Activity Work Plan: GuidanceFamilies and Children Activity

ContentsVersion History...........................................................................................................3

Purpose......................................................................................................................4

Terminology................................................................................................................5

Activity Work Plan guidance......................................................................................6

1. Activity Details Section....................................................................................6

2. Activity Deliverables Section...........................................................................7

3. Service delivery targets and barriers to participation...................................10

4. Evidence Base Section..................................................................................14

5. Risk Management Section.............................................................................15

6. Budget Section...............................................................................................17

7. Stakeholder Engagement and Referral Pathways Section..........................17

8. Feedback / Additional information.................................................................19

Activity Work Plan Progress Report........................................................................20

2. Activity deliverables section...........................................................................20

3. Service delivery targets and barriers to participation section......................20

4. Evidence Base Section..................................................................................21

5. Risk Management Section.............................................................................21

6. Budget Section...............................................................................................21

7. Stakeholder Engagement Section.................................................................21

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Version HistoryThis Activity Work Plan Guidance Document is for:

Budget Based Funded Services Children and Parenting Support Services (CaPS) (excluding the five

national CaPS services) Family and Relationship Services, including Specialised Family Violence

Services Family Mental Health Support Services.

Version history is listed below:

29 July 2020 – v1.0 19 August 2020 – v2.0 30 April 2021 – v3.0

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PurposeThis Activity Work Plan (AWP) guidance document will assist organisations funded to deliver the following Department of Social Services (department) Families and Children Activity programs to complete their AWPs:

Budget Based Funded Services Children and Parenting Support Services (CaPS) (excluding the five

national CaPS services) Family and Relationship Services, including Specialised Family Violence

Services, and Family Mental Health Support Services.

The completion of an AWP is a requirement of funding and must be developed in negotiation with Funding Arrangement Managers (FAMs). If you have additional questions about completing this AWP you should contact your FAMs.

The department has altered the AWP template and this document with the aim of eliminating duplication of information whilst still allowing the Department to have an accurate understanding of the services being delivered. The information collected through the AWP and Data Exchange reporting requirements are therefore complementary.

How does the department use AWPs?

FAMs assess AWPs submitted by Families and Children Activity service providers to better understand how individual organisations are delivering activities, and how programs are operating within their local areas. Individual AWPs are also used by FAMs to support a dialogue between FAMs and service providers. FAMs also review AWPs to ensure service providers are compliant with their grant agreement and associated reporting requirements. Policy areas assess AWPs to identify common themes related to service delivery or other issues, which may result in adjustments to program-related policies.

Timeframes and AWP updates

For information on when AWPs and AWP reports must be provided to the department, please refer to the milestones in your grant agreement.

AWPs are ‘living documents’ and your organisation may choose to update your AWP at any time as needed subject to departmental agreement. The department encourages your organisation to raise any proposed updates with your FAM in response to changes in service delivery arrangements, service delivery locations, and other organisation changes. Following agreement these can be documented in your AWP. The department may also request that an organisation update or adjust an AWP in response to issues that impact programs. The COVID19 pandemic is one such example.

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This document also refers to resources developed for Families and Children Activity programs. These include those developed by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) through the Child Family Community Australia Information Exchange (CFCA) and the Families and Children Expert Panel Project to assist those working in the Families and Children sector. These resources appear in coloured text boxes for easy identification.

TerminologyFor the purpose of this document:

Activity – refers to the activity described in the Grant Details section of your grant agreement and includes the provision of the Reporting Material.

Client – refers to the individuals/family groups accessing a program and expected to have an outcome.

Department – the Department of Social Services. Program – means the overarching ‘program’ under which the activity

is funded e.g. Family and Relationship Services and Children and Parenting Support services are programs.

Service – refers to the interventions being delivered by your organisation under an activity e.g. a supported playgroup, a parental engagement workshop, a counselling service.

Barrier – refers to practical and systemic challenges preventing a community member for participating in a service e.g. English language proficiency, social stigma, lack of transportation.

