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Activity Work Plan: GuidanceFamilies and Children Activity

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ContentsVersion History3Purpose4Terminology5Activity Work Plan guidance61.Activity Details Section62.Activity Deliverables Section73.Evidence Base Section114.Risk Management Section12Safety Planning Section (FOR SFVS Providers ONLY)135.Budget Section136.Stakeholder Engagement Section147.Barriers to Service Participation15Activity Work Plan Progress Report172.Activity Deliverables Section173.Evidence Base Section174.Risk Management Section17Safety Planning Section (FOR SFVS Providers ONLY)185.Budget Section186.Stakeholder Engagement Section187.Barriers to service participation18

Version History

This is the second version of the Activity Work Plan Guidance Document for:

· Budget Based Funded Services

· Children and Parenting Support 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

Purpose

This document is designed to assist organisations completing the required Activity Work Plans (AWPs) for the following Department of Social Services (the department) families and children programs:

· Budget Based Funded Services

· Children and Parenting Support Services

· Family and Relationship Services, including Specialised Family Violence Services

· Family Mental Health Support Services.

The department has developed separate guidance to assist service providers delivering the Find and Connect program to complete their AWPs. This can be found on the department’s website.

The AWP process must occur in consultation and negotiation with the Funding Arrangement Managers (FAMs). Organisations with additional questions about completing their AWPs that are not answered in this document should contact their FAMs.

The information sought through AWPs is complementary to the information sought through the Data Exchange. The AWP template and this guidance document has been re-designed to eliminate duplication of information recorded by service providers through their AWP requirements and their Data Exchange reporting requirements. The department is not seeking information provided by service provides in the Data Exchange to be repeated in the AWP.

How does the department use AWPs?

Information provided in AWPs is used by policy areas in the department to better understand the activities of individual providers and understand how programs are operating at the broader program level. Policy areas look at multiple AWPs to identify common themes or issues. For example, the Family Policy Section within the department reads through the AWPs submitted by Families and Children Activity service providers and consider aspects of program delivery at a broader program level. Individual AWPs are used by FAMs to support a dialogue between FAMs and service providers.

Timeframes and AWP updates

AWPs must be completed and provided to the department by 15 August 2020. AWP Progress Reports are due 15 August 2021. If there are any issues with these timeframes, organisations should contact their FAMs.

While these are timeframes within which AWPs need to be provided, AWPs are ‘living documents’ and may be updated to reflect changes in service delivery.

This document also refers to resources developed for the Families and Children Activity programs 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.

Terminology

For the purpose of this document:

· Activity – refers to the activity described in the Grant Details and includes the provisions of the Reporting Material.

· Client – refers to the individuals/family groups accessing a program.

· 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.

Activity Work Plan guidance

The following sections offer guidance in developing your AWP. For guidance on AWP reports see the Activity Work Plan Report section of this guidance document.

For those organisations delivering a national service, please speak with your Funding Arrangement Manager to discuss whether the AWP template meets your reporting needs.

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

Providers should consider the level of detail provided to the department through AWPs. 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.

You may also choose to attach documents you consider relevant. For example, you may want to attach a program logic if you have developed one. 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 SectionOrganisation 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.

Funding Allocation

From your grant agreement.

Service Description:

This section should include a brief summary of what you 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:

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.

2. Activity Deliverables Section

Please note: You may duplicate this section to better describe the services delivered under your activity. For example, you may wish to fill in one table per location or per service type.

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, an in-home visit etc.

Service location:

This allows those who have opted to duplicate this section to identify the location of the service.

Needs statement:

This section should outline the need for the service, identify the key issues the service seeks to address, and the groups that may experience these issues.

Service planning / needs assessment

In 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.

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, or planned targets 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.

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’ means the department can more easily categorise the qualitative information you are providing in your AWP. This allows the information being collected in the AWP to be linked with other data available on your activity through the Data Exchange.

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 and providers.

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 outcomes may 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.

Program Logic

As part of ensuring your service / activities are appropriately targeted towards improving outcomes, you may also wish to develop a ‘program logic’.

A program logic sets out the different elements that make up the activity, and the changes that are expected to result from them.

Resources to assist you in developing a program logic, such as the "How to  develop a program logic for planning and evaluation" guide, can be found  on the AIFS website. An example of a completed program logic can also be found on the AIFS website.

The department recognises that not all providers have developed program logics, and this is not a current requirement of funding. However if you have a program logic, or would like to develop one, the department encourages you to share this with your Funding Arrangement Manager as an attachment to your AWP.

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 wellbeing.

Examples of the types of responses you could provide include:

· “we expect our increased advertising activities to increase knowledge within a few weeks”

· “parental attachment takes time to change, we do not expect to see significant change within the first six months”

· “our program runs for 6 weeks, we would expect change in the clients skills to be measurable on completion of the program”

· “parents will be invited to a workshop in mid2020”

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 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 “Evaluate your program or service.” These references include guidance on selecting outcomes to measure, identifying indicators, and collecting data to measure those indicators.

You may wish to consider using an appropriate measurement tool to demonstrate the impact of the actions you have taken. You may wish to consider the available resources on measurement tools, such as "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.

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 Canberra office who will then assess whether and how these measurements could potentially be adapted to SCORE.

Please go to the Data Exchange website for a copy of the Community Outcomes SCORE Fact Sheet.

3. Evidence Base SectionEvidence 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.

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.

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".

4. Risk Management SectionRisk:

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 longdistance travel. This could also include risks related to the mental health of staff providing the service.

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.

For additional guidance material on becoming a ‘child safe’ organisation, including selfassessment 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.

If you have developed a program logic (template here), this will include sections for ‘Assumptions’ and ‘External Factors’ which may help your organisation outline your risks and management strategies.

Safety Planning Section (FOR SFVS 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 state/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.

5. 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 (in Australian dollars) you anticipate spending on the items you have listed. You will also need to account for any rollover of funds from the previous year.

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

6. Stakeholder Engagement 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.

Community engagement

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

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.

Stakeholder:

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

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

7. Barriers to Service Participation

The 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.

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’.

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.

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.

Activity Work Plan Progress Report

This section is intended to offer guidance on completing your AWP Progress Report.

2. Activity Deliverables Section

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 demonstrate 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. 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.

4. 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.

5. Budget SectionExpended Amount:

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

6. 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.

7. Barriers to service participationProgress 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?

Version as at 20 August 202018