Yarran

Question 1 – How have you adapted service delivery in response to the bushfires, floods and Coronavirus pandemic? When has it worked and when hasn’t it worked? How will this affect how you deliver services in the future? Have your service adaptations included better integration with other initiatives?

we videoed book reading for children to access from a facebook site. It was OK but not brillant.
Once we could access the children and their families we went back to face to face as soon as we could.

Question 2 – Are the proposed key outcomes for the families and children programs the right ones? Are there any major outcomes missing? How can we include strengths-based outcomes that focus on family or child safety?

I think the approach to outcome based, strength based, child and family centred practice are the best changes you could make.

Federal government initiatives historically have always seemed to focus on deficits.

Even the score questions have an “issue” foundation- that parents have improved from a deficit place

that “experts” will be supporting them

Yarran has been able to implement child and family centred practice and at the same times addressed the needs of the child and their families.

Families engage more when they feel liked and accepted regardless of the starting point.

Ask families what keeps them awake at night and start from there. Focus on the families starting point and their goals

maybe the families could choose the outcomes rather than us, design their own score Q rather than us, plan how will we know we when get there ?

Question 3 – What tools or training would support you to effectively measure and report outcomes through the Data Exchange Partnership Approach?

I would like training on the partnership approach and using it within dex

Question 4 – Do you already have a program logic or theory of change outlined for your program? Did you find the process useful? If you do not have one, what has stopped you from developing one? What capacity building support would assist service providers to develop program logics and theories of change?

program logic we have but not Theory of Change. I would like training on Theory of Change

Question 5 – If longer-term agreements are implemented, how can the department work with you to develop criteria to measure and demonstrate performance? How can the Data Exchange better support this?

there are self assessment tools that we have used previously in other government audits
survey monkeys

these may need to be tailored to suit the program being provided. Not all programs are welfare based and may need different criteria – not one fits all.

Question 6 – What does success look like for your service, and how do you assess the overall success of your service?

survey on entry and then sane survey on exit. survey monkey surveys
case studies, testimonials,
parents attendance and engagement.
adhoc feedback
families who come back with their other children
families who bring their friends and extended family members along

Question 7 – Do you currently service cohorts experiencing vulnerability, including those at risk of engaging with the child protection system? If not, how does service delivery need to adapt to provide support to these cohorts?

all families may need support at one time or another regardless of their circumstance’s

Question 9 – For all providers, are there other ways to improve collaboration and coordination across services and systems?

when using the evidence based programs approved by dss we are missing out on providing families with other evidence based programs that are not on the list as they don’t meet the criteria to be on that list.

only using this list providers begin to duplicate each other and silos are created.
we shouldn’t all be doing the same evidenced based programs year in year out.

Question 11 – Aside from additional funding, how can the department best work with you to support innovation in your services while maintaining a commitment to existing service delivery?

can evidence based programs and innovation be used in the same sentence when the are quotas for evidenced based programs on the dss list.

sometimes we need to look back as well as forward to see what programs that worked before and have been forgotten or no longer funded

Question 12 – Is there anything else you would like to share about the ideas and proposals in the Discussion Paper?

I would like to see C4C funding to cover the entire Central Coast region not just Wyong
with no increase in funding we need to be prepared to change, not just use the same old programs or providers due to historical partnerships.

Practice does not have to involve more time or resources- it is a question of how we choose to spend our time.