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Activity Work Plan guidanceThe following sections offer guidance in developing your AWP. For guidance on completing AWP reports, which outlines if your intended outcomes have been achieved, see the Activity Work Plan Report section of this guidance document.

Please note: You can find the AWP templates on the department’s website . The numbers used for each section in this document correspond to the numbered sections of the AWP template.

Please consider restricting information provided in a single field in the AWP to 100 words. If you feel more detail is needed in your response, you are welcome to include additional information. The 100-word limit suggestion is not mandatory, however clear and succinct information is preferred.

You may also choose to attach any supporting documents you consider relevant. Attaching documents is at your discretion and does not remove the requirement to fill out all the fields in the AWP template.

1. Activity Details Section

Organisation Name:

From your grant agreement (top of section B1). This should always reflect the current legal name of your organisation. Please notify the department immediately should there be an upcoming change to your organisation’s name.

Grant Activity Name:

From your grant agreement.

Grant Activity ID:

From your grant agreement. This allows the department to confirm your AWP relates to a specific funded Activity.

Funding Allocation

From your grant agreement. If your AWP covers multiple financial years, you should include an amount per financial year.

Service Description:

This section should include a brief summary of what you plan to deliver under this activity. You may wish to include the change your service(s) seeks to achieve, and the clients your service(s) wishes to target. This short summary should be a snapshot of what your organisation will deliver on the ground. For example:

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Our service offers a supported playgroup once a fortnight for local families to access, with a specific focus on families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. It is run by a qualified and experienced facilitator. Additionally, parents may request in-home visits from one of our trained facilitators to assist with improving and promoting positive parenting techniques and parent-child interactions. Our service has strong links with other services within our local community, and acts as a ‘soft entry point’ to link families to more formal supports when needed. These services seek to achieve improved outcomes for parenting confidence and skills, improved family resilience, and improved connections between families and their communities.

2.Activity Deliverables Section

Please note: You may duplicate this section as needed to better describe the services delivered under your activity. For example, you may wish to fill in one table per location or per service. You may also group services under a single activity as needed if appropriate.

Service name:

This section should include the name of the specific service being delivered such as Circle of Security, Parents as Teachers, Triple P Positive Parenting Program, supported playgroup, a counselling service, in-home visiting etc.

Data Exchange service type:

This should reflect the ‘service type’ categories used for reporting this activity in the Data Exchange as specified in the Data Exchange Protocols (Program Specific Guidance for Commonwealth Agencies) e.g. Intake and assessment, Counselling, Community capacity building.

This information on ‘service types’ allows the department to more easily categorise the qualitative information you provide. The information being collected in the AWP can then be linked with other data available on your activity through the Data Exchange.

Service location:

This should reflect the location(s) of the service being delivered. Locations should include state, statistical area, and Local Government Area (LGA) information. This should be consistent with the service delivery location(s) identified in your grant agreement.

Outlet location:

This should reflect the location(s) of the outlet(s) from which the services are being delivered. This should include suburb and physical address of the outlet(s).

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Changes to outlets (as opposed to service areas) should be identified in this section.

Needs statement:

This section should outline the need for the service, identifying the key issues within the service location the service seeks to address, and the groups that may experience these issues. This should include consideration of the current circumstances, supported by data, and the desired change to client circumstances.

Service planning / needs assessmentIn defining the challenges you may wish to consider performing a ‘needs assessment’ to help define what issues your service is trying to address. A ‘needs assessment’ helps identify the needs or issues in a place or population group and determines which issues should be prioritised for action.

This should consider the need for culturally safe and sensitive practice and trauma informed practice in service and program delivery.

You may wish to consider the planning and evaluation guide , and the needs assessment resources available on the AIFS website.

Output(s):

Outputs are the proposed action(s) you will take to achieve your outcomes. Outputs should be specific, measurable, and clearly link to your outcomes .

Outputs may include the products or support you plan to use, e.g. 60 individuals will be supported to….

If appropriate, please include the number and frequency of the outputs, e.g. We will deliver 12  two hour sessions over a three-month period.

