Buildings that deliver outcomes: Brimbank

Brimbank City Council is looking for a new name for its sport, leisure, community and health facility in St Albans.

But this is no ordinary facility. It is Australia's first 'Outcomes-Based Infrastructure' (OBI) project that aims to not only provide people in the region a wonderful health and fitness experience, but also to make a measurable impact on social and health inequalities.

Latitude Network was proud to have taken Brimbank through the OBI process - we worked with executives right across Council to use the massive investment planned for this facility as a lever to improve specific identified health and social inequalities. The result is a facility that will house tenants collaborating to address outcome gaps for specific cohorts of people. Together with Council, these organisations are building a 'system logic' that locks the providers in together - even setting up a measurement and performance framework between them so there is accountability built in to everyone's performance and tenancy.

Brimbank Mayor, Cr Georgina Papafotiou said "Our unique health and wellbeing hub will offer a state-of-the-art aquatic and leisure centre, as well as a range of preventative health, education and social services delivered by co-located tenant partners CommUnity Plus Services Ltd  and Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand under the one roof. This is what will set our hub apart from others, making it an ‘Australian-first".

It's very exciting and a process which we have been using in other locations such as Logan, Queensland and Dandenong in Victoria. In its recent report, Infrastructure Australia has focused on the lack of accountability for outcomes that is inherent in the current community, social and sporting infrastructure sectors - you can read their excellent work here (Infrastructure Australia Social Audit).

The OBI process helps address that by ensuring major buildings (especially community infrastructure) are clear about the social and health improvements they aim to make, and have an accountable framework and process to ensure outcomes are not lost and forgotten, but central. Tenants and services are then better designed to meet needs, with higher levels of collaboration between tenants and community members, and they therefore make a lasting social impact which is measured.

Local Councils in particular should be adopting an OBI approach for new community infrastructure such as - 

• libraries
• community centres (e.g. neighbourhood houses)
• pool and leisure facilities
• sports and recreation centres
• Council offices
• visitor centres
• social service hubs
• master planning for greenfields sites

Get in touch to find out more, or read the Case study here.

Brimbank Case Study