Future Directions

Future Directions is the NSW Government’s new vision for social housing over the next 10 years. It’s an innovative, holistic approach to making real change in social housing. It recognises that people living in social housing do so because of a range of life events and risk factors and that changing the trajectory of their lives cannot be achieved through a single initiative alone.

Future Directions offers a suite of interconnected and mutually reinforcing strategies and programs, which together aim to affect real change. Part of the programmatic response within the Future Directions strategy are six Service Improvement Initiatives, which are designed to deliver against three key objectives: more and better-quality social housing; more opportunities, support and incentives for people to avoid and/or leave social housing; and a better experience for social housing clients.

The Department commissioned ARTD and its partners Taylor Fry and Social Ventures Australia to evaluate the six Service Improvement Initiatives. The purpose of the evaluation was to understand:

1. Which Service Improvement Initiatives work well, in which domains, for whom and under what circumstances?
2. What are the implications for the modification, targeting or re-design of each initiative to improve implementation and maximise outcomes?
3. What are the implications for Future Directions in housing and homelessness policy and programs to improve outcomes and increase housing independence?

The evaluation provided a rigorous theory-driven and quasi-experimental evaluation of the Future Directions Service Improvement Initiatives. It was designed to overcome the typical barriers to evaluation utility and utilisation. Key features of the overall Service Improvement Initiative Evaluation design are:

• embedded quasi-experimental elements within program delivery
• use routinely collected administrative and linked administrative data to give a holistic perspective on outcomes
• focus on understanding client pathways, within and between initiatives
• integrated implementation, outcome and economic evaluations across the initiatives.

Understanding the causal powers of each initiative is necessary and appropriate for rigorous and scientific evaluation that can inform evidence-based policy. The evaluation included stages for the development of hypotheses about what works for different people, testing of hypotheses in linked data sets, and validation of results through case studies with intended beneficiaries and consultation with local community groups. The evaluation design was consistent with both the Future Directions Evaluation Framework and the NSW Government Program Evaluation Guidelines.

Our evaluation produced evidence about the most effective initiatives – in isolation and combination – for generating outcomes for people and places with defined risk and protective factor profiles. The resulting evidence base will allow FACS to modify, target or abandon certain interventions for different clients, and ensure clients are at the centre of program design and delivery for Future Directions.