Actions such as undertaking an evaluation, or development of products such as educational materials are also considered outputs.

Outcome(s):

This section should state the change/intended result the service aims to achieve through the outputs e.g. what is the desired ‘end goal’. This does not need to include information about evaluations you have conducted. Instead, it should flag what outcome you are trying to achieve. The department recognises that intended outcomes will differ between services, providers, and clients.

The department and the Australian Institute of Family Studies have developed an outcomes framework for the Families and Children Activity. This has been developed in consultation with families and children service providers, facilitated by Family and Relationship Services Australia. This outcomes framework is

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available in the Operational Guidelines for each program, available on the department’s website .

Service providers should address outcomes that are consistent with the outcomes identified and prioritised in the Families and Children Activity outcomes framework.

Outcomes should be specific, measurable, and outline the changes expected to occur as a result of the output/action taken. It is possible that multiple outcomes could be achieved through a single output.

Examples of outcome types include:

Knowledge or Skills e.g. clients improve knowledge of positive family functioning.Attitude or Opinion e.g. greater awareness of child risk factors.Behaviour e.g. increase in stakeholder and community partnerships, increased positive parenting behaviours, decreased conduct problems.Circumstance e.g. parents are able to attend skills training.Condition or Status e.g. increased child or social and emotional wellbeing.

Timeframes:

This section should outline when your organisation expects to achieve a milestone or makes an impact that moves you towards your stated outcome.

Timeframes may be aligned to reporting milestones identified in your grant agreement e.g. Data Exchange reporting.

Depending on your outcomes, progress could be expected to occur in the short, medium or long term.

Short-term outcome/s – often the immediate and most direct result e.g. parents have increased knowledge of child risk factors.

Medium-term outcome/s – often build upon the short-term outcome/s and work towards long-term outcome/s e.g. parents take steps to reduce child risk factors.

Long-term outcome/s – Usually the final result or overall goal of the service e.g. increased child resilience.

Examples of the types of responses you could provide include:

“we expect our increased advertising activities to increase public knowledge of the program within a four week period”

“parental attachment takes time to change, our goal in the first 6 months would be for parents to have an understanding of the challenges and solutions available to them and be practicing implementation.”

“our program runs for six weeks, we would expect an improvement in client inter-familiar skills to be measurable on completion of the program”

“parents will be invited to a workshop in late June 2020. We anticipate a 20 per cent increase in parents attending this workshop”

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Measure(s) of success:

You are required to identify measures of success against your stated outcomes. This should include information/indicators that will, once collected, demonstrate the impact of the action/s you have taken.

Your ‘measures of success’ includes what you intend to measure (e.g. “percentage of clients with improved parenting skills”, “percentage of clients with increased engagement”, etc.), how it will be measured (e.g. tools/mechanisms such as internally developed client surveys and questionnaires, or specific outcomes measurement tools), and when it will be measured (e.g. pre, during, and post the deliverable action).

Measurement tools / Evaluation

You may wish to learn more using an appropriate measurement tool to demonstrate the impact of the actions you have taken. Further information on measurement tools includes "How to   choose an outcomes measurement tool" on the AIFS website, and the "Guide   to measuring client outcomes" on the department’s Data Exchange website.

You may also wish to consider evaluating the impact your actions have had on the clients that access your service. Information on how to undertake an evaluation of your service includes “Planning for evaluation ”, and “E valuate your program or service .” These references include guidance on selecting outcomes to measure, identifying indicators, and collecting data to measure those indicators.

If your organisation uses a non-standard outcomes measurement tool (i.e. an outcomes measurement tool not translated in SCORE (Standard Client/Community Outcomes Reporting) as outlined in the SCORE translation matrix), or have adapted a standard tool to suit your needs, you may wish to provide this tool with your AWP.

The department encourages you to contact your FAM and provide tangible examples of the tools you are using or how you are measuring outcomes . Examples will allow FAMs to progress these issues to the policy and DEX teams based in the department’s national office who will then assess whether and how these measurements could potentially be adapted to SCORE.

