safe, valued and empowered communities
5 September 2006

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
• Department of Communities evidence based practice framework (Rick Williams)
• Demonstration of COMSIS tools (Greg Pole)
• Use of COMSIS within framework (Rick Williams)
• Key implications (Rick Williams)

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
• Provide the department with key concepts and building blocks to ensure allocation of all departmental resources
(funded and direct service) to priority need
• Able to be progressively implemented:
– Phase 1 = growth and one-off funding e.g. PEI growth funding and
SAAP V funding
– Phase 2 = all other program areas e.g. system reform
– Phase 3 = all of the department’s resources and services including direct service delivery

INDICATIVE NEED
- defined by analysis of objective indicators incl.
SEIFA maps, surveys of clients, comparison with state measures and benchmark data (if avail)
GAP ANALYSIS: Is there a service or set of services to meet this potential need?
SERVICE SUPPLYdefined by analysis of quantitative and qualitative data
NEEDS BASED APPROACH TO PLANNING ANALYSES MEASURES OF NEED AND EXISTING SERVICE
SUPPLY IN LIGHT OF KEY PRIORITIES (local, regional, departmental and State Government) IN ORDER TO
MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT WHAT IS PRIORITY NEED AND WHAT CHANGES TO A SERVICE SYSTEM
ARE REQUIRED TO MEET THAT NEED
No service development required
SERVICE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT CONTINUUM
Quality improvement
Scope expansion
Realignment Increased access through integration of services
Reform New service
COMMUNITY CAPACITY to provide a service or set of services

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
• Evidence for policy and service development is both quantitative and qualitative data including:
– Demographic and socio-economic data (ABS Census, Labour
Force, etc);
– surveys of clients’ perspectives (need as well as regarding the performance of the Department’s services);
– other service related data (inputs, outputs and outcomes);
– research and evaluation data;
– other key stakeholder views; and
– departmental staff’s analysis of services and service systems.

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
Six key steps in the needs based planning and resource allocation process:
1. Develop Regional and State Profiles
2. Needs identification (quantitative and qualitative)
3. Service prioritisation against needs
4. Mapping need and services
5. Notional regional allocation of funding
6. Finalisation of service investment plans .

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
• Communities Statistical Information System - purpose built and maintained by OESR for the department
• A key tool and platform to progress, across the state, a core set of common standards and information for identifying disadvantage, need and risk

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
• Sentinel indicators (greatest prognostic/predictive power)
• At-a-glance combined information at program level on
– location,
– comparative disadvantage,
– relative need and
– risk (proxy - proportion of target population)

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
Statistical local area
Locality A - Central
Locality A - Other
Locality B
Locality C
Locality D
Locality E
Locality F
Locality G
Locality H
Locality I
Locality J
Locality K
Locality L
972.1
1,024.2
949.9
972.6
1,037.4
934.1
947.1
966.6
935.0
881.2
931.8
893.8
979.6
1
2
4
2
4
2
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
SEIFA
Index value
Overall quintile position
Housing
Stress
Score
Substantiat ed Notice
Child
Protection
(Rate)
24.92
25.55
17.56
20.22
22.28
23.46
27.47
26.99
20.51
21.84
18.88
20.18
22.68
0.43
0.88
0.86
0.83
0.39
1.13
1.26
1.34
0.8
2.94
3.14
2.16
0.99
Number of people aged
0-9 years
(target group)
Population
All Persons
(Number)
% of SLA population in target group
DNR score
SEIFA x
SNCP x
Target
Pop
2718
1241
467
1775
4668
1608
1554
1431
2997
2747
2,226
3104
2012
9279
9411
3312
13045
17253
16615
15,823
17044
7073
6343
8044
10849
17236
29.29%
13.19%
14.10%
13.61%
27.06%
16.53%
14.07%
18.21%
28.45%
25.35%
19.32%
13.19%
17.39%
122.44
118.85
115.19
109.84
109.47
428.33
411.59
351.58
275.87
267.58
230.54
170.84
130.07
Rank
(Based on
Combin ed
Score)
6
7
8
4
5
9
10
11
12
13
1
2
3

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
The number of child protection staff in Cairns
Region is twice the number of child protection staff in Townsville Region.
Why is it so?

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
REALITY CHECK
Statistical data
REGIONAL FOCUS GROUPS
• Output highlighted potential areas of need for enhanced prevention and early intervention services (PEI).
• Identification of existing funded ‘PEI’ services in these areas
• Identification of total regional investment in PEI
Sharing information and value-adding through regional knowledge
• Regional Focus Group held in all 10 regions
• Purpose – to verify & contextualise data, & to identify priority needs and discuss the best ways that these needs may be met.

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
REGIONAL FOCUS GROUPS
• Focus groups lasted 3 – 4 hours. Discussion audio-recorded, and summary provided to region
• Focussed on prompt questions
– Detailed identification of areas of need,
– Best practice response,
– Capacity and effectiveness of current services,
– Priority areas for improved service capacity/effectiveness
• Focus Group review of the output data supported and extended the initial identification and ranking of high need-high risk populationslocations for priority service development.
• Identified the need for inclusion of service data

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
• Sentinel Indicators
• At-a-glance combined information at program level on
– location,
– comparative disadvantage,
– relative need and
– risk (proxy - proportion of target population)
+ services (locality, type, activity)

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
Matches Population, Location, Need and
Service Information

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
Preschool Catchments

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
Community Profiles

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
• Allows us to identify and rank high need-high risk populations-locations across the State using standard information
• Provides common basis for policy, planning, budget and service development
• Initial results are quantitative confirmation of qualitative research results.

Department of Communities safe, valued and empowered communities
• Incorporate all service data - COMSIS V2.0
• Incorporate protective factors (e.g. social capital, volunteering) - COMSIS V3.0
• Incorporate forecasting and modelling tools -
COMSIS V3.0
• Incorporate outcomes focus into evidence platform (match budget-expenditure-activity-outputsoutcomes)
– EBM V2.0