community based programs and interventions A FaCSIA Perspective on Community Indicators Social Changes • Life expectancy • Increases in the size of • Family structure and functioning coastal communities • Increases in • Young people staying at home far longer • Upward trend in higher qualifications A FaCSIA Perspective on Community Indicators volunteering and philanthropy Changes to the way social programs are developed and delivered • Dealing with individuals in the context of their families and their community settings • Integrating services and programs to help people develop capacity to make transitions over the life course • More active social interventions focussing on participation • Increasingly tailored assistance for individuals • Greater local level action rather than top down approaches A FaCSIA Perspective on Community Indicators FaCSIA’s use of indicators 1. Needs Based Planning – targeted approaches 2. Community Assessment – identifying, analysing and responding 3. Evaluation – Measuring impact in communities A FaCSIA Perspective on Community Indicators 1. Family Relationship Service Providers (FRSP) • Key Australian Government initiative to support family relationships • Aims to improve the wellbeing of families and children • National network of 65 Family Relationship Centres • Services also target specific population groups A FaCSIA Perspective on Community Indicators FRSP Needs based planning • Determine target populations for service types • Select geographic base for model • Investigate and evaluate data indicators to represent service type target populations • Identify broader FRSP target populations and relevant indicators A FaCSIA Perspective on Community Indicators Locating Services - FRSP A FaCSIA Perspective on Community Indicators 2. Community Assessment • Identify and target geographic areas of disadvantage • Based on the identification process, produce a richer dataset of information to examine the disadvantage and assess needs • Respond with a combination of interventions available from FaCSIA and other agencies • Evaluate the progress of a community against a set of indicators over a period of time A FaCSIA Perspective on Community Indicators 3. Evaluation – Impact in Communities • Assess the contribution of individual programs in communities. Results based funding model pilot • Develop and apply a methodology to assess impact at a ‘wholeof-community’ level Through a community indicators based framework • Analyse links and causality between individual program outcomes and ‘whole-of-community’ assessments A FaCSIA Perspective on Community Indicators Community indicator issues for FaCSIA • Information availability – use of proxies • Bringing datasets together from different agencies • Longitudinal data – increasing use • Small area level data – neighbourhood level • Matching Census data with other surveys to get a small area (neighbourhood) dimension A FaCSIA Perspective on Community Indicators Questions A FaCSIA Perspective on Community Indicators