3. Service delivery targets and barriers to participation

The purpose of this section is to outline how each service provider considers the number of clients, including those from key demographic groups that are expected to access these services, and to prevent unintentional barriers to service access being creating for these clients.

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Local knowledge is required to determine if a service is being accessed by the number of clients that would be expected in a given area as there are many factors that influence this number (e.g. service location, transport options, etc.).

The department expects each service provider to look at their local service delivery area and set guiding individual ‘targets’ of the number of clients a provider would expect to service over the length of the AWP period. These targets will be used along with your six-monthly data reporting requirements through the Data Exchange Partnership Approach to monitor progress towards achieving these targets.

Target:

Service providers are expected to consider and set guiding targets for the number of clients anticipated by the service provider to access these services, and clients from key demographic groups that are appropriate to these services.

Further detail and examples for setting targets is provided at Appendix A .

In setting these targets, providers should consider the historical data of clients accessing these services, local demographic data (such as Census data), and the local conditions these services operate within.

These targets should be clear and achievable for your services. For example:

Our organisation is undertaking a new marketing campaign and we expect this to result in an increase of clients attending this service. We expect our client numbers will increase to around 800 clients in this AWP reporting period.

Our service has a key interest in supporting clients living with disability and anticipate that 500 clients that we service in this reporting period will identify as living with disability.

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The National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2021-2031

The department is interested in how services are supporting the target cohorts identified in the National Framework. Throughout the AWP, and in the ‘Target’ section, providers should consider how their services can best support children and families who are experiencing disadvantage and/or are vulnerable.

The target cohorts of the National Framework are : Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people Children and families with multiple and complex needs Children and young people experiencing or who have experienced

abuse and/or neglect, including children in out-of-home care, and young people leaving out-of-home care and transitioning to adulthood

Children and young people with disability, and/or parents/carers with disability

Our service is located in an area with a relatively high population of people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. We anticipate that 450 clients will identify as from CALD backgrounds.

The department requires your organisation to outline your expected targets for the following client groups:

Total number of individual clients accessing your service as reported in the Data Exchange

Clients identifying from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds. Clients identifying as living with disability Clients identifying as from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD)

backgrounds You may also wish to outline any other targets relevant to your service and

community, noting that this is optional.

Description:

This section should outline how your targets were developed, including the data sources used, and why the targets are appropriate for your service and community. The department is interested in how organisations are considering the needs and composition of their local communities, and how organisations are ensuring their services are appropriate in this context.

In your response, you may wish to outline the data sources your organisation has considered in setting these targets. For example, Census data, service administration data, Data Exchange reports, feedback from local community members, etc.

You are encouraged to provide context around these targets and how they were established. For example, “There are local factors that have resulted in targets that are significantly different to demographic groups as recorded through the Census such as high client mobility throughout our service delivery area

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Community profiles

Through the Data Exchange Partnership Approach, organisations have access to various reports and data sets that could be used to inform these targets. Organisations may wish to use these reports to examine the compositions of their local communities, and use this information to set appropriate targets.

For example, the Community Profiles report (available through the ‘Partnership Reports’ in the Data Exchange) allows data collected through the Census to be sorted and filtered by location. This data also outlines the percentage of the local populations that have identified as key demographic groups, such as people living with disability, people that identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, etc.

frequently changing our local client demographics”, “our organisation has set very ambitious targets that we will seek to meet, however it is possible we will fall short”, “clients in our community prefer not to identify as part of specific demographic groups therefore tracking this information and meeting these targets is difficult”.

Barriers to Service ParticipationThe department is interested in how services are ensuring clients are accessing and fully participating in programs. The following section relates to how providers are actively addressing access barriers.

Participation barrier:

This section should outline the barrier to service access/engagement you have identified and wish to overcome. For example, you may write: people with diverse gender or sexual orientations may feel uncomfortable engaging with our service, or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are not engaged with our service, etc.

