Evaluation of the Family Support Innovation Program
Overview of Evaluation Activities
Documentary analysis of project descriptions and guidelines and project activity reports including interviews with agency CEOs and workers
Documentary analysis of project descriptions and guidelines and project activity reports has been undertaken. All Innovation projects provide annual activity reports in and these have been analysed. The reports lodged to date show a variety of achievements and approaches towards the development and initiation of the service networks. A detailed discussion of the outcomes of these analyses is provided in the evaluation annual reports.
To view the Evaluation reports 2004-2007
Analysis of Child Protection system activity data within the areas targeted by Innovation Projects
A key component of the Innovation Project evaluation is the analysis of child protection system activity data.
In order to understand the effects of the introduction of the Innovation programs, year on year analyses have been conducted comparing the activities for Innovation project LGAs compared with benchmark non-Innovation LGAs.
These analyses have been conducted for notifications, substantiations and protection orders. A detailed discussion of the outcomes of these analyses is provided in the evaluation annual reports.
Analysis of the activities and structures of the service networks established in the Innovation project sites
A network partnership survey tool has been developed and circulated to projects for implementation. Initial results of the survey are provided in the 2005 evaluation report. The following data was collected in the survey of Innovation agencies
- Agency details and agency demography
- A checklist for overall partnership quality (The Vic Health Partnership Analysis tool)
- Changes to service coordination and co-operation. This set of questions identified amongst the participating agencies exactly what it is that they have changed in their agency behaviour that demonstrates improvements in service coordination and co-operation.
The survey was sent to the networks that were participating in Round 1 of the Innovation Projects. Outcomes of the first round of the survey can be found in the 2005 evaluation report.
Development and implementation of outcome measurements for the children and families in receipt of services from some of the Innovation projects
A suite of outcome measures for Innovation projects has been developed and data collection has been undertaken at the Greater Shepparton and Greater Geelong Innovation projects. It is intended to broaden the application of the tools to other projects.
The following modules have been developed for the outcomes measurement component of the project.
- School attendance
- Parent child relationships
- Stability of Housing
- Personal Safety (Child Safety)
- Financial security and access to material necessities
- Parental skills
- Connectedness/Social capital
- General Health & Well-being
- Client worker relationships
- Domestic Violence
- Drugs and Alcohol
A triangulated approach is used to collect the data, with the same modules applied to the worker, the child and the parent or carer (where applicable). There are worker, client and parent/ carer versions of the tools.
Copies of the tools are available for download in the evaluation toolkit.
Identification of effective engagement strategies for vulnerable families and hard to reach clients
A key component of the evaluation brief was the development of activities to investigate and promote the orientation of Innovation networks and agencies towards hard to reach clients. Our first activity in this area of the brief has been to conduct a statewide Workshop on 'Hard to Reach' Clients in collaboration with the Innovation team in the central office of the Department of Human Services. The forum was conducted on 8 September 2004 and was attended by over 200 participants from the Innovations projects and associated agencies. The Minister for Community Services opened the forum.