Sector Sustainability Project Knowledge Hub
The Sector Sustainability Program Knowledge Hub (the Knowledge Hub) provides you with access to final reports, workshop slides and presentations, policy advice, tools for costing human services and understanding data, and documents relating to improving contracting and relationship management, procurement, grant making and indexation.
The Sector Sustainability Project 2023-2024 was delivered with the assistance of the ACT Government. The Knowledge Hub is proudly brought to you by Capital Region Community Services and ACTCOSS.
What is the Sector Sustainability Program?
The Sector Sustainability Program 2023-2028 (SSP) was announced by the ACT Government in February 2023 as a response to the Counting the Costs Report which was commissioned by ACTCOSS on behalf of the Community Services Industry Strategy Steering Group (ISSG), and the ACT Government.
You can read the ACT Government’s response to the Counting the Costs Report which outlines the rising demand and rising costs across the community sector but noted that a simple increase in funding alone would not result in a more sustainable sector.
The 2023-2024 SSP Start Up Project is the first phase of the SSP and will contribute to the development of a future agenda for sector sustainability in 2025-2028. The Knowledge Hub is a snapshot of the outputs from the SSP Start Up Project 2023-2024 and relevant research from other sources that informed policy work.
The Knowledge Hub
Final Report December 2024
Report outlining key acheivements, implementation challenges, lessons learned and project outputs in 2023-2024 and recommended focus areas for 2025-2028.
Evaluation Reports
2023-2024 Project Evaluation Poll Results August 2023
Summary of online poll in August 2023 to assess engagement in project.
November 2023 Workshop Slides
Slide deck for stakeholder workshop to confirm Project Logic, define scope of monitoring and evaluation and agree methods for data collection.
Evaluation Plan for 2023-2024 Sector Sustainability Project (SSP)
Background, rationale and framework for evaluation of Sector Sustainability Program activities in 2023-2024.
2023-2024 Project Evaluation Poll Results December 2023
Summary of online poll in December 2023 to assess engagement in project.
February 2024 Presentation to SSP Governance Committee on Evaluation findings
Summary analysis of feedback from stakeholders on project activities July-December 2023 and proposed approach to next phase of Evaluation.
May 2024 Interim Evaluation Report
Briefing on the progress of SSP activities and barriers to success of the project in the short, medium and longer term.
November 2024 Evaluation Report
Report to SSP Governance Committee on evaluation findings and recommendations for SSP activities in 2025-2028.
Tools and Resources to support fully costing services
April 2024 Background Briefing Paper on Fully Costing Services
Briefing Paper for stakeholder workshop on development of a consistent approach to understanding direct and indirect costs of service delivery.
May 2024 Listening Report 2 – Tools and Resources to Fully Cost Human Services
Report of stakeholder feedback and recommended next steps to improve fully costing services, defining value for money and sharing of risks.
August 2024 Briefing on Fully Costing Sustainable Service Delivery
Briefing from SSP Community-Based Co-Lead on aligning ACT Government procurement procedures with evidence base regarding fully costing services.
Improving Contracting & Relationship Management
October 2023 Summary Report and Next Steps – Tools and resources to support fully costing partnership between NGOs and ACT Government.
Summary of findings from consultations with ACT Government and non-Government stakeholders on tools and resources that would support fully recovering the costs of delivering services.
April 2024 Background Briefing Paper on Categorising Costs of Human Services
Briefing Paper for stakeholder workshop on development of a consistent approach to categorising direct and indirect costs of service delivery.
April 2024 Background Briefing Paper on Sharing Risk
Briefing Paper for stakeholder workshop on management of risk in NGO-Government funding relationships.
April 2024 Briefing Paper on Value for Money
Briefing Paper for stakeholder workshop on defining and assessing value for money of proposals to deliver ACT Government funded human services.
May 2024 Listening Report 3 – Funding Efficiencies
Report of stakeholder feedback and recommended next steps to implement measures to improve efficiencies in funding arrangements.
October 2024 Briefing on Identifying and Managing Shared Risks in Funding Partnerships
Evidence base and template for funding providers and services providers to jointly identify and agree shared management of risks in service delivery.