Please note: you may also wish to outline in your AWP the barriers that you have previously identified and addressed, and how this has improved access to your services.

Clients / client group:

This section should outline the client groups your organisation has identified that may face additional barriers to accessing your service.

You may wish to consider the barriers faced by client groups including but not limited to, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people with disability, people with diverse sexual orientation, sex or gender identity, single parents, fathers, young parents, grandparents, and kinship carers.

The department’s Access and Equity Policy provides guidance to organisations funded by the department to ensure that diversity is not a barrier for people in engaging with government and accessing the services to which they are entitled.

Deliverable:

This section should include the proposed action/s you will take to achieve your stated outcomes. It should be specific, measurable, and have a clear link to your outcomes. For example, you might write: educational material is updated to use gender neutral terms such as ‘partner’, or our service is providing additional training to our staff to increase their cultural competence, etc .

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Outcome:

This section should outline the specific and measurable outcome/s you wish to achieve for the client groups you have identified as experiencing barriers to service access / engagement. For example, you might write: educational material is updated which will increase usability for clients with diverse gender or sexual orientations, or the services we provide are culturally safe, etc.

Measure of Success:

This section should include information to demonstrate the impact of the action/s you have taken. This includes what you intend to measure (e.g. number of clients/ client outcomes), how it will be measured (e.g. tools/mechanism), and when it will be measured (e.g. pre, during and post the deliverable action). For example, you might write: we predict an increase in clients from this cohort of 5 per cent captured in our client data and reported to the Data Exchange.

4. Evidence Base Section

Where possible, the department expects service providers to deliver services that can be shown to have supporting evidence. This will also be explored and outlined through the development of your program logic (a requirement in your grant agreement). You can draw on the information you include in this section when developing your program logic.

Evidence source:

This section allows you to share the evidence on which your service is based. The evidence should be relevant to the activity you undertake. The more specific the evidence is the better. There are many different sources of evidence you may wish to consider, including:

published research e.g. a study undertaken to analyse the impact of a particular service, incorporating relevant data and theory

evaluation e.g. a formal assessment of the impact and value of an intervention type, based on data collection and analysis

practitioner knowledge/wisdom e.g. practitioners within your organisation may notice trends in clients accessing your service and can present reasonable hypothesis for this

local knowledge/wisdom and testimonial e.g. clients using your service and the surrounding community may have outlined the impact your service had.

In outlining sources of evidence, you may wish to consider the resources available from AIFS such as, “Understand the issue ”. This resource can help in identifying and understanding relevant research on the issues your service seeks to address.

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This section can include the specific sources of evidence your organisation considered in planning the activity, or considers on an ongoing basis. This may incorporate information you originally provided as part of your funding application, and could include the evidence you have listed in your program logic.

Service delivery

This section is about how you are delivering your services in line with the evidence you set out in the preceding section. It should summarise the link between your evidence, proposed outcomes and service delivery . This is also the appropriate section to note how service delivery based on evidence has been adapted to better meet the needs of the community.

Information in this section could include information about appropriate staff training or internal guides on how service delivery should be conducted in line with evidence and research. Information provided in this section could also outline how service delivery is appropriate for the outcome and demonstrate how the deliverable is appropriate for the community or client group it is intended to support. (e.g. “the evidence shows that increased social connections can improve parental engagement”, “the evaluation demonstrated that this type of intervention can be effective in achieving this type of outcome”, etc.)

Practitioner guides

You may wish to consider the "Practice guides" available on the AIFS website. These cover a range of topics, have a practice focus, and are designed to assist practitioners, managers and service providers in their work. Additionally, you may wish to consider the "Guide to implementing evidence-informed programs and practices" .

5. Risk Management Section

Risk:

This section should outline the risks/barriers to successful service delivery that may be faced by your organisation and the clients that access your services. These risks / barriers could include such things as:

activity risks – those that could cause the intended outcome to fail / not be realised e.g. the service and its outputs do not lead to the desired outcome

staff safety risks – this could include risks related to client violence or long-distance travel. This could also include risks related to the mental health of staff providing the service

client risks – this could include risks related to changes in a client’s circumstance, such as unforeseen life events, changes to living or work arrangements

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operational risks – those resulting from inadequate or failed procedures, systems or policies e.g. internal processes hindering client outcomes, or lack of suitably qualified staff

privacy risks – risks associated with the handling of client’s personal information

financial risks – resulting from financial loss or uncertainty e.g. committed funding not being used resulting in a program underspend

reputational risks – resulting from negative publicity and public perception e.g. target clients do not engage with the organisation / activity.

Child safety

In this section, you should consider your child safety obligations under your grant agreement and the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations (National Principles). Further information on the National Principles can be found on the National Office for Child Safety website .

All funded organisations that sub-contract service delivery arrangements to other organisations remain responsible for ensuring sub-contracted organisations also comply with these child safety obligations.

For additional guidance material on becoming a ‘child safe’ organisation, including self-assessment and e-learning tools, please visit the Child Safe Organisations website .

Domestic and family violence

In this section, you could also consider risk management as it relates to domestic and family violence in the context of your service. Further information on domestic and family violence risks can be found in the National Risk Assessment Principles .

Some providers may be required to comply with state or territory service delivery and/or risk assessment standards for supporting women and children affected by domestic and family violence or sexual assault.

How the risk will be managed:This section should outline how your organisation intends to mitigate or manage the risks you have identified.

Safety Planning Section (for Specialised Family Violence Service providers only)

This section should outline how you ensure your staff and client’s safety when delivering the service/s. You should identify the relevant Commonwealth and State and Territory requirements and obligations you must comply with in delivering the service/s.

Your organisation’s management strategies (including assessment tools to ensure the safety of staff and clients) should also be considered.

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6.Budget Section

Through this section the department is seeking information on how your organisation allocates its funding between the discrete costs associated with delivering your services. In this section, your organisation should include as much detail as is readily available.

The department is seeking information on the amount spent on broad categories of service delivery (staffing costs, training, program delivery, travel etc). Of particular interest to the department is how funding is split between funding for direct service delivery (such as program costs, staff costs for facilitation, etc.) and funding used for administration purposes (property and vehicle costs, staff costs for organisation administration, etc.).

Budget should be broken down per state and/or territory for those services delivering across multiple service locations. This is not expected to be an onerous requirement.

Items:

This section should outline the various items you intend to allocate your budget towards. It could include things such as staff costs, administrative activities, service delivery expenses, facilitation activities, utility costs, etc. You must provide this breakdown by financial year.

Budgeted Amount:

This section should include the amount you anticipate spending on the items you have listed. You will also need to account for previously rolled-over funds.

This should only relate to the grant funding under the specific program rather than funding from other sources.

7.Stakeholder Engagement and Referral Pathways Section

This section allows your organisation the opportunity to identify how you promote your service and work with stakeholders to get better outcomes for Australian families and children. This includes partnerships and arrangements with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peak organisations and community organisations to support the delivery of services to First Nations people.

Community engagement

In responding to this section, you may wish to consider the guidance available on community engagement .

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Service Promotion:

This section allows you to report if you have met your requirements for listing your services on an online directory as specified at Item B of your grant agreement.

Service directories

The department keeps a list of service directories you might wish to consider. This is not an exclusive list of service directories and some may not apply to your service (e.g. they might be specific to a particular state or territory). For more information please visit the DSS website .

Stakeholders:

This section should include details of stakeholders, collective networks, partnerships or initiatives that your organisation has a connection with to support the delivery of your service and achieve better outcomes for families and children. This should also include established referral pathways you have with other organisations or services.

Some guidance on specific types of stakeholders is provided below.

Place-based collective impact initiatives

You should also consider if there is a place-based collective impact initiative in your local community (e.g. Stronger Places Stronger People , Empowered Communities ), and how your organisation can partner or work with this initiative.