October 2024 Compendium of Frameworks for sustainable ACT Government and NGO relationship
A summary of the publicly released ACT Government legislative, regulatory and policy objectives that support a sustainable relationship between ACT Government and NGOs delivering human services.
Improving Procurement and Grant-Making
August 2023 Standardised questions for procurement activities
A template outlining standard questions for Mandatory, Weighted and Non-Weighted criteria in procurement of human services by ACT Government.
October 2023 Briefing on Streamlining procurement of human services provided by non-government organisations
A summary of the history, current drivers and potential way forward on streamlining of ACT Government procurement of human services.
September 2024 Briefing on Defining and Assessing Value for Money in Human Services Procurements
Briefing from SSP Community-Based Co-Lead on aligning ACT Government Procurement Guidelines (July 2024) with evidence base regarding value for money in human services.
November 2024 Compendium of ACT Government Legislation, Regulation, Policies and Guidelines relevant to funding NGOs
A resource for ACT Government and Non-Government stakeholders to provide consistent and transparent information.
Improving Indexation
2019 ACTCOSS Briefing on Cumulative Gap in ACT Government Indexation
Summary analysis of gaps between wage cost increases for NGO delivered human services and the ACT Government Community Services Indexation rate 2012-2019.
2022 Tasmania Council of Social Service Report – Cost Indexation for Tasmanian Government purchasing of community services
Report on data collected and findings the appropriateness of current indexation amounts and prospective models for future calculations.
2023 Queensland Council of Social Service Report – Queensland Cost Indexation for Government Purchasing of Human Services
A report on information and findings related to the indexation arrangements established in funding social services in Queensland.
2023 University of Western Australia – Why the WPI and CPI are not Appropriate Bases for Human Services Funding Indexation
A Working Paper examining the use and relevance of WPI and CPI to the calculation of funding indexation for Australia’s human services system.
2024 Western Australia Council of Social Service – Sustainable Funding Survey Report
Key findings from the of the WACOSS Sustainable Funding Survey for 2024, to identify and better understand issues impacting the sustainability of social services.
Policy Advice
August 2024 The Human Services Value Curve
Advice on developing a framework to understand the opportunities, challenges and capabilities needed to deliver the ACT Government Human Services reform agenda.
September 2024 Adopting Impact Investing to Enable System Change
Advice on aligning community sector sustainability and procurement activities in the ACT with the evidence base and tools for social impact investing.
November 2024 Summary of report on priorities for the National Not For Profit Sector Development Blueprint
Key issues, priorities and recommendations for Government reform and sector-led initiatives to boost the sector sustainability.
Presentations
May 2024 Presentation to Community Services Directorate on Service System Stewardship
Background information and discussion prompts on the concept of a Social Services Ecosystem and the role of Government as steward of this ecosystem.
August 2024 Presentation to Philanthropy Australia Conference Master Class on Paying What It Takes
Summary of 2023-2024 work on strengthening community sector sustainability in the ACT, challenges arising and strategies to address these.
December 2024 Presentation to NGOs
An overview of the Sector Sustainability Project, theory of change, key activities and outputs at December 2024.
December 2024 Report on status of activities funded in the Sector Sustainability Program in 2023-2024
A status report on project phases and key focus areas as at December 2024.
Understanding Data Collected from NGOs Delivering ACT Government Funded Services
October 2024 Investing in NGOs to Co-Contribute to ACT Wellbeing Outcomes
Policy resource to support using the ACT Wellbeing Framework to shape the type and quantum of investment needed in NGOs to deliver on wellbeing outcomes.
2020 Living Well in the ACT Region Part 1 – Wellbeing Indicators
University of Canberra publication on ACT wellbeing outcome indicators in 2019-2020.
2020 Living Well in the ACT Region Part 3 – Resilience and Vulnerability
University of Canberra publication on how data collected in the Living well survey could be drawn on to explore overall vulnerability and resilience to the impacts of events such as economic downturn or natural disasters.
Important: ACTCOSS does not take any responsibility for the accuracy of the content contained in the documents accessible in the Knowledge Hub, unless authored by ACTCOSS. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the author of the individual document.