The department has a strong focus on ensuring the services it funds work and collaborate effectively within the local context of the communities they operate in, and with other services being offered.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnership–centred approaches

The department is committed to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders to improve outcomes for their families and children. You are encouraged to develop collaborative relationships with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and families and children to ensure that services delivered are culturally safe and appropriate.

You may wish to consider the guidance available on genuine partnerships for child and family service delivery .

Platform C

Platform C (https://platformc.org/ ) is a first-of-its-kind online resource to support communities that want to tackle complex social issues like entrenched

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disadvantage, childhood vulnerability, domestic violence, homelessness and discrimination.

Tools and resources are available at https://platformc.org/tools-and-resources .

8.Feedback / Additional information

This section is optional.

This section has been included to allow service providers to include further comments, information, and context not provided in other sections of the AWP template. This section has been included in response to service provider feedback that a section of this type would be useful.

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Activity Work Plan Progress ReportThis section is intended to offer guidance on completing your AWP Progress Report.

2. Activity deliverables sectionProgress Report:

This section should outline if your intended outcomes have been achieved, or outline the status if they have not been. The status of your outcome should reflect and be consistent with your measure of success i.e. an outcome is ‘achieved’ if the specified measure of success can be demonstrated it has been achieved.

This section also allows you to elaborate on your progress towards meeting your outcome. You may wish to outline what steps you have taken so far and the steps you will take in the future.

You may also wish to consider if your outputs and outcomes remain appropriate/effective for your community or clients, and whether you wish to update these.

3. Service delivery targets and barriers to participation section

Service delivery targets progress report:

This section also allows you to outline your progress towards and context around meeting your service delivery targets.

If you met your set targets, you may wish to outline your plan for updating these targets, or if it is appropriate to maintain the same targets for the next reporting period.

If you did not meet your set targets, you may wish to outline your plan for meeting these targets over the next reporting period, or updating the targets if needed.

You may also wish to provide information of your experience in setting these targets, and the challenges or experience in trying to meet these targets.

Barriers to service participation progress report:

This section allows you to reflect on your experiences with clients that may be facing barriers to service access. Did you succeed in your stated outcomes? Did you reach your deliverables? Have you identified additional client groups that require access strategies?

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4. Evidence Base SectionProgress Report:

This section is where you can demonstrate how you have considered your evidence base and service delivery during the delivery of your activity .

You may wish to consider what new or emerging evidence has become available that relates to your outcome and deliverables, and if this will be incorporated into your service delivery. You could also outline the findings from any evaluation of your service/s that may have occurred.

You may also wish to consider if the client demographics using your services are consistent with the client cohorts from your evidence base, and if changes to service delivery may be required due to any differences.

5. Risk Management SectionProgress Report:

Reflect on the risks you have identified, if your risk management strategies were successful and/or provide an update on how they are progressing.

You should also consider if current risk management strategies require updating, or if new risks are identified, and new management strategies are required.

Safety Planning Section (FOR SFVS Providers ONLY)

Progress Report

This section should summarise if you have notified the department regarding any critical incidents over the reporting period.

6. Budget SectionExpended Amount:

Reflect on your expected budget allocations (i.e. what you budgeted) against expenditure (i.e. what you actually spent).

7. Stakeholder Engagement SectionProgress Report:

Outline whether or not your stakeholder engagement strategies were successful and/or provide an update on how they are progressing.

You should also consider if your current stakeholder engagement strategy requires updating, such as if new stakeholders of interest have been identified, and new engagement strategies are required.

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Appendix ASetting targets in Activity Work Plans for client cohortsWhat are client targets?

The department expects service providers to set annual client number targets in their Activity Work Plans for the total number of clients they expect to support, and the number of clients they expect to support from each of the following demographic groups (where applicable):

clients identifying as experiencing disability (Disability, impairment or condition indicator data field in the Data Exchange)

clients identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous status data field in the Data Exchange)

clients that identify as culturally and linguistically diverse (Cultural and Linguistic Diversity- country of birth and main language spoken at home data fields in the Data Exchange).

How do providers set these targets?

When setting these targets, the department encourages providers to consider the following:

The aims and objectives of the grant activity and the funded serviceso Intended target group/s of the grant activity.o Intended intensity of service delivery to the target group/s.o Intended service capacity of the grant activity (i.e. maximum number

of clients that the grant activity intends to support at a point in time).

Population demographicso The size of the target group/s as a proportion of the population in the

service area/s.o The estimated size of particular demographic cohorts within the

general population in the service area/s, based on key demographic indictors. (e.g. populations of individuals identifying as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, populations of individuals identifying as culturally and linguistically diverse).

o Service providers may find the following resources helpful in assessing their local service delivery areas:

Community Profiles (2nd Edition) report, available in the Data Exchange

2016 Census Community Profiles on the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) website

QuickStats on the ABS website.

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Community needs assessment (if completed by a service provider or if available through another source e.g. local governance structures)

o This could provide information on the types of service need, and the levels of service needs, within the target group/s of the service area/s.

Service provider data collected over the previous 12 months or longero This includes data reported within the Data Exchange.o Client numbers and demographics of clients supported by the grant

activity during the previous 12 months (or longer if more relevant).o The service capacity of the grant activity during the past 12 months.o Service provider historical data to establish baseline numbers from

which service providers can set targets that are ambitious but still achievable.

Current or expected trends in clients accessing your serviceso Including changes in demand for your services across target groups

in the service delivery area/s.

o Anticipated changes in staffing levels and the impacts this will have on the capacity of your service, including any anticipated difficulties in recruitment.

o Please consider any underpinning analysis and targets related to the cohorts prioritised in the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children.

What level of detail should be included in the AWP targets?

To assist service providers in setting these targets in AWPs, below are example targets that outline the level of detail the department is seeking from service providers. These example are fictitious and not based on any existing service.

Target Example Description

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Total number of individual clients - 100.

Our previous DEX reporting outlines that our service was accessed by 80 individual clients in the last reporting period. This number includes only the individual clients accessing our services.

Census data from 2016 (ABS QuickStats ) outlines that there were 805 children aged 0-4 in our service delivery area (Pyrmont-Ultimo). This is the age-group our services are seeking to engage.

We believe the target of 100 clients is reasonable, given we have increased our marketing activities in the past 6 months, and partnered with an additional community organisation to deliver our service.

Total number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients - 10.

This target is higher than our previously reported number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients in DEX.

We have been developing our relationship with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and other community representatives to discuss barriers to entry and promote our services.

In the year previous, we have discussed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients accessing our services what attracted them to our service and how we could improve the service for other members of this community.

Our services also aim to engage with First Nations cultural educators who can be contracted to provide educative activities such as cultural storytelling and art for children.

We believe this is an aspirational goal for our service to be more connected with the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

Total number of clients living with a disability - 30.

The numbers of clients identifying as living with disability accessing our playgroup have historically been low based on our administrative data (and reporting in the Data Exchange).

In the past 6 months our staff have received training to make our service safer and more accessible and inclusive for clients with diverse needs, such as clients identifying as living with disability. This has included using evidence-based

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approaches to engaging with children living with disability.

We believe this is an ambitious but achievable target for our service to achieve during this reporting period.

Total number of CALD clients - 40.

Pyrmont-Ultimo is a culturally diverse community with a strong and active Chinese community.

2016 Census data shows that Chinese is the most common ancestry group in Pyrmont – Ultimo. Our service is promoted as a culturally diverse playgroup with a focus on teaching and sharing culture.

We have 4 staff who are bilingual/multilingual. Languages other than English spoken by our staff include Mandarin, Cantonese and Hindi, giving us the ability to receive feedback and discuss our clients’ circumstances in languages other than English. This has historically been well received by clients accessing our services.

Our previous data reporting through the Data Exchange outlines that around 40-50 percent of our clients identify as culturally and linguistically diverse, with the largest sub-group being Chinese. We continue to collaborate with local community centres in Pyrmont-Ultimo who run various culture-specific groups/activities to cross-promote our services.

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